I know the author of the Testament is just one man, Jerzy Braun, a member of Labour Faction. It was released as the official document of the Council of National Unity. But I've heard that major right wing forces did not participate in the editing at all and that some demands were made with some exaggeration, motivation on principle: "since the communists promise X, we can't be any worse". Is that true?
E.g. did really all political, non communist forces in Poland approve the 8th point: "socialisation of large capitalist property and organisation of fair distribution of social income"?
BTW, I'm Polish myself, but suprisingly I cannot find many information in Polish about the Testament on the Internet. That's why I'm asking here.
More in-depth definition of the envisioned political solutions that were to be introduced after the war should the Poland defends its independence and democracy were laid out in the program declaration of the National Unity Council (pol. Rada Jedności Narodowej) entitled What the Polish Nation is fighting for (pol. O co walczy Naród Polski) published on 15th March 1944, i.e. several months before the establishment of the Soviet-backed State National Council (pol. Krajowa Rada Narodowa) and as the response to the late-1943 declaration of the Soviet-backed Polish Workers Party (pol. Polska Partia Robotnicza) titled What are we fighting for (pol. O co walczymy).
In the third chapter of the declaration, following the general shape of the new political system and the rights of minorities and titled 'Reconstruction of the socio-economic structure' deals with the economic background of the post-war Poland. The most crucial element of this proposed system was the wide popularization of the private property, defined as the maximum increase of the enterprises. On the other hand, the NUC also declared that the future Poland should increase the 'social income' (GDP per capita in modern terms) and the 'just distribution of said income'. The latter has been defined as the ability of the state to overtake or socialize the key strategic industries and public-oriented institutions as well as transport and financial infrastructure 'if the general need for such reforms arise'. Newly formed state institutions cooperating with the undefined 'social element' would have been also responsible for the repossession of the enterprises governed during the wars by Germans as well as the German-owned businesses or any abandoned property (at the time this is assumed to be referring chiefly to the enterprises created during the occupation, as the territorial changes were not decided). The specific rules including the potential recompense for the nationalized property was to be decided by the newly elected parliament and government.
The declaration openly admits that the post-war development will be based on the principles of the planned economy, that would focus on the reconstruction of the workplaces destroyed and damaged during the war, intense development of the agricultural, excavation, forest and industrial resources with a focus on all industries related to the military defense, maximization of the employment and, in as the main long-term goal, bringing the economic development to the level comparable with that of other Western European countries through intensive private and public investments. The private property was openly stated to be 'not a completely unrestricted personal privilege, but rather a basis to perform specified social and state functions'.
Please note that these proposals, although today might seem suspiciously similar to the tenets of Soviet economy, were far from being radical to people who have grown up in the first part of the 20th century and were largely in line with the economic solutions taken in 1920s and 1930s in many western countries, such as the Roosevelt's 'New Deal' in USA. The reforms of the agricultural system were quite extensive and encompassed the temporary state governance of all the privately owned lots bigger than 50 ha (125 acres) and redistribution of this land between the landless peasants who were to receive lots roughly 8-15 ha (20-38 acres) in size or as much land to bring their land to such a size allowing meaningful participation in the economy. In addition, villages were to be a subject to a quick modernization through the development of the roads, waterways, electric network, local schools etc. In addition, the expropriation or nationalization of the private property was not as opposed as it would have been today, as it was practiced after 1918, when a large part of infrastructure inherited from the three powers occupying Polish lands throughout the last century while the idea of 'leveling the differences' was considered rational in the light of strong developmental differences between the zones, especially the Russian and Prussian/German one (this also included the distribution of land throughout small-time farmers in the process of 'parcelation' introduced in 1920). In additional, Poland had to create their own currency displacing several others used until this point. All this meant that the governmental intervention was not treated as critically as it was in many countries that had have been utilizing the free-market principles for a long time and had a well-established mechanism in place.
In the cities, the private business was to be supported by the state in ways conducive to the accumulation of private capital and property, such as establishment of small and medium private workshops, factories and stores as well as the development of the existing ones (with means unspecified but if pre-war times are of any indication it could have meant e.g. tax exemptions, low-interest loans or even subsidies), attraction of potential workers to the urban areas via the state support for the residential construction.
The approach to the work bears significant character that according to modern European political vocabulary could have been classified as socialist (i.e. organizational and legal measures operating within the capitalist framework and aimed at welfare and stability). Declaration itself states that the social policies of the post-war Poland should be focused on the 'liberation of the worker' and 'organization of the economy in a way promoting development of both the workforce and the country itself'. This was envisioned as the shifting the focus of the work from mere means of sustenance to the creative social function while the elimination of scarcity and uncertainty (usually understood as a precarious state of employment) would facilitate the constant development of the workers that would provide much needed specialists whose place will be in turn taken by the younger people only entering the workforce. Of note is the statement that the new system should lead to the slow dissolution of the differences between the employment and self-employment as well as between the menial and intellectual tasks, with the main differences being in the actual competencies. Other 'modern socialist' solutions included the freedom of assembly as well as the universal social and medical insurance. All these solutions were primarily aimed at the fast 'kick-starting' of the economy ravaged by the war on the unprecedented scale, support for the reconstruction of the human resource base (in 1945 it was estimated that in the course of the Second World War 17% of the Polish citizens were killed, with subsequent few percent lost due to the territorial shifts, repatriation and emigration).
Please note that the idea of free-market economy and minimal state interference was generally not that commonplace at the time, and was not really represented by any of the members of the National Unity Council, composed of Polish Socialist Party (social-democratic), Popular Party (agrarian), Labour Party (Christian-democratic) and the National Party (nationalist). As you can see, all the members of NUC were critical of the liberal capitalism for different reasons. It did not mean, however, that all the members of the NUC were approving the proposals, with the right-wing National Party being its vocal opponent, pointing out that the economic solutions are too close to those proposed by the communists and radical socialists. Please note however, that this was more ideological than economic argument, as before the war National Party was also supportive of state interventionism, proposing e.g. support for the the labour unions and removal of the foreign-owned companies from the Polish economy. The disapproval of the proposition by the National Party was so strong that it was considered as a main threat to the coherence or even existence of the National Unity Council as the main goal of this body was to prevent the Polish Workers Party from getting too many supporters.
So, to sum it up, the proposed solutions were pretty much in line with what many political parties in Poland but also in other European countries proposed to do after the war, with the very socialist solutions violating the private property or severely burdening the budget were indeed protested by the right-wing political organizations who considered them too radical and potentially conducive to the eventual reception of communist solutions.