Word: gierek
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
People still speak of Gierek as honest, sincere, a "good man." But more and more, Poles have come to view him as a well-meaning incompetent, mechanically committed to a Communist system that cannot solve the country's considerable problems...
That is a sorry comedown for a leader who always had a reputation for getting things done. As Party Secretary for Upper Silesia, Gierek was noted for being ready to fight central authorities in Warsaw to gain benefits for his workers; under his tenure they enjoyed the highest standard of living in the country. Gierek came from a coal-mining family, and his father, grandfather and an uncle all died in mining accidents. In 1923, after his father's death, Gierek's mother took him to France, where at the age of 13 he began Communist...
Back in Poland in 1948, Gierek rose rapidly through party ranks, in part because of his reputation for toughness. When student riots broke out in 1968, Gierek warned that those who opposed the regime would have their "bones broken." Nonetheless, he also gained a reputation as a pragmatist who would try to look at a problem and find a practical solution that he could fit into Communist ideology...
...Gierek, 67, is a man of strong moods and quick temper. He likes his vodka, an holds it well. He still speaks French fluently, and rarely misses an edition of the Paris daily Le Monde. A natty dresser, Gierek insists that his white who be washed by his wife Stanislawa. "She is the only one who knows how to make them look good yet soft," Gierek answered when relatives do that the wife of Poland's leader should not have to do laundry. And for all of Gierek's devotion to Communism, his aged mother has remained...
Instead, chronic complainers all, they blame Edward Gierek and the Soviets and tell bitter jokes to relieve the frustration. Like the one about the old woman who hobbles into a butcher shop and asks first for pork roast, then for lamb, then for veal. On being told that there is none, she storms out. "What a nuisance," gripes the first butcher. "Maybe," replies the second, "but what a memory...