Władysław Gomułka (; 6 February 1905 – 1 September 1982) was a Polish communist politician. He was the de facto leader of post-war Poland from 1947 until 1948, and again from 1956 to 1970.

Gomułka was born in 1905 in Galicia. A plumber from the age of fourteen, he joined the revolutionary movement, made propaganda in the trade unions and suffered the rigours of the Witos government, then of the Pilsudski dictatorship. When Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland in 1939, he was imprisoned in Lwów by the Soviets, but was later released. He was ordered to Warsaw and became one of the most energetic organisers of the Soviet-led part of the resistance against the Nazis. In 1943, he became the leader of the left-wing resistance fighters, the general secretary of the underground Polish Workers' Party (PPR). When Poland was occupied by the Red Army, it collaborated with the Lublin government, formed by the Soviets with the Polish Bierut group, which received Stalin's blessing.

Following the Polish October, he became leader again from 1956 to 1970. Gomułka was initially relatively popular for his reforms; his seeking a "Polish way to socialism"; and giving rise to the period known as "Polish thaw". During the 1960s, however, he became more rigid and authoritarian — afraid of destabilising the system, he was not inclined to introduce or permit changes. In the 1960s, he supported the persecution of the Catholic Church and the anti-communist opposition.

In 1967 to 1968, Gomułka allowed outbursts of anti-Zionist and antisemitic political campaign, pursued primarily by others in the Party, but utilised by Gomułka to retain power by shifting the attention from the stagnating economy. Many of the remaining Polish Jews left the country. At that time, he was also responsible for persecuting protesting students and toughening censorship of the media. Gomułka supported Poland's participation in the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968.

In the treaty with West Germany, signed in December 1970 at the end of Gomułka's period in office, West Germany recognised the post-World War II borders, which established a foundation for future peace, stability and cooperation in Central Europe. In the same month, economic difficulties led to price rises and subsequent bloody clashes with shipyard workers on the Baltic coast, in which several dozen workers were fatally shot. The tragic events forced Gomułka's resignation and retirement. In a generational replacement of the ruling elite, Edward Gierek took over the Party leadership, and tensions eased.

Childhood and education

Władysław Gomułka was born on 6 February 1905 in Białobrzegi Franciszkańskie village on the outskirts of Krosno, into a worker's family living in the Austrian Partition (the Galicia region) (now Poland). His parents had met and married in the United States, where each had immigrated to in search of work in the late 19th century, but returned to occupied Poland in the early 20th century because Władysław's father, Jan, was unable to find gainful employment in America. Jan Gomułka then worked as a laborer in the Subcarpathian oil industry. Władysław's older sister Józefa, born in the United States, returned there upon turning eighteen to join her extended family, most of whom had emigrated, and to preserve her citizenship of the United States. Władysław and his two other siblings experienced a childhood of the proverbial Galician poverty: they lived in a dilapidated hut and ate mostly potatoes. Władysław received only a rudimentary education before being employed in the oil industry of the region.

Gomułka attended schools in Krosno for six or seven years, until the age of thirteen, when he had to start an apprenticeship in a metalworks shop. Throughout his life, Gomułka was an avid reader and accomplished a great deal of self-education, but remained a subject of jokes because of his lack of formal education and demeanor.

In late 1926, while in Drohobych, Gomułka became a member of the illegal-but-functioning Communist Party of Poland (Komunistyczna Partia Polski, KPP) and was arrested for political agitation. Technically, at this time, he was a member of the Communist Party of Western Ukraine, which was an autonomous branch of the Communist Party of Poland. He was interested primarily in social issues, including the trade and labor movement, and concentrated on practical activities. In mid-1927, Gomułka was brought to Warsaw, where he remained active until drafted for military service at the end of the year. After several months, the military released him because of a health problem with his right leg. Gomułka returned to communist party work, organising strike actions and speaking at gatherings of workers at all major industrial centers of Poland. During this period, he was arrested several times and lived under police supervision. He differentiated this belief from his positive feelings toward the country and its people, especially members of the working class.

Like other members of the dissolved Communist Party of Poland, Gomułka sought membership in the Soviet All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). The Soviet authorities allowed such membership transfers only from March 1941 and in April of that year, Gomułka received his party card in Kiev.

State National Council, Polish Committee of National Liberation

In the fall of 1943, the PPR leadership began discussing the creation of a Polish quasi-parliamentary, communist-led body, to be named the State National Council (Krajowa Rada Narodowa, KRN). After the Battle of Kursk, the expectation was of a Soviet victory and liberation of Poland and the PPR wanted to be ready to assume power. Gomułka came up with the idea of a national council and imposed his point of view on the rest of the leadership. The PPR intended to obtain consent from the Comintern leader and their Soviet contact Georgi Dimitrov. However, in November, the Gestapo arrested Finder and Małgorzata Fornalska, who possessed the secret codes for communication with Moscow and the Soviet response remained unknown. In the absence of Finder, on 23 November, Gomułka was elected general secretary (chief) of the PPR and Bierut joined the three-person inner leadership.

The founding meeting of the State National Council took place in the late evening of 31 December 1943. The new body's chairman, Bierut, was becoming Gomułka's main rival. In mid-January 1944, Dimitrov was finally informed of the KRN's existence, which surprised both him and the Polish communist leaders in Moscow, increasingly led by Jakub Berman, who had other, competing ideas concerning the establishment of a Polish communist ruling party and government. As a result, he considered it "absolutely necessary not only to stop any further growth in the percentage of Jews in the state as well as the party apparatus, but also to slowly lower that percentage, especially at the highest levels of the apparatus". Nevertheless, Khrushchev attributed Gomułka's subsequent downfall to his rivals having succeeded in portraying Gomułka as being pro-Yugoslav; the charges were not made public but were brought to Stalin's attention and became crucial in his decision-making on whose side he would support — in view of the Soviet–Yugoslavia rift that occurred in 1948.

Bierut died in March 1956, during a period of de-Stalinisation in Poland, which gradually developed after Stalin's death. Edward Ochab became the new first secretary of the Party. Soon afterward, Gomułka was partially rehabilitated when Ochab conceded that Gomułka should not have been jailed, while reiterating the charges of "rightist-nationalist deviation" against him.

The reformers in the Party wanted a political rehabilitation of Gomułka and his return to the Party leadership. Gomułka insisted that he be given real power to implement further reforms. He wanted a replacement of some of the Party leaders, including the pro-Soviet Minister of Defense Konstantin Rokossovsky.

The Soviet leadership viewed events in Poland with alarm. Simultaneously with Soviet troop movements deep into Poland, a high-level Soviet delegation flew to Warsaw. It was led by Nikita Khrushchev and included Anastas Mikoyan, Nikolai Bulganin, Vyacheslav Molotov, Lazar Kaganovich, Ivan Konev and others. Ochab and Gomułka made it clear that Polish forces 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.

Following the wishes of the majority of the Politburo members, First Secretary Ochab conceded and on 20 October the Central Committee brought Gomułka and several associates into the Politburo, removed others, and elected Gomułka as the first secretary of the Party. Gomułka, the former prisoner of the Stalinists, enjoyed wide popular support across the country, expressed by the participants of a massive street demonstration in Warsaw on 24 October. Seeing that Gomułka was popular with the Polish people, and given his insistence that he wanted to maintain the alliance with the Soviet Union and the presence of the Red Army in Poland, Khrushchev decided that Gomułka was a leader that Moscow could live with. He felt 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 future German invasion. The new Party leader told the 8th Plenum of the PZPR 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". The treaty with West Germany was negotiated and signed in December 1970. The German side recognised the post-World War II borders, which established a foundation for future peace, stability and cooperation in Central Europe.

During the events of the Prague Spring, Gomułka was one of the key leaders of the Warsaw Pact and supported Poland's participation in the invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968.

Assassination attempts

Gomułka was the target of several assassination plots. The attempts were carried out by dissident Stanisław Jaros, who also targeted Nikita Khrushchev on 15 July 1959 while he was on a state visit to Poland. A final attempt was carried out in 1961, which led to Jaros's arrest and execution.

Domestic policies

In 1967–1968, Gomułka allowed outbursts of "anti-Zionist" political propaganda, which developed initially as a result of the Soviet bloc's frustration with the outcome of the Arab-Israeli Six-Day War.

Gomułka's negative image in communist propaganda after his removal was gradually modified and some of his constructive contributions were recognised. 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. A heavy smoker, he died in 1982 at the age of 77 of lung cancer. Gomułka's memoirs were not published until 1994, long after his death, and five years after the collapse of the communist regime which he served and led.

The American journalist John Gunther described Gomułka in 1961 as being "professorial in manner, aloof, and angular, with a peculiar spry pepperiness".

Gomułka was buried at Powązki Military Cemetery in Warsaw.

Decorations and awards

  • :
  • 70px Order of the Builders of People's Poland
  • 70px Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta
  • 70px Order of the Cross of Grunwald (1st class)
  • 70px Partisan Cross
  • 70px Medal for Warsaw 1939–1945
  • 70px Medal of Rodło
  • Other countries:
  • 70px Grand Cross of the Légion d'honneur (France)
  • 70px Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (Italy)
  • 70px Order of Lenin (Soviet Union)
  • 70px Jubilee Medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin" (Soviet Union)
  • 70x70px Order of the Yugoslav Great Star (Yugoslavia)

See also

  • History of Poland (1945–89)
  • Gomułka aliyah

References