Endokomuna

Endokomuna or komunoendecja, translated as Endo-Communism, is a term used to describe an ideology within the Polish United Workers' Party, the ruling party of the Polish People's Republic. Initially used to describe a faction, it is now also used to describe 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", endokomuna represented dogmatic Marxism–Leninism (i.e. opposed to De-Stalinization) combined with ultranationalism and social conservatism of the prewar Endecja movement. As an ideology, it was considered a Polish form of national communism that sought to augment real socialism with nationalism; it was also known for its embrace of Roman Catholicism, fervent anti-liberalism, and the term "banana left", used by Endo-Communists to describe socially liberal, privileged left-wing intellectuals. Similarly to the Endecja movement, it was aggressively anti-Western and Russophilic, arguing that the real danger to Polish sovereignty and 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 Endecja led by Bolesław Piasecki helped the government appeal to Catholic, nationalist and far-right circles. After Polish October in 1956, communist authorities embraced national communism in a bid to maintain popular support, which 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. The dominance of the Partisans culminated in the 1968 Polish political crisis, where they led an "Anti-Zionist" campaign against the Jewish diaspora. By 1982, the ruling communist coalition was reforged into Patriotic Movement for National Rebirth (PRON) that appropriated the Endo-Communist ideology 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 Polish People's Republic in 1989, endokomuna tendency survived in some socialist and neo-Endecja parties, such as Samoobrona, Party X, National Party and the National Party "Fatherland".