Działalność Polskiego Stronnictwa Ludowego w Stanach Zjednoczonych Ameryki i Kanadzie (występującego pod nazwą Związek Przyjaciół Wsi Polskiej) w okresie prezesury Stanisława Mikołajczyka (1947–1966)
Activity of the Polish People’s Party in the United States of America and Canada (known as the Association of Friends of Polish Villages) during the presidency of Stanisław Mikołajczyk (1947–1966)

Summary/Abstract: The article concerns the Polish People’s Party (Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe), which, due to US and Canadian law, could not work under its own name. It functioned there as the Association of Friends of the Polish Village (Związek Przyjaciół Wsi Pol­skiej). This organization, led by a group of Polish people’s activists (Stanisław Mermel, Józef Migała, Bolesław Krakowski, Bolesław Biłogan, Tadeusz Paul, Feliks Rembiałkowski), with the support of the PSL president Stanisław Mikołajczyk, managed to organize some PSL/ZPWP Circles gathering several hundred members. Most of them operated in and around Chicago. They managed to organize PSL Circles on the East Coast and in several middle states. The Circles were a political support for the president of PSL S. Mikołaj­czyk who was permanently residing in America. Through their members, who managed to obtain a high material status, the clubs organized day-rooms, people’s houses, and folk music and choral groups, which allowed them to appear in the Polish community. The Circles supported the political line of S. Mikołajczyk, especially in the end of numerous internal crises and during the attacks of opponents on this political grouping, which was relegated to the margins of the political émigré scene. The PSL/ZPWP group in Canada also appeared for a short time. The article describes the activities of this organization during the leadership of the Supreme Executive Committee of the PSL by S. Mikołaj­czyk. This organization survived in the American territory until the end of the 1980s. The American team quite clearly influenced the entire émigré Party.

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