The result of the codification works that were carried out in the years 1960-1971 on substantive misdemeanour law in Poland was a Code on Misdemeanours of 1971. The measures created in this Code were strongly influenced by the idea of misdemeanours polarization and stratification of responsibilities. According to this idea, severe repression was supposed to be limited to the most serious misdemeanours. Towards other offenders progressive leniency was provided, with non-criminal means replacing them. Under influence of political factors the character of general part of Code on Misdemeanours was determined by provisions which were introduced aimed at severe treatment of serious offenders. Also the specific part was shaped in the repressive spirit. The conditions to realise the assumptions accepted by codifiers of the substantive misdemeanour law were created only after the fall of communist system in Poland, when in 1990 the adjudicating boards were cut off from the influence of Ministry of Internal Affairs and placed in the structures of the Ministry of Justice.