Edward Gierek
From Free net encyclopedia
Image:Edward Gierek.jpg Edward Gierek (January 6 1913 - July 29 2001) was a Polish Communist politician.
Born in Zagorze, outside of Sosnowiec. He lost his father to a mining accident at the age of four. His mother married again and emigrated to France, where he was raised. He joined the French Communist party in 1931 and was later deported to Poland for organizing a strike. After his military service in Stryj, Galicia, Gierek went to Belgium, joining the Communist party while working in the coal mines of Waterschei. He returned to Poland in 1948 and rose through the party ranks to become by 1957 a member of the Polish parliament. As first secretary of the Katowice voivodship party organization (1957-70), Gierek created a personal power base and became the recognized leader of the young technocrat faction of the party. When rioting over economic conditions broke out in late 1970, Gierek replaced Władysław Gomułka as party first secretary. Gierek promised economic reform and instituted a program to modernize industry and increase the availability of consumer goods, doing so mostly through foreign loans. His good relations with Western politicians, especially France's Valery Giscard d'Estaing and Germany's Helmut Schmidt, were a catalyst for his receiving western aid and loans.
The standard of living increased markedly in the Poland of the 1970s, and for a time he was hailed a miracle-worker. The economy, however, began to falter during the 1973 oil crisis, and by 1976 price increases became necessary. New riots broke out (especially Radom, 1976), and although they were forcibly suppressed, the planned price increases were cancelled. High foreign debts, food shortages, and an outmoded industrial base compelled a new round of economic reforms in 1980. Once again, price increases set off protests across the country, especially in the Gdansk and Szczecin shipyards. Gierek was forced to grant legal status to Solidarity and to concede the right to strike. Shortly thereafter, he was replaced as party leader by Stanisław Kania. The next strongman to rule Poland was General Wojciech Jaruzelski who subsequently introduced martial law on December 13, 1981. The books of Rolicki, one of intervew conversations and the other a biography, shed much light on this "tragic" figure of Polish history.
See also
Template:First Secretaries of the Central Committee of the PUWPde:Edward Gierek fa:ادوارد گیئرک ko:에드바르트 기에레크 pl:Edward Gierek fi:Edward Gierek