Attempts at Establishing Diplomatic Relations between the People’s Republic of Poland and the Apostolic See in 1965–1974 in the Light of Dispatches from the Polish Embassy in Italy From its very onset communist Poland did not maintain diplomatic contacts with the Apostolic See, which recognised the Polish government in London and in contrast to the majorly of other states did not acknowledge the Provisional Government of National Unity. Transformations within the eastern policy of the Vatican from the pontificate of John XXIII and the post–Stalinist thaw in Poland resulted in negotiations involving Polish and Vatican diplomacy and concerning the establishment of diplomatic relations. These talks grew more intensive after the Vatican side became represented by Monsignor Agostino Casaroli. The author of the article conduced a survey of dispatches issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Embassy in Rome and vice versa, today in the Ministry archive, and examined other material concerning relations between the Polish state and the Church, also in that archive. The material in question is by no means complete as evidenced by the absence of continuity in the numeration of dispatches preserved from assorted years. The chronological range accepted in the article is connected, on the one hand, with the inauguration of official talks about the establishment of diplomatic contacts in 1965 and, on the other hand, with the creation in 1974 of teams for Permanent Working Contacts, initially headed on the Polish side by Kazimierz Szablewski and on the side of the Apostolic see by Archbishop Luigi Poggi
