Judiciary and Society between Privacy and Publicity 8rn CoNFERENCE ON LEGAL H1sr0Rv IN THE BALTIC SEA AREA, 3Ro-6TH SEPTEMBER 2015, Danuta Jani c ka (ed.) 2016 Anna Sucuss10N LAW IN PEOPLE's REPUBLIC OF POLAND - TOWARDS WESTERN EUROPEAN OR SOVIET STANDARDS? INTRODUCTION After the Second World War Poland found itself in the bloc of the Eastern countries controlled by the Soviet Union. Initially the changes were carried out gradually. But after the political breakthrough in 1948 the transplantation of the Soviet patterns began in all spheres of the national life and intensive Stalinization. 1 The inheritance law was also doomed not to be bypassed by major changes. Polish authorities wanted to use the succession law as a tool of shaping and consolidating the socialist system. Inheritance was considered as inseparably connected to ownership, which de- 1 A. Nowe ustawodawstwo w nowym ustroju. O prawie karnym i cywilnym w pierwszym dwud ziestoleciu Polski Ludowej, "Miscellanea His- torico-Iuridica" 2006, Vol. IV, p. 135. brought to you by COR View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk provided by Repository of Nicolaus Copernicus Universit