The Polish People's Republic pursued a policy of collectivization of agriculture during the Stalinist period, from 1948 until the liberalization during Gomułka's thaw of 1956. However, Poland was the only country of the Eastern Bloc where large-scale collectivization failed to take root. A legacy of collectivization in Poland was the network of inefficient State Agricultural Farms (PGRs), many of which can still be seen in the countryside of modern Poland, especially in its northern and western provinces (the Recovered Territories).