Summary

The Polish political and social situation in October 1956 awoke in the Polish people hope for far-reaching and imminent changes. People expected that Władysław Gomółka, who was just returning to the political scene, would accomplish this. Gomółka had, however, a contrary attitude toward any significant changes. At the beginning of 1957 he furiously attacked people inclined to introduce significant or perhaps radical changes naming such people "revisionists". The first secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party saw in the leadership of the Polish papers an attitude undesired by the party to "immerse" into the freedom of expression and the lack of willingness to give it up. The front-runners in using this newly gained freedom were the cultural and public affair periodicals. The authorities started attempts to curb this situation. These attempts had two phases. In the first phase a number of periodicals was closed down. The second phase was putting in line the disobedient journalists by controlling the content of publications and by arranging the make up of the editorial staff. A perfect example of such publication was "Nowa Kultura".
At the beginning of 1958 the supervisor of the propaganda department in the Central Committee of the communist party, Andrzej Werblan, met with the editorial staff of "Nowa Kultura" in order review the "negative ideological tendencies" appearing in the papers by the example of this weekly. During this meeting Werblan formulated conclusions defining what kind of paper "Nowa Kultura" should be. These conclusions also provided guidelines which were to be implemented while editing every party controlled publication dealing with literary and public matters.
A year after this meeting the authorities were still dissatisfied with the materials that appeared in the papers. There were everlasting complaints about the lack of direction and in the cultural matters and inclination toward the west. Despite numerous attempts to bring the situation under control, the government still had complaints and reservations. The editorial staffs of the main cultural and public affairs magazines were ordered to introduce radical changes. Not all members of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party were enthused and wanted to approve such changes.