It was the first independent political party that was publicly proclaimed in the Eastern Bloc, it was however unrecognized by the communist People's Republic of Poland government and its chief activists were arrested several times.

After the fragmentation of the anti-communist ROPCiO (Movement for the protection of human and civil rights), former leader Leszek Moczulski began preparing structures for a new organization with other independence activists, most importantly Romuald Szeremietiew and Tadeusz Stański.

[4] The party would officially be established on the 40th anniversary of the outbreak of World War 2, on 1 September 1979 during celebrations in front of the ruins of the Saxon Palace, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a symbol for pre-war independent Poland.

It would organize central administrations for each of Poland's regions and set voievodes for each, bearing similarity to the wartime Armia Krajowa.

[5] Party leader Leszek Moczulski, together with founding member Romuald Szeremietiew and others, were arrested and sentenced to prison for allegedly wanting to overthrow the communist government in 1981, but were released in 1984 with amnesty.

After the declaration of Martial Law by General Wojciech Jaruzelski, head of the Polish United Worker's Party, the arrests of KPN members increased drastically.

In the 1980s the Confederacy of Independent Poland continued activities alongside the rising Solidarity movement until the Communist dictatorship ended in 1989 and the Polish government-in-exile returned from exile in London.