I've just watched Jack Strong and it's made me wonder, what was the average Poles opinion of the Russians during the cold war? and what if any pushback was there at a higher level from the Poles. We're always sort of sold this story that during the cold war the Warsaw pact nations were a solid group, but clearly that is not true.
It varied over the years, but was mostly overwhelmingly negative.
Unlike, say, Germany, Hungary or Slovakia which were Axis states, Poland was an Allied nation, that was nevertheless occupied by the Soviet troops until 1995. Combined with Stalin's demands (on the country that was, after Belarus, the most devastated after WWII) regarding armaments and re-industrialisation, and the ongoing mismanaged centrally planned economy, leading to starvation and collapse in the 80s, this caused massive resentment of Russians (which was not, of course, a new development, Poland and Russia's spat continuing since 17th century with Russia being the chief architect of partitions of Poland).
An important factor was the Katyn massacre - where the Soviets murdered thousands of Polish prisoners of war, blaming the event on Germans. The men killed were officers, intellectuals, doctors. Despite harsh censorship, many Poles knew of this, perhaps even the majority. Russians finally admitted to have committed the deed in 1992.
In general, according to Norman Davies "Heart of Europe", this can be divided into four periods:
I. 1944-1948: the immediate post-WWII period, the only time when Russians were semi-accepted. The existence of different political parties, free practice of religion, and the reorganisation and early rebuilding. Polish communists have been purged by Stalin during WWII, so to create a new communist cadre some preparations have been neccessary.
II. 48-56: Polish Stalinism. The harshest persecution, militarisation intensified, with communist taking total power, absorbing the socialist party into the communist party, and persecuting the disloyal communists and any opposition, including the Catholic church. Society disliked Russians, and the party was ready to imprison or kill any dissenters.
III. 56-70-80: The National Communism. After Stalin's death, the more nationalistic, less radical factions of Polish United Workers' Party came to power, promising more freedoms, lessening the persecution, softening the media. Sadly, they had to resort to violence, and another group, who came to power in 1970 also promised liberalisation. As long as the Polish communists kept USSR away, unlike in Czechoslovakia or Hungary, the Poles treated the Russians coolly but politely, though the dislike intensified after the election of cardinal Karol Wojtyla as the Pope John Paul II. Although dissent and protests happened, they were quelled down by Polish police and secret police.
IV: 80s: Solidarity and Martial Law: After another protests in early 1980, the independent union Solidarity allowed at least a limited opposition to communists. USSR seemed bogged down in Afghanistan, but the Polish PM general Jaruzelski (the Army being the least visibly corrupt branch of the government) decided to quell Solidarity and introduced martial law. Whether he did it to prevent Soviet intervention or out of loyalty to Soviet Union is still hotly debated in Polish politics, but it did little to endear Soviets to Poles.