October 19–21. The Eighth Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR). Władysław Gomułka is elected First Secretary of the Party’s Central Committee. On the first day of the Plenary Meeting’s debates a delegation of Soviet supreme authorities arrives in Warsaw. Soviet leaders try in vain to halt changes taking place in Poland.

Edward Ochab (First Secretary of PZPR’s Central Committee, during the Eighth Plenum he was replaced by Władyslaw Gomułka):

  When the Eighth Plenary Meeting was gathering for its debates Khrushchev arrived in Warsaw – without an invitation. It was necessary to open the Plenum’s debates and then go the airport. […] He was barely out of the plane when he ostentatiously started shaking his fist at us. He first went to greet the Soviet generals who waited there in a long row. Then, he came to us and again started shaking his fist under our noses. This, of course, was an affront meant to insult not only me but the entire Polish party.

Roman Zambrowski (Minister of State Supervision):

   [Meanwhile] information began to flow in about the movements of Soviet troops and about tanks heading in the direction of Warsaw. The guests, when asked what was the meaning of all that, pretended to know nothing about these facts. Rokossovskiy claimed that these were long-planned military exercises. Simultaneously, we obtained a report about the growing unrest in Warsaw and preparations in the FSO car factory and other enterprises for the capital’s defence. […] It was evident that these exercises were an instrument of exerting pressure.