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Polish–Soviet Friendship Society

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 5, 2026
Entity authorityQ7210102 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Polish–Soviet Friendship Society (Polish: Towarzystwo Przyjaźni Polsko-Radzieckiej) was a Polish organisation founded in 1944. It was a vehicle for organized propaganda, like the celebration of anniversaries of the October Revolution, trips to the Soviet Union, exchange programs, promotion of Soviet culture, technology, books or movies as well as festivals of Soviet songs for amateurs.

Up until the 1980s it had over 3 million members, mainly through pressuring students and government employees to enlist. In 1991, after the fall of the Soviet Union, the organisation was renamed to Stowarzyszenie Polska–Rosja (Polish-Russian Association).

Presidents of the TPPR

1944–1945 Józef Wasowski

1945–1950 Henryk Świątkowski

1950–1952 Edward Ochab

1952–1955 Józef Cyrankiewicz

1955–1957 Stefan Ignar

1957–1974 Czesław Wycech

1974–1980 Jan Szydlak

1980–1987 Stanisław Wroński

1987–1991 Henryk Bednarski

In 1983, a committee on the 'brotherhood of arms' between the People's Republic of Poland and the Soviet Union was founded. The first head of this committee was Jan Śliwiński, replaced in 1987 by former NKVD agent Jan Raczkowski.

The TPPR issued a magazine called Przyjaźń (transl. Friendship).

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Polish–Soviet Friendship Society” as open-knowledge reference entry. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Polish, Soviet and Friendship.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1944, 1991, 1945, 1950—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1944, 1944-11-22—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Polish, Soviet and Friendship providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Polish–Soviet Friendship Society”, the useful work is to connect “open-knowledge reference entry” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7210102. VIAF identifies the subject as 140708905. The Library of Congress control number is n80158499. 1 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1944, 1991, 1945 and 1950.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Polish–Soviet Friendship Society” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.