page_title: Martial law in Poland
section_title: Reforms of Edward Gierek (1970-1975)
hierarchical_section_title: Martial law in Poland / Prelude / Reforms of Edward Gierek (1970-1975)
context_page_description: Martial law in Poland refers to the period between 13 December 1981 and 22 July 1983, when the socialist government of the Polish People's Republic drastically restricted normal life by introducing martial law and a military junta in an attempt to throttle political opposition, in particular the Solidarity Movement. Thousands of opposition activists were imprisoned without charge and as many as 91 killed. Although martial law was lifted in 1983, many of the political prisoners were not released until a general amnesty in 1986.
  Since the 1970s, socialist Poland was in an economic recession. The First Secretary Edward Gierek made large continuous loans from western creditors to achieve a better economic output that instead resulted in a domestic crisis. Basic goods were being heavily rationed which acted as a stimulus for the establishment of a first anti-communist trade union in the Eastern Bloc, known as Solidarity, in 1980. Gierek, who permitted the trade union to appear per the Gdańsk Agreement, was dismissed from his post less than a month later under pressure from the USSR and confined to house arrest.
context_section_description: When Edward Gierek succeeded Gomułka as the head of state in 1970, he took decisive measures to boost economic growth and develop modern infrastructure. Gierek, a more liberal figure than his predecessor, was determined to make Poland the wealthiest and most economically significant communist country of the Eastern Bloc. However, these ideas prompted resistance from hardline communist leadership as the reform would effectively abandon the fundamental principles of a centrally planned Marxist economy. The grip and emphasis on state-owned enterprises and state-controlled prices or trade was eventually loosened. Small private businesses began to appear and Poland recorded temporary growth in GDP and an improvement in living conditions.
  Gierek maintained close ties with the United States, which he subsequently used for diplomatic and economic purposes. In order to continue with the reforms, large sums of money were borrowed from creditors in the Western Bloc. These sequential and uninterrupted loans were primarily targeted at establishing heavy industry, mines or manufacturing facilities that would produce goods for export. The projected income from the exports would then be used to pay off the debt. Apart from financing the economic sector, the money was spent on social housing and on expanding road connections, for example the first fully operational highway linking Warsaw with industrial Silesia was opened for traffic in 1976. Furthermore, over 1.8 million plattenbau flats were constructed to house the growing population. Agricultural output rose by nearly 22% between 1971 and 1975, and industrial production by 10.5% annually. Gierek also initiated the construction of Warszawa Centralna, Europe's most modern railway station at the time.
caption: Gierek in the White House with President Gerald Ford, 1974
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