Almost the same number of Poles are positive about the People’s Republic of Poland as negative, shows a survey conducted by CBOS.

Forty-four percent of Poles have a positive opinion about life under communism and forty-three percent are critical about it.

Most supportive of life in the People’s Republic of Poland (PRL) are the people over 35 years of age (54 percent) and Poles who belonged to the major communist party, Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR) before 1989 (77 percent of votes). Solidarity members mainly condemn the People’s Republic of Poland (52 percent) but a lot of them remain positive about it (45 percent).

Seventy six percent of respondents think that grading communism should be left to historians. Most Poles (69 percent) claim that it is too early to judge the authorities of communist Poland fairly. Fifty-six percent think that judgment of PRL wrongdoers should be solely moral and 50 percent claim that they should be put on trial and punished. In the opinion of 43 percent of respondents, identities of secret security agents should be revealed.

The survey was conducted on 7-13 May among a representative population of 1078 Poles. (mg/mmj)