1964

March, 1964 For the first time publicly acting as a group of intellectuals since the 1956 revolts , a group of Polish writers and academics (the “Group of 34”) publish a letter to the authorities protesting censorship.

1965

March, 1965 Doctoral candidates and former members of the Polish United Workers Party, the Communist Party of Poland, Jacek Kuron and Karol Modzelewski at the Departement of History at Warsaw University are arrested for an open letter to the Polish Communist Party from autumn 1964. The letter contains a Marxist analysis of the political system in socialist countries. They conclude that a conflict exists between the working class and what they called “the central political bureaucracy,” and that such a conflict will sooner or later lead to revolution. Both are sentenced to three years in prison. Their open letter will become one of the most widely circulated texts among radical French students during the May revolts in Paris 1968.

1968

First Phase - The Cultural Sphere, the Intellectuals and the Students
16.01.1968 Polish authorities decide to ban the play Dziady (“The Forefathers”) at the National Theatre in Warsaw from February 1. The play had run16 times since 1945 and had been used in Polish high schools since 1918.
30.01.1968 200 students participate in a demonstration against the ban of Dziady. The protestors march to the official censor office in Warsaw. Clashes between the police and demonstrators. 50 students are arrested.
05.02.1968 - 19.02.1968 The Polish writer Janusz Szptanski on trial in Warsaw barred from the public. Szptanski is sentenced to three years in prison for a satiric play against the Polish political system.
16.02.1968 Student protest letter to the parliament signed by more than 3,000 people in protest of the government’s ban of Dziady.
29.02.1968 The Warsaw branch of the Writer’s Association passes a declaration demanding a lifting of the ban of Dziady, the end of censorship and the participation of writers in the development of cultural policy. The Communist Party threatens to take closer control of the Writer’s Association if certain members are not excluded.
04.03.1968 As a result of a joint action between the party, the police and the university administration, the Minister of Education expels 2 students, Adam Michnik and Henryk Szlajfer, from the University of Warsaw for their participation in the January 30 demonstrations.

Second Phase - The Students and the Purge of the Communist Party - First week
08.03.1968 Warsaw student demonstration to the Dean’s office in support of their expelled colleagues and for the democratic rights according to the Polish Constitution (paragraph 71). Jacek Kuron and Karol Modzelewski are arrested for the second time (sentenced to prison in March 1965). Pamphlets of Polish students declare support with the Czechoslovakian students. Violence erupts during the demonstration and the police clears the campus of the Warsaw University. Party agitators are shouting: ”Trouble makers out of the university!” Demonstrators are arrested by the police, which is labeled as ”Gestapo” by bystanders.
09.03.1968 Clashes between the students and police spread to the Polytechnical University in Warsaw. The police use tear gas to disperse the demonstrators.
10.03.1968 Western radio stations mentions the Polish unrest for the first time.
11.03.1968 The largest newspapers in Warsaw for the first time mention the student unrest. Student meetings at the university and Polytechnical University in Warsaw. Clashes between students and police in the streets outside the building of the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Warsaw. Students at the University of Krakow ratify declarations of support and demand the respects of Polish civil rights.10,000 demonstrators clash with the workers’ militia in the streets of Warsaw. Polish authorities point out Jews as responsible for the riots.
12.03.1968 Protest meetings at factories against the student demonstrations. Demonstrators are accused of collaboration with external forces. Demands for purges of “Zionists” from the Communist Party. Polish officials with children participating in the demonstrations are removed from their jobs.
13.03.1968 Students at the Polytechnic University in Warsaw ratify a petition with eight demands to the authorities. Demonstrations outside the Dean’s office at Poznan University. Police arrests 84 people, most of whom are later released. 14 are arrested for questioning (9 students and 5 non-students). The authorities discharge 3 officials, the parents of those students who are publicly named in the press.
13.03.1968 - 16.03.1968 All Polish universities on strike for 3 days. Clashes between students and police on campus of Warsaw University which spread to the rest of the city. The police make an unsuccessful attempt to break up a meeting at the Polytechnic University in Warsaw. The protestors are shouting: “Long live Czechoslovakia!” The police then attacks students while they try to seek refuge in a church. Polish workers are used against the students during street fight in Warsaw and other Polish cities. Films and notes from Czechoslovakian journalists are confiscated, one Czechoslovakian journalist is expelled from Poland. Other foreign correspondents encounter difficulties entering the country. The fights between students and police spreads to Jagiellonian University in Krakow. Student posters display slogans like: ”Warsaw is not alone.” Students at Poznan University clash with the police.
16.03.1968 Police in Katowice uses water canons and batons against demonstrating students. The students demand democratization and an end to twisted and biased coverage in mass media.

Second week
18.03.1968 Steel workers in Nowa Huta on strike in sympathy with the striking students in Krakow. 1 208 persons are arrested – among those 367 students. New attacks on Polish Jews. No unrest during the weekend, but continued tensions. Students discuss sit-in strike. The foreign correspondent for The Times is expelled.
19.03.1968 Gomułka gives what seems to be a consolatory speech in the Cultural Palace in Warsaw, promising to discuss the students’ grievances and not to use the workers against them in the streets. But he also identifies the student leaders as Jews and condemns revisionist professors. The speech is a warning, but it does not stop the unrest.
20.03.1968 5,000 students at the Polytechnical University in Warsaw start a 24 hour long sit-in. Gomułka blames “Zionists” for the riots in Poland and harshly attacks them and “the reactionary instigators” of the unrest..He also announces that all those who consider Israel as their homeland should get their passports and leave Poland.
21.03.1968 Students at the Polytechnical University hold strike meeting and pass resolutions addressing what they consider an official disinformation campaign about the demonstrations. Members of the Faculty join the strike.
21.03.1968 The Polish Catholic Church supports the students in a letter to the Polish Prime minister.
22.03.1968 Police start to clear the area outside the Polytechnical University in Warsaw, pushing away thousands of civilian bystanders. The students are shouting ”General strike” and singing the Internationale. The University’s exterior wall features slogans like: "Workers, this is our common fight." A physical confrontation between police and students is avoided since the occupying students vanish from the area after an ultimatum.
23.03.1968 The student strike at Warsaw University comes to an end. The students pass a new resolution to Gomułka underlining their previous demands.
24.03.1968 The Polytechnical University is abandoned. The Polish bishops intervene unsuccessfully as mediators between the authorities and the protestors and condemn the police brutality against the students.

Third week
25.03.1968 Six prominent professors, among them Leszek Kołakowski and Zygmunt Bauman, from the Faculty of Humanities at Warsaw University, some of them Jewish, are fired. The Charles University Prague invites them to in Czechoslovakia to hold guest lectures. The Czechoslovakian Writers’ Association protests against the Polish authorities. The Yugoslavian journal Praxis joins the support for the Polish professors. One/A Polish professor is removed from the Party’s Central Committee.
26.03.1968 A Polish newspaper response to the students unrest is that  “Anti-Communist meetings will not be allowed.” Disciplinary actions against intellectuals continue. Professors in Law and Philosophy are dismissed after serious accusations of having initiated the unrest. 
28.03.1968 Harsh attacks against the students in Trybuna Ludu, the main newspaper of the Communist Party. Disregarding warnings from the authorities, 2,000 students participate in a demonstration at the University of Warsaw and demand the reappointment of their discharged professors. The meeting passes “a declaration of the student movement,” which is the longest text passed by any student body during the March revolts in Poland. Students are wearing white caps as a symbol of their protest. The university rector is threatening students with disciplinary actions. 34 students are expelled, 11 students are suspended, 8 institutes are closed and more than 1,600 students are forced to re-apply for new admission (70 of whom are denied admission). Yugoslavian journals begin to criticize Polish anti-Semitism.
30.03.1968 The authorities close some departments of Warsaw University. New attacks against Jews in Polish press. The authorities promise "strict sanctions” against the students.

Third phase - Anti-Semitism and Continuing Party Purges
02.04.1968 Three Polish Generals are fired for activities "undermining the Polish army." An army newspaper warns about enemy activities.
03.04.1968 Purges in the Polish Communist Party. 9 prominent members are excluded. Power struggle in the Communist Party.
06.04.1968 Purges continue against “Zionist, revisionist and other enemies of the Polish state.”
08.04.1968 Punitive reactions against members of the protest movement. Students directly involved in the March revolt are drafted to military service. Prime Minister Edward Ochab resigns due to declining health. A Czechoslovakian weekly newspaper attacks the campaign against the Jews in Poland.
09.04.1968 Changes in the Polish Government are proposed. Professor Adam Schaff, a prominent Jew, is removed from the Central Committee of the Communist Party.
12.04.1968 Purges in the administration, the mass media and among the cultural and academic elite. Marian Spychalski is appointed new chairman of the State Council. Purge in the Polish State Department.  
16.04.1968 Several prominent persons are removed from their positions. The anti-Jewish campaign continues.
17.04.1968 More than one hundred Polish Jews leave the country per week.
18.04.1968 Two nuclear scientists expelled from the Communist Party. Spychalski, the new chairman of the State Council, is inaugurated by parliament.
23.04.1968 Far-reaching university reforms are announced.
25.04.1968 Thirteen prominent Poles are purged from the Communist Party.
01.05.1968 Students disturb the May Day ceremony at the University in Wroclaw. 47 students are expelled. Harsh assaults against Polish Jews by Gomułka. He strongly condemns Israel.
05.05.1968 Czechoslovakian writers attack the Polish leaders for their anti-Semitic campaign.
06.05.1968 Polish authorities deliver an official complaint to Prague about the Czechoslovakian press and its coverage of the events in Poland.
19.05.1968 Campaign against Polish Jews intensifies. Repeated accusation about their cooperation with the Nazis in Poland.
June, 1968 Moczar, the Minister of the Interior, leads the Polish anti-Zionist campaign. The student demonstrations are explained as American, Israeli and West German acts of destabilization. Jews are officially requested to leave Poland. The Polish press accuses the Jews in the ghetto of Warsaw during the war of cooperation with the Nazis in the killing of other Jews. From March to June, the Polish press publicly identifies all students of Jewish descent together with their fathers in the Communist Party.
23.06.1968 Purge continues in the Polish State Department.
26.06.1968 The Polish purges are gradually stopping. Gomułka tries to bring the heated atmosphere under control.
08.07.1968 Opening of the Plenum meeting of the Central Committee. First official attempts to reduce “anti-Zionist sentiments” in Poland.
10.07.1968 Gomułka’s rival Mieczysław Moczar, Minister of Interior, becomes secretary in the Central Committee and deputy to the Party Presidium.
12.07.1968 Gomułka claims the campaign against the Jews is exaggerated. He encourages the discussion of a new program of the Communist Party.
15.07.1968 Gomułka admits that the anti-Jewish campaign was a mistake. The Warsaw Pact leaders meet in Warsaw to discuss the development in Czechoslovakia. Three Ministers are replaced in Poland. Two of them are possible victims of the purge. 6,000 Jews have already left the country and additional 10,000 want to leave.
16.07.1968 Mieczysław Moczar is replaced as Minister of Interior.
17.07.1968 The director of the National Theatre in Warszawa is fired.
21.08.1968 Polish army units take part in the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia.