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Grab & Give. Stalin had attempted his "final" solution to the Polish-Russian question at the Potsdam peace table. He had already annexed a huge tract of Polish territory in the east (see map), and as compensation he now sliced most of Pomerania from Germany and "gave" it to Poland. Pretending that the Poles had gained materially from this deal, he demanded that Polish coal exports be sold to Russia at a nominal price per ton (about one-seventh the market price). He also arranged that Germany should pay Poland reparations, but these he collected himself. He then forced the Poles to accept a permanent Soviet army of occupation, for whose upkeep Poland paid. He also maintained access through Poland to Soviet divisions (now 22) garrisoned in East Germany.
Thus to the deep Polish hatred of the Nazi conqueror, Stalin added a boundary quarrel to make certain that Germany and Poland should have cause to resent one another eternally and thus preclude any secret alliances. Gomulka was put in charge of the new western territory taken from the Germans. He did Soviet bidding, though he was distressed by Russia's dismantling and removal of factories. "I fought against the Germans," he once told a group of peasants. "I will not allow Poland to become the 17th Soviet Republic."
In 1948 a word was coined for this kind of view: Titoism. Tito has once met Gomulka, who made "a very favorable impression. He is a worker, rather modest and reticent." Gomulka was less impressed by the vain Tito, privately referred to him as "a fat swine." When Stalin expelled Tito from the Russian family, Polish Communist leaders concurred in denouncing Tito, all except Gomulka, who said: "I don't know who is right or who is wrong, but we must end it all without publicity. We must find a compromise." He refused to attend a Cominform conference in Rumania where the satellite leaders were to gang up on Tito. That was enough for Stalin. At a signal Gomulka's comrades turned on him. General Marian Spychalski was Gomulka's chief denouncer. Gomulka was accused of being "permeated with the Pilsudski spirit." Economic Minister Mine accused him of betraying his underground comrades to the Gestapo. Said Polit-burocrat Jakub Berman: "Let Comrade Gomulka repudiate his mystical notions and let him march together with the party." But the stubborn Gomulka had another idea. Said he: "I have come to the conclusion that my political career is over. It is my fault . . . Free me from my responsibilities and allow me to work in a small party position." But Stalin demanded a groveling confession, and when Gomulka resisted, he was dismissed and Moscow-trained Boleslaw Bierut took over the party secretaryship.
Resting at the resort of Krynica some time later, Gomulka was disturbed while in bed one morning by a U.B. man. Gomulka reached under his pillow for his pistol, but the U.B. man was there first. Said he: "I have orders from the Central Committee to bring you to Warsaw." Replied Gomulka calmly: "If somebody from the Central Committee wants to see me, let him come here." But he went quietly with the guard to Miedzieszyn, a Warsaw suburb, where he and his wife were held under arrest in separate cottages without seeing each other for four years. Most people thought him dead.