Nationalization in Poland

Last updated

After the end of World War II, the Communist government in Poland instituted large scale nationalizations in Poland starting in 1944.

Contents

Various forms of nationalization in Poland had been suggested by socialist parties and politicians during the era of the Second Polish Republic (1918–1939). Following the communist takeover of Poland in the aftermath of World War II, the new communist government issued a number of decrees nationalizing significant parts of Polish property in the years 1944–1956. [1] [2]

Interwar Poland

Following the restoration of Polish independence in 1918, a number of primarily socialist parties and politicians (e.g. the Polish People's Party "Wyzwolenie", Provisional People's Government of the Republic of Poland of Ignacy Daszyński) issued promises of nationalization. As the politics and government of Poland stabilized, nationalization policy lost its support, and the March Constitution of 1921 contained property-protecting provisions that made nationalization difficult. [1]

Communist-era nationalization

Communist politician Boleslaw Bierut was the head of the Polish government in the late 1940s and early 1950s, a period which saw the implementation of most of the nationalization programs. PL Boleslaw Bierut (1892-1956).jpg
Communist politician Bolesław Bierut was the head of the Polish government in the late 1940s and early 1950s, a period which saw the implementation of most of the nationalization programs.

The idea of nationalization returned during World War II, as most of the Polish underground parties of the Polish Underground State declared support for nationalization of the occupants' (mainly German) property as well as that of variously defined 'traitors and collaborators'. As the Soviet armies advanced westward and entered former Polish territories, the provisional Polish communist government (Polish Committee of National Liberation) similarly promised confiscation of property stolen by the Germans, and its redistribution. [1]

Among the earliest nationalization laws passed by the Polish communist government was the Land Reform Decree of 6 September 1944, which nationalized all privately owned land of over 50 agricultural or otherwise over 100 hectares. [3] Another law passed on 14 December 1944 nationalized forests. All medium and large industries falling into the communist sphere of influence were immediately placed into a "temporary" state ownership, first without legal backing, but made legal by several decrees of 1945. [1] A 1945 decree known as the Bierut Decree nationalized most of the properties in the Polish capital of Warsaw. [4] A related, wider-ranging laws (incorrectly named by German nationalists as the Bierut Decrees) on all abandoned property stated that such property would become a property of the state or other social institutions after 10 years. [5] A wide-ranging nationalization Law on the Nationalization of Industry (Ustawa o nacjonalizacji przemysłu) was passed by the State National Council on 3 January 1946. [1] [2] It transferred to the state without compensation all formerly German property, as well as property of collaborators. It further declared that the state was taking over all companies in 17 branches of industry, and in all others, all medium and large companies. Compensation was provided to foreign owners only. [1] Approximately 35,000 companies were nationalized by 1 October 1948. Certain other companies that were not under the scope of the 1946 law were nationalized in subsequent years (e.g. approximately 1,500 private pharmacies were nationalized in 1951), with the final batch nationalized by the Law of 25 February 1956. [1]

Unlike in most other Eastern Bloc countries, only about a third of Polish agriculture became nationalized (generally in the form of large state farms, the PGRs), and the rest remained in the private sector. [6] [7]

Nationalization/Repolonisation (2015–current)

Since 2015, under the Law and Justice (PiS) government, Poland has seen a growing wave of economic nationalism,

The minister also suggested Poland should have greater control over the economy. [10] [11] [12]

PKN Orlen has announced its intention to take over state-owned PGNiG, and on 10 May 2021, it submitted a takeover application to the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection. [14] [15] In October 2022, Shareholders of PGNiG approved the company's takeover by PKN Orlen, this came after PKN Orlen Shareholders done the same. [16]

In late 2022, Jarosław Kaczyński said that the Polish Pis government might buy PKP Energetyka and Żabka convenience store from CVC Capital Partners. [17] [18] In January 2023, CVC signed a preliminary agreement for the sale of PKP Energetyka to state owned power company PGE. [19]

On April 3, 2023 PGE Polish Energy Group acquired from the CVC Fund 100% of shares in PKPE Holding sp. z o.o. thus closing the purchase transaction of PKP Energetyka S.A. [20]

Reprivatisation (1989–current)

Further reading: Reprivatisation in Poland  [ pl ]

Following the fall of communism in Poland in 1989, some of the formerly nationalized property has been subject to reprivatisation and restored to previous owners, their heirs or other claimants. [4] However, as of late 2018, Poland still had no single, unified law regarding reprivatisation, and the process has been slow and based on a patchwork of several smaller, limited laws. [21] In some cases this process have been proven to be highly contentious and controversial, opening the doors to fraud and corruption which exploited the loopholes in the imperfect laws regarding reprivatisation. [22] [23] Many of the controversies were focused on Warsaw, where the whole land was nationalised with the purpose of planned reconstruction of the city nearly completely destroyed during World War II. Reprivatisation of public spaces (schools, city parks, etc.) with subsequent repurposing and neglect created chaos [23] and had led to considerable fraud. In 2017 the Polish government established a dedicated Commission for Issues of Warsaw Real Estate Reprivatisation  [ pl ]; as of July 2018 the commission has reversed over a dozen of the decisions, but some of its rulings have led to further controversies and several trials. [24]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Economy of Poland</span>

The economy of Poland is an industrialised, mixed economy with a developed market that serves as the sixth-largest in the European Union by nominal GDP and fifth-largest by GDP (PPP). Poland boasts the extensive public services characteristic of most developed economies. Since 1988, Poland has pursued a policy of economic liberalisation but retained an advanced public welfare system. This includes universal free public healthcare and education, extensive provisions of free public childcare, and parental leave. The country is considered by many to be a successful post-communist state. It is classified as a high-income economy by the World Bank, ranking 20th worldwide in terms of GDP (PPP), 21st in terms of GDP (nominal), and 21st in the 2023 Economic Complexity Index.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orlen</span> Polish oil refiner and petrol retailer

Orlen S.A., commonly known as Orlen, is a Polish multinational oil refiner and petrol retailer headquartered in Płock, Poland. The company's subsidiaries include the main oil and gas companies of the Czech Republic and Lithuania, Unipetrol and Orlen Lietuva respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polish State Railways</span> Dominant railway operator in Poland

The Polish State Railways is the dominant railway operator in Poland. The company was founded when the former Polish State Railways state-owned enterprise was divided into several units based on the need for separation between infrastructure management and transport operations. Polish State Railways is the dominant company in PKP Group collective that resulted from the split, and maintains in 100% share control, being fully responsible for the assets of all of the other PKP Group component companies. The group's organisations are dependent upon Polish State Railways, but proposals for privatisation have been made.

PGE Energetyka Kolejowa S.A., until 2023 PKP Energetyka S.A. is the cross-country electricity distributor to the Polish railway network and other business customers. It also provides nationwide maintenance and emergency response services to the railway network, operates fuel stations for diesel locomotives and is active in electricity and gas reselling. It owns 20,000 km of distribution network and operates a fleet of highly specialised trains and rail equipment across Poland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Powszechny Zakład Ubezpieczeń</span> Polish insurance company

Powszechny Zakład Ubezpieczeń Spółka Akcyjna, also known as PZU SA is a publicly traded insurance company, a component of the WIG30 stock market index and Poland's biggest and oldest insurance company. PZU is headquartered in Warsaw and is the largest financial institution in Poland. It is also the largest insurance company in Central and Eastern Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grupa Lotos</span>

Grupa Lotos S.A. was a vertically integrated oil company based in Gdańsk, Poland. The company was listed in the Polish index WIG30. The Polish state was the majority shareholder with 53% percent. The company's main activity branches were: crude oil production, refining and marketing of oil products. The company was a leader in lubricants on the Polish market. Grupa Lotos was a producer of unleaded gasoline, diesel, fuel oils, aviation fuels, motor and industrial lubricants, bitumens and waxes.

Polskie Górnictwo Naftowe i Gazownictwo S.A., abbreviated to PGNiG, is a Polish state-controlled oil and gas company, headquartered in Warsaw, Poland. The company has branches and representative offices in Russia, Pakistan, Belarus and Ukraine and holds equity interests in some 30 subsidiaries, including providers of specialist geophysical, drilling and well services.

The WIG20 is a capitalization-weighted stock market index of the twenty largest companies on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. WIG is an acronym for "Warszawski Indeks Giełdowy", which translates to Warsaw Stock Index in Polish. However, so that no sector would dominate the index, the rule was introduced that there can be a maximum of 5 companies per sector. In this way, for example, there are 5 banks in the index. Companies also have different shares in the index, with clear consequences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piotr Woźniak (politician)</span> Polish public servant and geologist

Piotr Grzegorz Woźniak is a Polish public servant and geologist. Between 2005 and 2007 he served as Minister of Economy, between 2011 and 2013 he was Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Environment and Chief State Geologist, since 2016 he has been serving as President of the Management Board of the Polish Oil and Gas Company (PGNiG).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna</span>

PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna S.A. is a state-owned public power company and the largest power producing company in Poland. PGE is listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the WIG30 index.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Żabka (convenience store)</span> Chain of Polish shops

Żabka Polska is a chain of convenience stores in Poland. There are at least 9,000 manned and unmanned stores across Poland, including at least 500 in Warsaw and over 340 in the Tricity area, as of April 2024. Some Żabka stores are located in the Czech Republic and owned by the Czech branch of the UK retail giant Tesco plc. The retail turnover was about €650 million in 2010. As of 2022, Żabka had more than 15.5 million customers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Krzysztof Obłój</span>

Krzysztof Obłój is a Polish economist and university teacher, with a broad research area including world economy, institutional environment of business, competition and entrepreneurship. He specializes in organization culture, structure and process, internal organizational analysis and organizational strategy. Obłój is Chair of the Institute for Strategic Management and International Management at the University of Warsaw and Head of the Department of Business Strategy at the Kozminski University in Warsaw.

The oil industry in Poland began at Bóbrka Field in 1853, followed by the first refinery in 1854. Poland was the third most productive region in the world in 1900. It now has only a small, mostly state-owned component, with production from its Permian Basin in the west, small and very old fields in the Carpathians in the south, and offshore in the Baltic Sea. For natural gas the country is almost completely dependent on legacy pipelines from the former Soviet Union.

The Central Bureau Communists of Poland was a group of Polish Communists in the Soviet Union during World War II, hand-picked by the Russian Secretariat of the Central Committee (BKK) with the aim of assisting in the takeover of power in Poland. It was a secret structure initially, active between January and August 1944, and closely affiliated with the Soviet Central Committee of the Communist Party.

Bierut Decree or Warsaw Land Decree is a common name of the Decree on Ownership and Usufruct of Land in the Area of the Capital of Warsaw also translated as the Decree on Ownership and Use of Land in Warsaw issued in Poland on 26 October 1945 by the State National Council. The Decree, named after the council's leader, Bolesław Bierut, nationalized most of the land properties in Warsaw.

Akademia Piłkarska Orlen Gdańsk is a footballing academy based in Gdańsk, Poland. It focuses on training and developing players in the Pomeranian region and is well known for its development of female players with the women's football team being the academies most successful section, with AP Orlen playing in the Ekstraliga, the highest division of women's football in Poland. The team name includes the name of their title sponsor and main funder of the academy, PKN Orlen, a Polish oil company.

Events in the year 2022 in Poland.

After World War II and coming to power of the communist government in Poland, large scale nationalization occurred. Following the fall of communism in Poland in 1989, some of the formerly nationalized property have been subject to reprivatisation and restored to previous owners, their heirs or other claimants.

Events in the year 2023 in Poland.

Beata Kozłowska-Chyła is a Polish banker and the CEO of PZU, the largest insurance provider in Poland as well as Eastern and Central Europe. She also works as a lecturer within the University of Warsaw.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "nacjonalizacja – Encyklopedia PWN – źródło wiarygodnej i rzetelnej wiedzy". encyklopedia.pwn.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  2. 1 2 Piotr Stec (12 March 2001). "Reprivatisation of Nationalised Property in Poland". In Elizabeth Cooke (ed.). Modern Studies in Property Law. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 357–360. ISBN   978-1-84731-312-6.
  3. ↑ Longina Jakubowska (13 May 2016). Patrons of History: Nobility, Capital and Political Transitions in Poland. Taylor & Francis. p. 123. ISBN   978-1-317-08310-8.
  4. 1 2 Michael J. Bazyler; Kathryn Lee Boyd; Kristen L. Nelson (2019). Searching for Justice After the Holocaust: Fulfilling the Terezin Declaration and Immovable Property Restitution. Oxford University Press. pp. 327–328. ISBN   978-0-19-092306-8.
  5. ↑ Anna Cichopek-Gajraj (19 June 2014). Beyond Violence: Jewish Survivors in Poland and Slovakia, 1944–48. Cambridge University Press. pp. 72–73. ISBN   978-1-107-03666-6.
  6. ↑ Anders Aslund; Senior Fellow Anders Aslund; Aslund Anders (2002). Building Capitalism: The Transformation of the Former Soviet Bloc . Cambridge University Press. p.  25. ISBN   978-0-521-80525-4.
  7. ↑ Hannes Siegrist; Dietmar Müller (1 November 2014). Property in East Central Europe: Notions, Institutions, and Practices of Landownership in the Twentieth Century. Berghahn Books. p. 40. ISBN   978-1-78238-462-5.
  8. ↑ "Poland's Top Insurer Buys a Stake in Alior Bank, with More of the Same to Follow". 5 June 2015.
  9. ↑ Rohac, Dalibor (30 June 2017). "Poland's rush to banking sector socialism". Financial Times.
  10. ↑ "Poland should aim to merge state-run companies - minister". Reuters. 27 April 2020.
  11. ↑ https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/pkn-ready-to-offer-concessions-after-eu-warning-on-lotos-bid-sources-2020-03-30 [ bare URL ]
  12. ↑ "Poland's government wants to take control of banking". The Economist. 9 August 2018.
  13. ↑ "Orlen finalises merger with Lotos". TVN24 (in Polish). Retrieved 2023-05-10.
  14. ↑ Obajtek: ważny krok w kierunku połączenia Orlenu i PGNiG
  15. ↑ Orlen zgłosił zamiar przejęcia PGNiG do UOKiK
  16. ↑ "Poland's PGNiG shareholders approve takeover by PKN Orlen". Reuters. 2022-10-10. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
  17. ↑ "Poland close to buying PKP Energetyka from CVC Capital Partners -ruling party leader". Reuters. 12 October 2022.
  18. ↑ "Poland Eyes Grocery Chain as It Takes Back Control of Economy". Bloomberg.com. 2022-10-13. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
  19. ↑ https://www.cvc.com/news/2023/2023-01-03-cvc-has-signed-a-preliminary-agreement-for-the-sale-of-pkp-energetyka/
  20. ↑ S.A, PGE Systemy. "Zamknięcie transakcji nabycia 100% udziałów w PKPE Holding przez PGE Polską Grupę Energetyczną". www.gkpge.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 2023-05-12.
  21. ↑ ""PiS nie może mówić, że afera reprywatyzacyjna to nie my"". TVN24.pl. Retrieved 2019-01-07.
  22. ↑ "Poland's reclaimed properties create scars across Warsaw". Financial Times. 24 April 2018. Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  23. 1 2 Davies, Christian (2017-12-18). "'They stole the soul of the city': how Warsaw's reprivatisation is causing chaos". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  24. ↑ "Reprywatyzacja w Warszawie: ktoś musi zapłacić za straty właścicieli". www.rp.pl (in Polish). 22 July 2018. Retrieved 2019-01-06.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.