People of the Revolution and the USSR

Activity
Any Political and party leadership 1
Affiliation(set)

Most people

Any Soviet Unionstate 23 Polandstate 22 Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks 21 Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR) 20 Polish Workers' Party (PPR) 12 Communist Party of Poland (KPP) 11 Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) 10 Solidarity (Solidarność) 7 French Communist Party (PCF) 1

All 26 affiliations

France

French Communist Party (PCF) 1

Germany

Communist Party of Germany (KPD) 2 Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) 2 Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) 1

International organizations

Comintern 1

Poland

Polandstate 22 Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR) 20 Solidarity (Solidarność) 7 Workers' Defence Committee (KOR) 2 Free Trade Unions of the Coast (WZZ) 3 Communist Party of Poland (KPP) 11 Polish Workers' Party (PPR) 12 Polish People's Party (PSL) 3 Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SDKPiL) 7 Home Army (Armia Krajowa, AK) 1 Polish Socialist Party (PPS) 7 Freedom Union (Poland) 5 Democratic Union (Poland) 4

Russia

Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) 10

Soviet Union

Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks 21 ↳ Democratic Centralists (Decists) 1 ↳ Left Opposition 2 Soviet Unionstate 23

United Kingdom

Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) 1

United States

United States state institutionsstate 1 Democratic Party (United States) 1
Position
Any Marxism and communism 1
Citizenship
Any Poland 1
Background(set)
Any France 12 Albania 1 Martinique 1 Poland 1 Russia 1 Vietnam 1
Era
Any

People of the wider world

The Cold War and decolonization1945–현재 1
French Communist Party (PCF) Background: 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)