Polish Committee of National Liberation

(PCNL), a provisional organ of executive power of people’s Poland from July 21 to Dec. 31, 1944. Its first document was the July Manifesto of 1944, which was proclaimed in the city of Chełm and contained a program for the construction of people’s democratic Poland.

The committee was created during the incipient liberation of Poland from the fascist occupation forces by the Soviet Army and Polish military units. The PCNL included representatives of the Polish Workers’ Party, Polish Socialist Party, People’s Party (Stronnictwo Ludowe), and Democratic Party (Stronnictwo Demokraticzne). The headquarters of the PCNL was in the city of Lublin. On July 26 the government of the USSR and the PCNL signed an agreement that recognized the authority of the PCNL over the liberated Polish territory. On September 6 the PCNL adopted a decree on agrarian reform and implemented it in a number of provinces. On December 31 the Kraja Rada Narodowa (National Home Council) adopted a decree to reorganize the PCNL into the Provisional Government of the Polish Republic.