Poland's New Regime: Gifts and Promises

WITH a new if not precisely fresh face as its leader, Poland last week struggled to recover from the week of bloody riots that tumbled Wladyslaw Gomulka from power after 14 years as First Secretary of his nation's Communist Party. From comrades on all levels, fraternal messages of support poured into Warsaw for his successor: Edward Gierek, 57, the tall, burly boss of the Silesian mining area. Russia's Leonid Brezhnev hailed his new opposite number in Poland as "a sincere friend of the Soviet Union and a staunch international Communist." Germany's gruff old Walter Ulbricht, who has opposed recent Polish efforts at detente, proposed "close comradely ties." From all parts of Poland--and from almost all sectors of its party structure--came telegrams of felicitation and support. Politely, none of the encomiums touched on the most relevant fact of the revolt: that workers, in a so-called workers' state, had toppled an entrenched but cumbersome and unresponsive Communist government, deriding it as a "Red bourgeoisie."

Although fragmentary reports of the riots' extent were still seeping out of Poland, there was strong evidence that the death toll probably exceeded 300 --far more than the figure "in the teens" officially admitted during the protests. The sudden replacement of Gomulka by Gierek after hasty meetings of the Politburo and the Central Committee clearly indicated how worried the party was by the sweeping nature of the revolt, as did Gierek's initial, conciliatory moves. He ended the state of emergency, under which police and the army had been sent into the riot zones along the Baltic seacoast with orders to shoot to kill. As cities quieted, dusk-to-dawn curfews were lifted in time for pious Poles to attend Christmas Eve midnight Mass. Air, road and telephone services were restored, breaking the cocoon of isolation that Gomulka had imposed to limit the demonstrations.

Lemons and Oranges. Gierek also ordered a series of special dispensations designed to restore worker morale. Shiploads of imported lemons and oranges were distributed for holiday feasting. Double allotments of bread were made available to stores. In Szczcesin, where some of the worst rioting took place, workers at the rebellious Warski Shipyards were informed that they could get Christmas advances on wages.

Considering the explosive quality of the revolts, it was all but inevitable that the party structure would undergo a drastic purge; few Western observers, however, expected that it would be so soon or so severe. In addition to Gomulka, who ostensibly resigned his post for reasons of health (in fact, he has long had a heart condition), four of his close associates were dropped from Poland's twelve-man Politburo. President Marian Spychalski, 64, felt so completely disgraced that he never even appeared before the Sejm (Poland's rubber-stamp parliament) to resign from office in person.

One reigning figure who did come to the Sejm, apologizing for his mistakes, was the durable Jozef Cyrankiewicz, 59, who moved up to Spychalski's ceremonial position as President after 21 years as Premier. He was succeeded by Deputy Premier Piotr Jaroszewicz, 61, who was also promoted from deputy Politburo member to full member. In his placating acceptance speech, Jaroszewicz announced that the new regime intended to seek "full normalization of relations" with the Roman Catholic Church, to which 95% of all Poles nominally belong. Full normalization was more than Gomulka had ever sought; the new regime seemed in return to be seeking a benediction, perhaps in Christmas or New Year's sermons.

"Ill-Considered Concept." More immediately relevant to the fate of the new leaders was the series of economic moves that Gierek announced. The price increases on consumer goods that led to the riots will remain in force; but the First Secretary promised that price levels will be frozen for at least two years, except for such seasonal items as milk, eggs and vegetables. He also announced the creation of a special $175 million fund to provide premiums and salary increases for the lowest-paid workers and for those who have the largest families.

In proposing these reforms, Gierek also launched a harsh, albeit indirect attack on his predecessor for losing touch with the people. The pre-Christmas price increases, ordered into effect with little explanation, had been "an ill-considered concept of economic policy." The new leadership, said Gierek pointedly, "will respect the principle of collective decision making and democracy in the life of the party."

Although Gierek's words could be taken at face value, they also indicated his tenuous and perhaps even temporary hold on his new post. There is some evidence to suggest that Gierek was only one of the key leaders who called the extraordinary meeting of the Politburo last weekend that led to Gomulka's downfall. His own election to the post of party boss was clearly the result of an internal compromise. Raised to full membership in the Politburo was Gomulka's powerful enemy, Mieczyslaw Moczar--who turned 57 on Christmas Day--the xenophobic, rigid hero who is the favorite of Poland's conservatives. Moczar, whose nationalism makes the

Soviets his enemy also, nevertheless lusts to be First Secretary. He backed Gierek in return for Politburo seats for himself and three conservative allies. From the new vantage point of Party Secretary for the army and security forces, he becomes Poland's top cop.

Slag for Vegetables. Gierek today does not enjoy the broad-based support that Moczar has among old partisans, young blue-collar workers and conservative elements of the press and the church. Although he is favored by many young, technical-minded intellectuals, Gierek's principal source of strength is the allegiance of the elite coal miners from Upper Silesia. After being named head of the region in 1957, Gierek imposed stern party discipline and high output standards. At the same time, he secured for the miners good housing, safe and automated mines, and the highest wages in the country. Miners found him easy to communicate with and open to suggestions. His understanding of their problems is real. Born in Porabka, he was taken by his family to France at the age of ten. He worked in the coal mines after leaving school at 13. Later, as a young man, he went into the mines in Belgium. Returning home at last, he scrambled for an education and graduated in 1954 with a degree in mining and metallurgy from the Cracow Mining Institute.

Although hardly a liberal, Gierek believes in technical and bureaucratic innovation. In order to get more food for his miners, for instance, he once offered a free wagonload of slag (for building material) to any farmer who would deliver a wagonload of vegetables--a trade that delighted both parties. Gierek speaks fluent French from his years abroad and occasionally visits old comrades in the French and Belgian parties; thus he understands the West better than most of the other Warsaw leaders.

A drab, uncharismatic speaker who instills respect rather than enthusiasm, Gierek may not have much time to consolidate his position. By the first of February, at the latest, he will have to convince the workers that they can believe his promises about an improved economic situation. He will also have to come up with a revised economic plan that will somehow please reform-minded technocrats as well as satisfy the hard-line bureaucrats who disapprove of decentralization or other liberal measures. Most difficult of all, he must also keep in check the nationalistic feelings of Moczar and his allies. In this complex task, Gierek has an incomparably useful and puissant ally: Moscow. Presumably, the Russians would not have acquiesced in Gomulka's downfall without the assurance that his successor would remain as open to the East as to the West. Presumably, too, they are grateful that Gierek engineered a "Polish solution" to a crisis that might have led--with Soviet tanks and troops on alert inside Poland--to the dreaded last step of a "fraternal intervention."

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