Political Authority and Party Secretaries in Poland, 1975-1986 (Cambridge Russian, Soviet and Post-soviet Studies)

This 1989 book deals with the changing position and role of the Polish United Workers' Party and its apparatus between 1975 and 1986. Particular attention is paid to the provincial party organisation and to the party secretaries who direct its activities. Their role and the way they perform it is seen as a major determinant of the nature of party leadership and, more generally, of the strength of political authority in communist states: Dr Lewis argues that the protracted crisis of the Polish system reflects less the weakness of communist party power than critical problems encountered in accumulating and exercising authority. The crisis of 1980 was as much due to inadequate political strategies as to the economic failings of the Gierek regime, and during the solidarity period the party apparatus (and particularly the provincial organisation) acted as a major source of resistance: military rule provided little opportunity for a reassertion of party leadership or the consolidation of political authority. The individual biographies of over 700 party officials have been scrutinised to produce this major survey of Polish policy.