The Intelligentsia’s New Clothes

Abstract This paper analyzes the impact of the failed attempt to establish a Christian democratic party on the consolidation of political Catholicism in Poland between 1945 and 1956–58. First, it discusses the Christian democratic Labor Party (Stronnictwo Pracy), which sought to play a central role in Polish politics but ultimately lost its bid by mid-1946, succumbing to internal conflicts orchestrated by the nascent communist regime. Second, it examines the reaction of the Catholic intelligentsia to the lack of Catholic political representation, which led to the creation of new types of political institutions typified by the establishment of the pax association in 1947. pax was composed of a Catholic parliamentary representation, a press organ, and a socialized enterprise to finance pax ’s operations. The article shows that regime extended the pax model to other Catholic groups in the aftermath of the Polish “October” (1956–1958).