Photocopy of memoirs; original letters and notes; police interrogation files; interview transcripts of associates of Gomułka; and photographs; relating to communism in Poland and political conditions in Poland.

Władysław Gomułka, a Polish communist leader, was the first general secretary of the Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza (Polish United Workers' Party), serving from October 1956 to December 1970. Suspected by Stalin of trying to turn Poland into another Yugoslavia and, although seen by many sympathetic Poles as trying to find a "Polish road to socialism," Gomułka ultimately failed in his efforts to turn the Polish People's Republic into a modern and prosperous European country. The margin of freedom allowed Poland by Moscow was indeed narrow, but Gomułka's own ideological rigidness and lack of understanding and empathy for Polish national traditions and aspirations led to his demise.

3 manuscript boxes (1.2 Linear Feet)

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