“We Will Help the Americans”. Anti-communist Youth Conspiracyin Upper Silesia and the Dąbrowa Basin in the Years 1947–1956

Abstract

In 1947, systemic changes in Sovietized Poland accelerated. Organized anti-communist conspiracy ceased to exist due to the amnesty announced after the elections to the Legislative Sejm and the actions of the security apparatus. This also happened in Upper Silesia and in the Dąbrowa Basin, the underground was liquidated by 1948. In the following years, several dozen new underground organizations were established in the region, created mainly by young people. These were small, poorly organized and ephemeral groups. In the conditions of instability in international relations and the constant threat of world war, some of them focused on armed resistance against the communist authorities. In parallel, there were underground structures focused on self-education and conducting propaganda campaigns, as well as trying to combine both forms of resistance.