The minister whose broken promise sparked the Poznań Uprising
On 27 June 1956, before the gathered ZISPO workforce, he withdrew the promises he had made to their delegation in Warsaw only the day before.
A Polish communist technocrat with a mechanical-engineering background who became Minister of Machine Industry in 1955. On 26 June 1956 he promised the ZISPO workers' delegation in Warsaw wage increases and refunds of withheld taxes, only to withdraw these promises in Poznań the next day, a reversal that lit the fuse of the 28 June uprising. He then continued in the planning apparatus, serving as an industrial bureaucrat of the Polish People's Republic until retirement.
Activities and affiliations
- 1955–1956 Industry and production · Poland
Career Timeline
- 1938Graduated Warsaw Polytechnic as a mechanical engineer
- 1942–1944Engineer at Magnitogorsk metallurgical works
- 1949Undersecretary of State, Ministry of Heavy Industry
- 1952Undersecretary of State, Ministry of Machine Industry
- 1955–1956Minister of Machine Industry
- 1958Undersecretary of State, Council of Ministers; deputy chair of the Foreign Economic and Scientific-Technical Cooperation Committee
- –1968Deputy chair of the Planning Commission at the Council of Ministers
Related historical events
The Poznań workers' delegation and the reversal of promises in June 1956
In June 1956, factory workers in Poznań sent petitions and delegations to the authorities over wages, taxation, and working conditions. A delegation of about 27 workers negotiated with the Ministry of Machine Industry in Warsaw in the latter part of June and returned to Poznań on the night of the 26th. The next day, Minister of Machine Industry Roman Fidelski met the workers and withdrew several of the promises made in Warsaw. On 28 June, Poznań workers went on strike, demanding pay compensation and improvements to working conditions, among other things. The reversal exposed the failure of negotiations that formed part of the background to the strike, but the uprising cannot be explained by Fidelski's decision alone. The unresolved wage and tax grievances, workers' demands, and the state's subsequent armed suppression were also part of the events.