Crosses commemorating the 1956 protests. These were the first of several massive protests against the communist government of the People's Republic of Poland. Demonstrations by workers demanding better working conditions began on June 28, 1956, at Poznań's Cegielski Factories and were met with violent repression.A crowd of approximately 100,000 people gathered in the city centre near the local Ministry of Public Security building. About 400 tanks and 10,000 soldiers of the People's Army of Poland and the Internal Security Corps under Polish-Soviet general Stanislav Poplavsky were ordered to suppress the demonstration and during the pacification fired at the protesting civilians. The death toll was placed between 57[3] and over a hundred people including a thirteen-year-old boy, Romek Strzałkowski. Hundreds of people sustained injuries. The Poznań protests were an important milestone on the way to the installation of a less Soviet-controlled government in Poland in October.