People of the Revolution and the USSR

Activity
Any Political and party leadership 1
Affiliation(set)

Most people

Any Polandstate 23 Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR) 19 Polish Workers' Party (PPR) 12 Solidarity (Solidarność) 7 Communist Party of Poland (KPP) 7 Polish Socialist Party (PPS) 6 Freedom Union (Poland) 5 Democratic Union (Poland) 4 French Communist Party (PCF) 1

All 15 affiliations

France

French Communist Party (PCF) 1

Poland

Polandstate 23 Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR) 19 Solidarity (Solidarność) 7 Workers' Defence Committee (KOR) 2 Free Trade Unions of the Coast (WZZ) 3 Communist Party of Poland (KPP) 7 Polish Workers' Party (PPR) 12 Polish People's Party (PSL) 3 Home Army (Armia Krajowa, AK) 1 Polish Socialist Party (PPS) 6 Freedom Union (Poland) 5 Democratic Union (Poland) 4

Russia

Russian Empirestate 1 Russian White movement 1
Position
Any Marxism and communism 1
Citizenship(set)
Any France 14 Albania 1 Poland 1 Vietnam 1
Background
Any Poland 1
Era
Any

People of the wider world

The Cold War and decolonization1945–현재 1
French Communist Party (PCF) Citizenship: Poland Clear all
GlossaryFrench Communist Party (PCF)

Edward Gierek

Edward Gierek
Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR) Communism Poland Poland 1913–2001 ○ Pneumoconiosis

First Secretary who led a decade of Western-credit modernisation: only for debt and Solidarity to bring the curtain down

To workers at a January 1971 rally — 'So, comrades, will you help?' (the hall answered with feeble applause)

A coal miner in France and Belgium, he became PZPR First Secretary after the 1970 workers' revolt and pursued a 'socialist consumer society' fuelled by Western credit. Living standards rose visibly — but the debt crisis and the 1980 strikes forced him out.

Career timeline
  • 1931Joins French Communist Party in the Lens coalfield
  • 1934Leads occupation strike at Leforest mine; deported to Poland
  • 1937–1946Moves to Belgium; joins Belgian CP and Witte Brigade resistance
  • 1948–1954Returns to Poland; Katowice party secretary, then head of Heavy Industry Dept, CC
  • 1957–1970First Secretary, Katowice Voivodeship — his pragmatic 'duchy'
  • 1970–1980First Secretary, PZPR — the 'Gierek decade'
  • 1976–1980Concurrently member of the Council of State
  • 1981Expelled from PZPR; interned under martial law (Dec 1981–Dec 1982)