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Poznań protests of 1956

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Anti-communism in PolandCold War rebellionsConflicts in 1956Eastern BlocHistory of PoznańJune 1956 events in EuropeMass murder in 1956Massacres in PolandPoland–Soviet Union relationsProtests in PolandRebellions in PolandRiots and civil disorder in PolandUrban warfare
Poznan 1956
Poznan 1956

The Poznań protests of 1956, also known as Poznań June (Polish: Poznański Czerwiec), were the first of several massive protests against the communist government of the Polish People's Republic. Demonstrations by workers demanding better working conditions began on 28 June 1956 at Poznań's Cegielski Factories and were met with violent repression. A crowd of approximately 100,000 people gathered in the city centre near the local Ministry of Public Security building. About 400 tanks and 10,000 soldiers of the Polish People's Army and the Internal Security Corps under the command of the Polish-Soviet general Stanislav Poplavsky were ordered to suppress the demonstration and during the pacification fired at the protesting civilians. The death toll is estimated from 57 to over a hundred people, including a 13-year-old boy, Romek Strzałkowski. Hundreds of people sustained injuries. The Poznań protests were an important milestone on the way to the Polish October and the installation of a less Soviet-controlled government.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Poznań protests of 1956 (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Poznań protests of 1956
Plac Adama Mickiewicza, Poznań Stare Miasto

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N 52.408333333333 ° E 16.917222222222 °
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Poznański Czerwiec 1956

Plac Adama Mickiewicza
61-712 Poznań, Stare Miasto
Greater Poland Voivodeship, Poland
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Poznan 1956
Poznan 1956
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Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań

The Adam Mickiewicz University (Polish: Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu; Latin: Universitas Studiorum Mickiewicziana Posnaniensis) is a research university in Poznań, Poland. It traces its origins to 1611, when under the Royal Charter granted by King Sigismund III Vasa, the Jesuit College became the first university in Poznań. The Poznań Society for the Advancement of Arts and Sciences which played an important role in leading Poznań to its reputation as a chief intellectual centre during the Age of Positivism and partitions of Poland, initiated founding of the university. The inauguration ceremony of the newly founded institution took place on 7 May 1919 that is 308 years after it was formally established by the Polish king and on 400th anniversary of the foundation of the Lubrański Academy which is considered its predecessor. Its original name was Piast University (Polish: Wszechnica Piastowska), which later in 1920 was renamed to University of Poznań (Polish: Uniwersytet Poznański). During World War II staff and students of the university opened an underground Polish University of the Western Lands (Polish: Uniwersytet Ziem Zachodnich). In 1955 University of Poznań adopted a new patron, the 19th-century Polish Romantic poet Adam Mickiewicz, and changed to its current name. The university is organized into six principal academic units—five research schools consisting of twenty faculties and the doctoral school—with campuses throughout the historic Old Town and Morasko. The university employs roughly 4,000 academics, and has more than 40,000 students who study in some 80 disciplines. More than half of the student body are women. The language of instruction is usually Polish, although several degrees are offered in either German or English. The university library is one of Poland's largest, and houses one of Europe's largest Masonic collections, including the 1723 edition of James Anderson's The Constitutions of the Free-Masons.The university is currently publishing over 79 research journals, most of them on Pressto publishing platform based on Open Journal System. Adam Mickiewicz University Repository (AMUR) contains over 23704 records of research publications and is one of the first research repositories in Poland. Due to its history, the university is traditionally considered Poland's most reputable institution of higher learning, this standing equally being reflected in national rankings. Adam Mickiewicz University is a member of the European University Association, EUCEN, SGroup European Universities' Network, Compostela Group of Universities and EPICUR.

Prussian Settlement Commission
Prussian Settlement Commission

The Prussian Settlement Commission, officially known as the Royal Prussian Settlement Commission in the Provinces West Prussia and Posen (German: Königlich Preußische Ansiedlungskommission in den Provinzen Westpreußen und Posen; Polish: Królewska Komisja Osadnicza dla Prus Zachodnich i Poznańskiego) was a Prussian government commission that operated between 1886 and 1924, but actively only until 1918. It was set up by Otto von Bismarck to increase land ownership by ethnically German Germans at the expense of ethnically Polish Germans, by economic and political means, in Prussia's eastern provinces of West Prussia and the Posen as part of his larger efforts aiming at the eradication of the Polish nation. The Commission was motivated by German racism.The Commission was one of Prussia's prime instruments in the official policy of Germanization of the historically Polish lands of West Prussia (the former Royal Prussia) and the dissolved Grand Duchy of Posen. The Commission ultimately purchased 613 estates from ethnic German owners and 214 from ethnic Poles, functioning to more often bail out German debtors rather than fulfilling its declared national mission. By the end of its existence, a total of 21,886 German families (154,704 persons) out of a planned 40,000 had been settled. The Commission's activities had a countereffect in Poles using what has been termed "defensive nationalism", unifying "Polish nationalism, Catholicism and cultural resistance" and triggered countermeasures by the Polish minority. Efforts of new private initiatives by the minority of ethnically Polish Germans, but actually a majority in wide parts of Posen and West Prussia province, who founded the Prussian banks Bank Ziemski, Bank Zwiazku Społek Zarobkowych (Vereinsbank der Erwerbsgenossenschaften; cooperative central clearing bank) and local land acquisition cooperatives (spółki ziemskie) which collected private funds and succeeded to buy more latifundia from defaulted owners and settle more ethnically Polish Germans as farmers on the parcelled land than their governmentally funded counter-party. A big success of the Prussian activists for the Polish nation. Nevertheless, this Polish success under difficult circumstances was little recognised, and after World War I, when the Second Polish Republic was established, new governmental Polish measures climaxed in the expropriation of Commission-owned lands and reversing Germanization. Some of the former colonists, then as ethnically German Poles part of the German minority in Poland, were active in a Nazi campaign of genocide against Poles during World War II.

Święty Marcin
Święty Marcin

Święty Marcin [ˈɕvjɛntɨ ˈmart͡ɕin] ("Saint Martin"), in full ulica Święty Marcin ("Saint Martin Street"), is a main central street in the city of Poznań in western Poland. It runs from south of the old town district, westwards past the church of St. Martin of Tours from which it takes its name, past the "Zamek" (former German imperial palace), to Adam Mickiewicz Square, and finally to University Bridge (Most Uniwersytecki), by which it crosses the railway line and leads to the roundabout called Rondo Kaponiera. On Adam Mickiewicz square is a statue of Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz, as well as a monument to the victims of the Poznań popular protests of 1956 (erected in 1981). On the left of the square are the central buildings of Adam Mickiewicz University. Trams run along most of the length of the street, from Rondo Kaponiera to Aleje Karola Marcinkowskiego, in both directions at the western end, and eastwards only east of Gwarna. The area around St. Martin's church was originally a separate settlement outside the medieval walled city of Poznań. It was brought within the city boundaries in 1797, at the beginning of the period of Prussian rule, and the street began to be laid out soon after that. It was named St. Martin Strasse in German (later, during the Nazi occupation, it was called Martin-strasse). Following the building of the 19th-century fortifications around Poznań, the street led to the Berlin Gate, the main western entrance to the city. The imperial palace and other grand buildings in its vicinity were built following the demolition of this fortified line in the early 20th century. In the communist period the street was renamed ulica Armii Czerwonej, meaning "Red Army Street". On St. Martin's Day, 11 November (a public holiday on account of its being Polish Independence Day), a parade passes along this street, from St. Martin's Church to the Imperial Castle, where a fair and entertainments take place. Saint Martin's croissant (rogal świętomarciński), widely known for its delicious taste, is traditionally baked in Poznań for this day and sold also in other cities in Poland.