Poland One Bureaucrat After Another

GOMULKA took over power in Poland after the Poznan riots in 1956. Gierck has now taken over from him as a result of the riots in several Baltic coast towns, The sort of bureaucratic centralism that hides behind the cloak of socialism in Poland, Russia and other East European countries invariably calls for a dramatic displacement of senior party bureaucrats as soon as serious cracks begin to show in the calm facade of a Soviet-type society. Gierek was the party boss of the rich, mining province of Silesia and established a reputation for increasing production in his area by using a judi-cious mixture of the carrot and the stick.