However, the elections were characterized by violence;[2] anti-communist opposition candidates and activists were persecuted by the Volunteer Reserve Militia (ORMO).

In 1946 the communists already tested their strength by falsifying the "3xYES Referendum"[9] and banning the vast majority of right-wing parties (under the pretext of their pro-Nazi stance).

Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was well aware that if Poland held a free election, it would result in an anti-Soviet government.

[2] Conditioned in part by the Hungarian Communists' weak showing in 1945, the PPR proposed to present voters with a single list from all of the legal parties in the country.

"[12] The PPR, under the leadership of general secretary Władysław Gomułka, embarked on a ruthless campaign to snuff out the PSL and all other potential opposition.

Bolesław Bierut, head of the provisional Polish parliament (State National Council) and acting president, asked for Soviet assistance in the election.

By last week most of the combined opposition (Socialist and Polish Peasant Party) candidates had been jailed, and their supporters more or less completely cowed by the secret police, by striking their names from voting lists and by arrest.

"[18] Historian Piotr Wrobel wrote that this election saw "the highest level of repression and terror" that was ever seen during the four decades of Communist rule in Poland.

[2] Many members of opposition parties, including Mikołajczyk – who would have likely become the Prime Minister of Poland had the election been honest[19] – saw no hope in further struggle and, fearing for their lives, left the country.

In the same year, the new Communist-dominated Legislative Sejm adopted the Small Constitution of 1947, and Bierut, who was also a citizen of the USSR, was elected president by the parliament.