Word: warsaw
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Poland. While there have been no unusual troop movements so far, the Soviets have been gathering units for several weeks in western areas, preparing part of the U.S.S.R. for regular Warsaw Pact maneuvers in East Germany next month. The mobilized Soviet units will probably transit through Poland and could quickly be thrown into action if necessary...
...repressive lid on the country. Initially Gierek delivered on many of his own early promises, allowing Poles freer access to Western cultural influences and more opportunity to travel abroad. "For the first few years, the quality of life improved markedly in Poland," recalls one Western diplomat who served in Warsaw. "He enjoyed a measure of support that transcended anything during the Gomulka years." But by the mid-1970s, things began finance sour under Gierek too, as the country went heavily into debt to finance his ambitious but ill-fated plans for industrial modernization. Gierek began depending on an old Communist...
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...
...rest of the East bloc watched last week's turbulence in Poland with understandable unease. News accounts of the strikes were guarded at first, tending to emphasize the Warsaw government's calls for order and the seriousness of the economic situation. Poland's basic problems have their counterparts, to some degree, nearly everywhere that Moscow's writ runs. Low productivity, heavy indebtedness and cumbersome bureaucracies plague all the Soviet satellites in Eastern Europe. Thirty-five years after the end of World War II, shortages of food and consumer goods are endemic. The gap continues to widen...
East Germany leads the Warsaw Pact in per capita meat consumption (86.2 kg), a revealing economic indicator in the Communist world. Thought to have the strongest economy in the bloc, East Germany is the only member to set a higher growth target for this year (4.8%) than last (4.3%). Economic planning has loosened a bit, helping to compensate for capital deficiencies, limited natural resources and a small labor force. Slavish in its devotion to Soviet aims, East Germany billets some 285,000 Soviet troops. The archconservative regime of Party Chief Erich Honecker tolerates little dissent, though a few minor work...