Catholic Church Towards Sovietization of Culture and Polish Society in Communication of the Polish Embassy at the Vatican in the Years 1956–1968

emerges from selected communications of the Polish Embassy at the Vatican, in opposition to the
sovietisation of Polish culture developed by the communist authorities of the People’s Republic
of Poland in the years 1956–1968. Materials from the Archive of the Józef Piłsudski Institute in
America and available literature constituted the basis for the analysis. The undertaken research
considering the sources fills a significant gap in the knowledge about the Catholic Church’s opposition to the process of sovietisation of Polish culture during the Cold War. It should be emphasised that in the post-war period the Church was the institution that shaped Christian values and
a kind of “bastion” of resistance to the authorities whose one of the goals was to sovietise Polish
culture. It continued the discourse on the ground of the expression of the inability to reconcile
the communist ideology with Christian values in European, including Polish, culture. It also acted
as a correspondent for the affairs of oppressed nations subjected to the course of sovietisation.
The undertaken research is an answer for lack of knowledge on the Catholic Church opposition
towards the process of sovietising Polish culture during the Cold War. All the above allows the
hypothesis that the Catholic Church during this period was the only one successful opposition to
the PRL authorities which were against the Polish culture and society.