July Manifesto 1944

the first act of state of People’s Poland, adopted in Chelm on July 22, 1944, by the Polish Committee of National Liberation (PCNL).

The July Manifesto proclaimed that state power was passing into the hands of the working people, represented by the Krajowa Rada Narodowa (National Home Council), the council’s executive body, the PCNL, and local agencies of authority. The manifesto abrogated the reactionary constitution of 1935 and all the laws promulgated by the fascist German occupation forces, declared that the Polish state was restored on the foundation of democratic freedoms and the equality of all citizens, enacted new labor legislation and social security for the working people, and promised the immediate implementation of agrarian reform. The July Manifesto appealed to the Polish people to fight for complete liberation from the fascist German invaders and to cooperate closely with the Soviet army. The manifesto emphasized that the settlement of the Soviet-Polish border question must be governed by the principle that Polish lands remain with Poland and that the Ukrainian, Byelorussian, and Lithuanian lands be restored to the Soviet Ukraine, Soviet Byelorussia, and Soviet Lithuania.