IN THE YEARS following World War II and the establishment of a communist regime in Poland, all center and right-wing parties were banned and declared illegal. Many right-wing activists were arrested and some were executed. No rightist organization could function legally in Poland until the Velvet Revolution of 1989. Small independent groups that tried to organize various activities were broken up, their members arrested, beaten up, and often thrown out of their jobs (or studies).

The changes in Poland (and in the former Soviet Bloc in general) in 1989 opened the possibility to organize and register all types of political parties, with the exception of those that had racist and fascist elements in their programs. In effect, a large number of parties were registered on a ...