Endokomuna

Endokomuna or komunoendecja, translated as Endo-Communism, is a term used to describe an ideology within the Polish United Workers' Party, the dominant political party of the Polish People's Republic from 1948 to 1989. Initially used to describe a faction, it is now also used to denote the period during which it became the de facto ruling ideology of Poland. The term itself, endokomuna or komunoendecja, is a portmanteau of Endecja (National Democracy) and komuna ("commune", in the meaning of "communism"). Described as a "peculiar marriage of authoritarian Communism and chauvinist nationalist tendencies", it represented dogmatic Marxism–Leninism (i.e.: opposed to de-Stalinization) combined with the ultranationalism and social conservatism of the prewar Endecja movement. As an ideology, endokomuna was considered a Polish form of national communism that sought to augment real socialism with nationalism; it was known for its embrace of Roman Catholicism, fervent anti-liberalism, and the term "banana left" (used to describe socially liberal, privileged left-wing intellectuals). Similarly to Endecja, it was aggressively anti-Western and Russophilic, arguing that the real danger to Polish sovereignty and to Polish national identity was not the Soviet Union, but the Western capitalist bloc.

The origins of endokomuna date back to 1945, when captured Endecja activists agreed to collaborate with Polish communists; the collaborationist elements of Endecja, led by Bolesław Piasecki (1915-1979), helped authorities appeal to Catholic, nationalist and far-right circles. After the Polish October in 1956, Polish government embraced national communism in a bid to maintain popular support; this led to the emergence of the "Partisans", a faction within the communist party (led by the Minister of the Interior, Mieczysław Moczar) that consolidated Endo-Communism into the dominant ideology. Partisans' dominance culminated in the 1968 Polish political crisis, where they led an "Anti-Zionist" campaign against the Jewish diaspora. In 1982, the ruling communist coalition was reforged into the Patriotic Movement for National Rebirth (PRON) that appropriated Endo-Communism and had Jan Dobraczyński, an Endecja activist, as its chairman. Along with PRON, communist authorities also founded the Grunwald Patriotic Union, which organized National Bolsheviks and functioned between 1981 and 1995. After the fall of the Polish People's Republic in 1989, the endokomuna tendency survived in some parties, such as Samoobrona, Party X, the National Party and the National Party "Fatherland".