The Stalinism of the Soviet Union and that of Poland had many commonalities. The theory arrives in Poland fully formed along with the Red Army – the economist Włodzimierz Brus calls it ‘ready-to-wear’ – but implementation proceeded more slowly. Brus argues that a ‘third stage’ can be squeezed in between the liberation from Nazism and full Stalinism three years later. He refers to this as an acceptance of socialist goals but reluctance to impose them in a Stalinist manner. There was also a difference of duration. Soviet Stalinism endured for a quarter of a century. In Poland it lasted less than half this time. Even from 1948, though confronted and transformed, Polish society is not crushed as an independent force. As Krystyna Kersten notes, historical and cultural roots made Polish society more immune to forcible transformation than many of its neighbours. It was more able to retain the ‘green shoots of recovery’.

Stalin had always recognised that Polish communists would face a cultural challenge. In a hand-written note of 1 September 1945 to Roman Zambrowski (head of the Polish Party's organisation and personnel department) he called for co-ordination of plans with the CPSU (Soviet Communist Party) for political literature and cinema. Underlying his correspondence was the fear, which Lenin had expressed soon after the Russian Revolution, that a politically vanquished population might yet impose its culture on the conquerors.