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Polish politician (1926?2008)
Mieczysław Franciszek Rakowski
(
Polish
:
[m?e?t???swaf ra?k?fsk?i]
ⓘ
; 1 December 1926 ? 8 November 2008) was a Polish communist politician, historian and journalist who was
Prime Minister of Poland
from 1988 to 1989. He served as the seventh and final
First Secretary
of the
Polish United Workers' Party
from 1989 to 1990.
Career
[
edit
]
Rakowski was born in a peasant family and operated a lathe as a teenager.
[1]
He served as an officer in the
Polish People's Army
from 1945 to 1949. He began his political career in 1946 as a member of the
Polish Workers' Party
, and from 1948 to 1990 he was a member of the communist
Polish United Workers' Party
(
PZPR
), serving on its Central Committee from 1975 to 1990.
He received a doctorate in history from
Warsaw
's Institute for Social Sciences in 1956.
[1]
Rakowski served as the second-to-last communist
Prime Minister
of Poland from September 1988 to August 1989 (
Czesław Kiszczak
then served less than a month as the last Communist to hold the post, before the accession of
Tadeusz Mazowiecki
). He was the last First Secretary of the PZPR from July 1989 to January 1990. However, he was not, unlike his predecessors, the
de facto
leader of the country; the PZPR had given up its monopoly on power in early 1989.
Rakowski was also known as one of the founders and, from 1958 to 1982, first deputy and then chief editor of the weekly newspaper
Polityka
, one of the most influential publications at the time (
Polityka
continues to exist and is regarded by many
[
who?
]
as the most prestigious weekly in Poland).
[2]
Today
[
when?
]
some people
[
who?
]
still remember him as a journalist and editor rather than a politician.
Rakowski was involved in the Communist government during suppression of the
Solidarity
movement.
He also played a part in the Polish transformation from state socialism to market capitalism, as his Communist-led government was forced to reform and he was one of the key players in the
Polish Round Table Agreements
.
[3]
Prior to becoming Prime Minister, he had been divorced from the violinist
Wanda Wiłkomirska
, with whom he had two sons.
He died on 8 November 2008 from
cancer
in
Warsaw
at the age of 81.
[4]
He was buried at the
Pow?zki Military Cemetery
in Warsaw.
[5]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Applebaum, Anne (2012).
Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956
. New York USA: Doubleday. p.
312
.
ISBN
9780385515696
.
- ^
Jacqueline Hayden (23 March 2006).
The Collapse of Communist Power in Poland: Strategic Misperceptions and Unanticipated Outcomes
. Routledge. p. 42.
ISBN
978-1-134-20801-2
. Retrieved
15 November
2014
.
- ^
Operacja "okr?głego stołu", interview with Filip Musiał, interia.pl, June 5, 2008
Archived
June 13, 2008, at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
Martin, Douglas (11 November 2008).
"Mieczyslaw Rakowski, Poland’s Last Communist Premier, Dies at 81".
The New York Times
.
- ^
"We wtorek pogrzeb Mieczysława Rakowskiego"
. Wprost. 17 November 2008
. Retrieved
14 December
2022
.
External links
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]
First Secretaries of the Central Committee of the
PZPR
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International
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