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In recent years, the few jokes told about Gomulka have been malicious and cruel—befitting a hero who has disappointed his followers. To his credit, though, are a number of major achievements. He guided Poland through a peaceful transition out of Stalinism, banishing the police terror and permitting a climate of mild intellectual freedom. He succeeded in persuading Nikita Khrushchev to remove Soviet "advisers" from Polish ministries and to limit the role of Russian troops stationed in Poland. He established a modus vivendi with the Catholic Church, which still baptizes 98% of all Polish infants. The Treaty of Warsaw, which he argued for, ended the state of hostilities between Poland and West Germany.
Although his most notable failure is on the economic front, Gomulka made other mistakes that gradually whittled away the size of his constituency. His acceptance of the Moscow line condemning Israel for its role in the Six-Day War angered many Poles who, despite their country's long tradition of antiSemitism, regard the Israelis as fellow victims of Hitler's aggression. After the "Prague springtime" of 1968, Gomulka urged Warsaw Pact intervention to restore Czechoslovakia to orthodoxy. The specter of Polish troops participating in the invasion of a neighboring country—and marching side by side with East German soldiers—horrified the Polish public.
If the Soviets decide to drop Gomulka because of the riots—as they did Czechoslovakia's Antonín Novotný in 1968—they may have some trouble picking a strong successor. Mieczyslaw Moczar, a fervent anti-Zionist and also a wartime hero of the Communist partisans, has long been regarded as the Soviets'—and Gomulka's—enemy. Gomulka's protégé and Vice Premier, Stanislaw Kociolek, had special responsibility for the Gdansk area, and thus has been discredited by the rioting. A more likely candidate is Edward Gierek, 57, the Politburo's leading technocrat, who as the party boss of Katowice has made the Polish mines the safest and most automated in the world.
The Soviets know full well that Polish workers last week attacked Gomulka's party headquarters and burned the party records—even as rebelling Polish peasants in former times used to race to the manor house to burn the tax rolls and debtors' rolls. Gomulka has survived defeat before, but after such exquisite humiliation, the day of this durable dictator may be almost over.