Edward Gierek (Polish pronunciation: [ˈɛdvart ˈɡʲɛrɛk]; 6 January 1913 – 29 July 2001) was a Polish communist politician who served as the de facto leader of the Polish People's Republic between 1970 and 1980. Gierek replaced Władysław Gomułka as the First Secretary of the ruling Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR).
Gierek came from a coal mining family and grew up in France from a young age, becoming active in the French communist movement and the Polish community in France. Gierek was deported to the Second Polish Republic for his communist advocacy in 1934 but moved to Belgium and was active in the Belgian Resistance during World War II. Gierek returned to Poland in 1948 and attended in the founding of the PZPR as a representative of Silesia, being appointed to the Sejm in 1952, the Central Committee of the PZPR under Bolesław Bierut in 1956, and the Politburo of the PZPR in 1959. Gierek was known for his openness and public speaking, emerging as one of the most respected and progressive politicians in Poland whilst becoming a strong opponent to Gomułka.
Gierek became First Secretary when Gomułka was removed from office after the 1970 Polish protests were violently suppressed on his authority. Gierek's first years were marked by improvements in living and working conditions with the construction of blocks of flats, growing industrialization, as well as the loosening of state censorship and openness to new Western ideas which turned Poland into the most liberal country of the Eastern Bloc. Gierek opened the first fully-operational highway in Poland from Warsaw to Katowice in 1976. Gierek's policies were funded by large foreign loans and Poland continued to submerge into economic decline by the end of the 1970s. Gierek's government was unable to pay its creditors and the country was so heavily indebted that rationing was introduced due to shortages. Gierek was removed from power after the Gdańsk Agreement between the state and workers of the emerging Solidarity movement, which was seen as a move to renounce communism by the PZPR's leadership who replaced him as First Secretary with Stanisław Kania. Gierek was expelled from the PZPR and arrested briefly in 1981 during martial law in Poland, living the remainder of his life in retirement until his death in 2001.
Gierek is fondly remembered for his patriotism and modernization policies despite dragging Poland into financial and economic decline; over 2 million flats were constructed during his tenure to house the growing population at a record rate of over 200,000 flats a year, which was only again reached almost 40 years later (by 2019) and he was also responsible for initiating the production of the Fiat 126 car in Poland, and the construction of Warszawa Centralna railway station, the most modern European station at the time of its completion. Numerous aphorisms and sayings were popularized during his term; those referring to food shortages were later promoted by Ronald Reagan.
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