Subtitle:

Polska 1944/45-1989 : studia i materiały 11 (2013)

Contributor:

Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Publisher:

Instytut Historii PAN

Place of publishing:

Warszawa

Description:

p. 209-233 ; Eng. summary

Type of object:

Journal/Article

Abstract:

Owing to the political breakthrough of Polish October 1956, Mieczysław Rakowski was given a chance for unusual career. A young and smart apparatchik tied himself to the political line of Władysław Gomułka and decided to leave the central apparatus of the Polish United Workers’ Party. He accepted the post of deputy editor-in-chief of the Polityka weekly and implementing the guidelines of his chiefs, became involved in the campaign against journalists demanding a liberalisation of the system. When, at the turn of the 1950s, already as Polityka’s editor-in-chief, he was building a modern magazine for the intelligentsia, unexpectedly he himself became a liberal. Such opinion had an impact on his whole career. Rakowski’s liberalism, however, was not only a matter of his own choice, but also it was forced by the increasingly strict policy taken by the Party’s leaders. In the ‘Small Stabilisation’ period, Rakowski systematically strengthened his political and social status, while at the same time he fought against ‘partisans’ whose mentality and opinions he did not in the least share. Gradually he was getting more and more disillusioned with the reality of the system he was operating in, but did not decide to resign from his career. Finally, in 1968 he lost his faith in Gomułka and backed Edward Gierek; thanks to that move he escaped unscathed from the tight bend Poland entered into in December 1970.

Relation:

Polska 1944/45-1989 : studia i materiały

Volume:

11

Start page:

209

End page:

233

Detailed Resource Type:

Article : original article

Format:

application/pdf

Resource Identifier:

oai:rcin.org.pl:59729 ; 2450-8357

Source:

IH PAN, sygn. B.155/11 Podr. ; IH PAN, sygn. B.156/11 ; click here to follow the link

Language:

pol

Language of abstract:

eng

Rights:

Creative Commons Attribution BY-ND 4.0 license

Terms of use:

Copyright-protected material. [CC BY-ND 4.0] May be used within the scope specified in Creative Commons Attribution BY-ND 4.0 license, full text available at: ; -

Digitizing institution:

Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Original in:

Library of the Institute of History PAS

Access:

Open