Stronnictwo Ludowe

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Stronnictwo Ludowe (SL, People's Party) was a Polish political party, active from 1931 in the Second Polish Republic. An agrarian populist party, its power base was composed mostly from peasants. In 1945 it was renamed to Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe (PSL) and a different, communist party took its name. In 1949 it was merged into Zjednoczone Stronnictwo Ludowe (ZSL). Modern PSL party traces its origins to SL.

In 1931 it was created from the merger of three other, smaller, peasant-based parties: Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe Piast (PSL "Piast"), Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe Wyzwolenie (PSLW) and Stronnictwo Chłopskie (SCh).

During the Second World War it was known as 'Stronnictwo Ludowe Roch' and its military arm, Bataliony Chłopskie, formed part of the Polish resistance movement in World War II.

After the end of the war, Stronnictwo Ludowe under the leadership of Wincenty Witos decided to support Stanisław Mikołajczyk. However at the same time Polish communists named one of their proxy parties Stronnictwo Ludowe, and the old Stronictwo Ludowe, now loyal to Mikołajczyk, changed its name into Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe (PSL).

After Mikołajczyk's defeat due to vote-rigging by communists in the Polish legislative election, 1947, the remains of the Polskie Stronictwo Ludowe were merged (in 1949) into one of the communist parties (Zjednoczone Stronnictwo Ludowe, ZSL).