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The Sequel. Not until two years later (January 1947) did the provisional Polish government recognized by the Big Three hold its elections. They were rigged to insure Communist control. Washington and London denounced them and U.S. Ambassador Arthur Bliss Lane resigned in protest over them. Mikolajczyk, who was allowed no effective voice in the provisional government or in the elections, was forced to flee abroad for safety.
The Yalta agreement gave Stalin no territory his armies did not take. But it gave him what he wanted. So shocked were the Poles at the action of the Western powers that the Communists were able to fasten their grip on Poland without meeting dangerous resistance. By now, most of the original Russian stooges have been liquidated, and Poland (pop. 26,200,000) is run by Marshal Rokossovsky of the Red army.
The Polish lesson was not lost on the Hungarians, Slovaks, Bulgarians, Rumanians and Czechs. If the Poles, Eastern Europe's stoutest fighters for freedom, could not count on the West, what hope for the others? Inexorably, the Communist grip upon all of them tightened.