Word: rakowski
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
When the generals wanted to explain their crackdown to the West Germans, Rakowski was naturally the man they sent to Bonn. Martial law, he said, was necessary to prevent the outbreak within "a matter of weeks" of a civil war that would have provoked a Soviet invasion. Stern Publisher Henri Nannen, who has known Rakowski for twelve years, considered his explanation sincere, and an American diplomat described him as a "man of integrity." In contrast, a respected West German analyst notes that Rakowski has a "weakness for ambition" and "always knows which way the wind blows." One British expert points...
...Polish doctor who was shot by invading German troops in 1939, Rakowski emerged from the war a fervent Communist and, for a while, a committed Stalinist. Rakowski's taste for reform developed in 1956, when Wladyslaw Gomulka became head of the Polish Communist Party, promising greater freedom and economic progress. Under Rakowski's editorship, Polityka refused to join a campaign against the Catholic Church in 1966. In 1968 Rakowski, who was by then a deputy member of the Central Committee, not only refused to support an anti-Semitic purge but protected the Jews who worked...
...Rakowski became the regime's bridge to Poland's disaffected intellectuals, and he talked with seeming frankness to journalists about Poland's problems. He once told TIME: "Political reform is absolutely essential for Poland if it is to overcome its problems...
...Journalist Rakowski wanted to do more than talk and write about his country; he wanted to be in on the action. His opportunity came last February, when Jaruzelski appointed him to negotiate with Solidarity. It was then, ironically, that Rakowski's reputation as a liberal began to fade. Perhaps naively, he thought Solidarity could be fashioned into a benign check on the government, but without power of its own. Rakowski became increasingly impatient with Solidarity's demands, and at one point last summer publicly accused the union of "unprecedented arrogance...
...Rakowski has lost the support of some of those who were closest to him. His exwife, Violinist Wanda Wilkomirska, is one of eight intellectuals who have bravely signed a petition protesting martial...