Stalin's death on March 5, 1953 was not a major milestone for Polish Stalinism. In Wielkopolska it was an occasion of sincere mourning for some in the PZPR—and for the almost two hundred persons against whom the UB conducted preventative arrests to ensure that rites commemorating the passing of the Truest Ally and Greatest Friend of the Polish nation would be observed with due solemnity. Many hoped that with Stalin's death, the party-state would cease waging its social and cultural revolutions from above, but the authorities initially redoubled their ongoing efforts to Stalinize Poland. The year 1953 became the high tide of the regime's revolutionary activism, while the years that followed saw a rapid retreat that in June 1956 became a rout.

The authorities' efforts in 1953 to advance Stalinism in Poland strengthened national solidarity throughout Wielkopolska. Two major political offensives defined the party-state's efforts to break through to Socialism in that year. A month prior to Stalin's death, the regime launched a national campaign to suborn the Catholic Church. This culminated in the arrest of Cardinal Wyszyński on September 29, 1953 and the rise to prominence of the proregime Patriotic Priest movement.