Władysław Gomułka

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Birth Date:
06.02.1905
Death date:
01.09.1982
Length of life:
77
Days since birth:
43517
Years since birth:
119
Days since death:
15186
Years since death:
41
Extra names:
Władysław Gomułka, Владислав Гомулка
Categories:
Communist, Communist Party worker, Nominee, Repression organizer, supporter
Nationality:
 pole
Cemetery:
Warszawa, Powązki Military Cemetery

Władysław Gomułka (6 February 1905 – 1 September 1982) was a Polish communist leader. He was the de facto leader of Poland from 1945 to 1948, and again from 1956 to 1970. American journalist John Gunther described Gomułka as "professorial in manner, aloof, and angular, with a peculiar spry pepperiness."

Gomułka was a member of the Communist Party of Poland (Komunistyczna Partia Polski, KPP) starting in 1926.

Gomułka was born in Krosno. In 1934, he went to Moscow, where he lived for a year. Upon his return to Poland he was arrested and spent most of his time in prison until the beginning of World War II. During the war, Gomułka became an influential Polish communist and in 1943 convinced Joseph Stalin to allow the reformation of the local communist party under the name Polish Workers' Party (Polska Partia Robotnicza). He was a Deputy Prime Minister in the Provisional Government of Republic of Poland - Rząd Tymczasowy Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej, from January to June 1945, and in the Provisional Government of National Unity (Tymczasowy Rząd Jedności Narodowej), from 1945 to 1947. Using his position in the government, he crushed all meaningful resistance to the communists. He also helped the communists in winning the 3 x Tak (3 Times Yes) referendum of 1946. A year later, he played a key role in the rigged 1947 parliamentary elections, after which the communists and their allies were declared overwhelming winners and legal opposition was eliminated.

With the onset of undisguised communist rule, Gomułka became, as he said, "the hegemon of Poland". However, between 1948–1954, rivalry between Party factions (Gomułka was the leader of the "home" communist fraction vs. Bolesław Bierut of Stalin's Moscow-reared wartime communist group) led to Gomułka's removal from power and imprisonment. He was accused of "right wing-reactionary deviation", and expelled from the Polish United Workers' Party (as the Polish Workers' Party was renamed following a merger with the Polish Socialist Party).

After the death of Stalinist Prime Minister Bierut in 1956, a brief period of de-Stalinization began, raising popular hope for reform. In June 1956, an insurrection began in Poznań. The workers rioted to protest shortages of food and consumer goods, bad housing, decline in genuine income, shipments of commodities to the Soviet Union and poor management of the economy. The Polish government initially responded by branding the rioters "provocateurs, counterrevolutionaries and imperialist agents". Security forces killed and wounded scores of protesters. Soon, however, the party hierarchy recognized the riots had awakened nationalist sentiment and reversed their opinion. The rioters became "honest workers with legitimate grievances". Wages were raised by 50% and economic and political change was promised.

Edward Ochab, Bierut's successor, invited the now-rehabilitated Gomułka to serve as First Secretary of the Party. Gomułka insisted that he be given real power to implement reforms. One specific condition he set was that the Soviet Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky, who had ordered troops against the Poznań workers, be removed from the Polish Politburo and Defense Ministry, to which Ochab agreed. On 19 October, the majority of the Polish leadership, backed by the army and also the Internal Security Corps, brought Gomułka and several associates into the Politburo and designated Gomułka as First Secretary of the Party. The Soviet leadership viewed events in Poland with alarm. Simultaneously with troop 'maneuvers' on the Soviet-Polish border, a high-level delegation of the Soviet Central Committee flew to Poland. It was led by Nikita Khrushchev and included Mikoyan, Bulganin, Molotov, Kaganovich, Marshal Konev and others. Gomułka made it clear that Polish troops would resist if Soviet troops advanced, but reassured the Soviets that the reforms were internal matters and that Poland had no intention of abandoning the communist bloc or its treaties with the Soviet Union. The Soviets yielded.

A major factor that influenced Gomułka was the Oder-Neisse line issue. Because of West Germany's refusal to recognize the Oder-Neisse line, Gomułka was obsessed with the fear that one day the Germans would invade Poland again, which in its turn would mean a return to the horrors of the German occupation. Gomułka feared the Germans more than he disliked the Russians, and thus he argued in both public and in private that it was necessary to keep Soviet troops in Poland to guard against any future German revanchism. Gomułka felt sincerely threatened by the revanchist statements put out by the Adenauer government, and believed that the alliance with the Soviet Union was the only thing stopping the threat of a new German invasion. Gomułka's experiences during World War II as a resistance fighter against Germans who tried to exterminate the Polish nation had made him into an intense, visceral Germanophobe who told Marshal Rokossovsky that the Soviet Union had been far too lenient in its treatment of the Germans after 1945, and he would have pursued a much harsher course. Gomułka told the 8th Plenum of the United Workers' Party on 19 October 1956 that: "Poland needs friendship with the Soviet Union more than the Soviet Union needs friendship with Poland... Without the Soviet Union we cannot maintain our borders with the West". During his meetings with Nikita Khrushchev during the Polish October crisis, Gomułka stressed that though he wanted Poland to take a more independent line within the Soviet bloc, he would never break with Moscow because of his fears of future German aggression based on their statements rejecting the Oder-Neisse line. Seeing that Gomułka was popular with the Polish people, and given his insistence that he wanted to maintain at all costs the alliance with Soviet Union and the presence of the Red Army in Poland, Khrushchev decided that Gomułka was a leader that Moscow could live with. Gomułka was confirmed in his new position. Information about events in Poland reached the people of Hungary via Radio Free Europe during 19–22 October 1956. A student demonstration in Budapest in support of Gomułka, asking for similar reforms in Hungary, soon sparked the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.

Gomułka was initially very popular for his reforms and seeking a "Polish way to socialism", and giving rise to the period known as "Gomułka's thaw". However, during the 1960s he became more conservative under growing Soviet pressure. In the 1960s he supported persecution of the Catholic Church and intellectuals (notably Leszek Kołakowski, who was forced into exile). He participated in the Warsaw Pact intervention in Czechoslovakia in 1968. At that time he was also responsible for persecuting students as well as toughening censorship of the media. In 1968 he incited an "anti-Zionist" propaganda campaign[11] as a result of the Soviet bloc's frustration with the outcome of the Six-Day War.[4] It has been alleged that this was simply a thinly veiled anti-Semitic campaign designed to keep himself in power by shifting the attention of the populace from the stagnating economy and Stalinist mismanagement. Gomułka later claimed that this was not deliberate, but the result was that the majority of the remaining Polish citizens of Jewish origin left the country.

In December 1970, bloody clashes with shipyard workers on the Baltic Coast, in which several dozen workers were fatally shot, forced his resignation and retirement (officially for health reasons; he had in fact suffered a stroke). A dynamic younger man, Edward Gierek, took over the Party leadership and tensions eased.

After his death in 1982 of cancer, Gomułka's negative image in communist propaganda was modified and some of his constructive contributions were recognized. He is seen as an honest and austere believer in the socialist system, who, unable to resolve Poland's formidable difficulties and satisfy mutually contradictory demands, grew more rigid and despotic later in his career. His memoirs were first published in 1994.

Decorations and awards

  • Order of the Builders of People's Poland
  • Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta
  • Partisan Cross
  • Order of the Cross of Grunwald, 1st class

 

Source: wikipedia.org

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        Relations

        Relation nameRelation typeBirth DateDeath dateDescription
        1Zofia GomułkowaZofia GomułkowaWife12.05.190227.11.1986

        21.06.1945 | End of Trial of the Sixteen in Moscow

        The Trial of the Sixteen (Polish: Proces szesnastu) was a staged trial of 16 leaders of the Polish Underground State held by the Soviet Union in Moscow in 1945.

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        30.06.1946 | Polish people's referendum

        The People's Referendum (Polish: referendum ludowe) of 1946, also known as the Three Times Yes referendum (Trzy razy tak, often abbreviated as 3×TAK), was a referendum held in Poland on 30 June 1946 on the authority of the State National Council (order of 27 April 1946). The referendum presented an opportunity for the forces vying for political control of Poland following World War II to test their popularity among the general population. However, the results were forged and the referendum failed to meet democratic standards.

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        19.10.1956 | Październik 1956: rozpoczęło się VIII Plenum KC PZPR, na którego obrady bez uprzedzenia przybyła delegacja radziecka na czele z Nikitą Chruszczowem. W kierunku Warszawy zaczęły się przesuwać stacjonujące w Polsce oddziały Armii Czerwonej

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        03.12.1961 | Elektryk Stanisław Jaros usiłował dokonać drugiego zamachu bombowego na przebywającego w Sosnowcu Władysława Gomułkę. Zbyt późno odpalona bomba zabiła mężczyznę i ciężko zraniła dziecko

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        08.03.1968 | Manifestation of students at Warsaw University started the so-called. March events

        The Polish 1968 political crisis, also known in Poland as March 1968 or March events (Polish: Marzec 1968; wydarzenia, wypadki marcowe) pertains to the major student and intellectual protest action against the government of the People's Republic of Poland. The crisis resulted in the suppression of student strikes by security forces in all major academic centres across the country and the subsequent repression of the Polish dissident movement. It was also accompanied by a mass emigration following the antisemitic "anti-Zionist" campaign waged by the Minister of Interior, Gen. Mieczysław Moczar, with the approval of the Communist Party General Secretary Władysław Gomułka. The protests coincided with the events of Prague Spring in neighboring Czechoslovakia – raising new hopes of democratic reforms among the intelligentsia – and culminated in the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia on 20 August 1968.

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        19.03.1968 | I sekretarz KC PZPR Władysław Gomułka wygłosił antysyjonistyczne przemówienie na wiecu aktywu partyjnego w Sali Kongresowej w Warszawie.

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        11.12.1970 | 1970 Polish protests

        The Polish 1970 protests (Polish: Grudzień 1970) occurred in northern Poland in December 1970. The protests were sparked by a sudden increase of prices of food and other everyday items. As a result of the riots, which were put down by the Polish People's Army and the Citizen's Militia, at least 42 people were killed and more than 1,000 wounded.

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        14.12.1970 | Grudzień 1970: robotnicy Stoczni Gdańskiej odmówili podjęcia pracy i wielotysięczny tłum przed południem udał się pod siedzibę Komitetu Wojewódzkiego PZPR w Gdańsku

        Grudzień 1970, wydarzenia grudniowe, rewolta grudniowa, wypadki grudniowe, masakra na Wybrzeżu – protesty robotników w Polsce w dniach 14-22 grudnia 1970 roku (demonstracje, protesty, strajki, wiece, zamieszki) głównie w Gdyni, Gdańsku, Szczecinie i Elblągu, stłumione przez milicję i wojsko.

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        20.12.1970 | Władysław Gomułka został odsunięty od władzy. Nowym pierwszym sekretarzem KC PZPR wybrano Edwarda Gierka

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        01.02.2011 | Десталинизации россиского общества Караганова

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