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Hilary Minc

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Hilary Minc
Hilary Minc in 1949.
Deputy Prime Minister of Poland
In office
20 April 1949 – 10 October 1956
Prime MinisterJózef Cyrankiewicz (1949–1952, 1954–1956)
Bolesław Bierut (1952–1954)
Chairman of the State Economic Planning Commission
In office
20 April 1949 – 18 March 1954
Prime MinisterJózef Cyrankiewicz (1949–1952)
Bolesław Bierut (1952–1954)
Preceded byTadeusz Dietrich
Succeeded byEugeniusz Szyr
Minister of Industry and Trade
In office
31 March 1947 – 16 February 1949
Prime MinisterJózef Cyrankiewicz
Preceded byHimself (as Minister of Industry)
Succeeded byTadeusz Dietrich
Minister of Industry
In office
11 December 1944 – 31 March 1947
Prime MinisterEdward Osóbka-Morawski (1944–1947)
Józef Cyrankiewicz (1947)
Preceded byJan Kwapiński (as Minister of Industry, Trade and Shipping of the Polish government-in-exile)
Succeeded byHimself (as Minister of Industry and Trade)
Personal details
Born(1905-08-24)24 August 1905
Kazimierz Dolny, Congress Poland, Russian Empire
Died26 November 1974(1974-11-26) (aged 69)
Warsaw, Polish People's Republic
Resting placePowązki Military Cemetery
Political partyCommunist Party of Poland (1921–1938)
Polish Workers' Party (1942–1948)
Polish United Workers' Party (1948–1959)
ProfessionEconomist

Hilary Minc (24 August 1905 – 26 November 1974) was a Polish economist and communist politician prominent during Stalinist Poland.

Minc was born into a middle class Jewish family; his parents were Oskar Minc and Stefania née Fajersztajn.[1] In 1921 Minc joined the Communist Party of Poland, which was later eliminated by the Comintern before World War II. He studied law and economics in Poland and France, where he obtained a doctorate before being expelled by the authorities in 1928.

During World War II he was exiled in the Soviet Union, where he participated in the founding and activities of the Union of Polish Patriots. As an officer in the Polish People's Army, he fought on the Eastern Front and received military decorations, including the Virtuti Militari. Between 1944 and 1956, he was a member of the Politburo of the Polish Workers' Party (PPR) and then the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR).

Hilary Minc giving a speech, 1950

Minc was a top-ranking member of Bolesław Bierut's political apparatus from 1948, together with Jakub Berman. He served as minister of industry and commerce and deputy prime minister for economic affairs during the Stalinist period in the Polish People's Republic (until 1956). Although his main responsibility was economy, he was a willing participant in political repressions of this period. Minc participated in Władysław Gomułka's meetings with Joseph Stalin at the Kremlin. Stalin personally assigned Minc first to the Ministry of Industry and then to the Ministry of Transportation of Poland in 1949.[2] Minc was one of the main architects of Poland's Six-Year Plan, implemented in 1950. His wife, Julia Minc [pl], was editor-in-chief of the Polish Press Agency until 1954.

The grave of Hilary Minc and his wife Julia at the Powązki Military Cemetery in Warsaw

At a celebration at Wrocław for the so-called Recovered Territories, Minc acclaimed the gaining of the completely equipped previously German land with its residue of German population which and proclaimed his government's right to liquidate the remaining Germans by appropriate methods.[3]

In 1956, during the Polish October, Minc was removed from the Politburo as well as from his position as Deputy Prime Minister. In 1959 he was expelled from PZPR altogether. He died in 1974 and was buried with full military and party honors at Powązki Military Cemetery.

Awards and decorations

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References

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  1. ^ Schatz, Jaff (1991). The Generation: The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Communists of Poland. University of California Press. p. 369. ISBN 9780520071360.
  2. ^ Andrzej Werblan, New Evidence on Poland in the Early Cold War, "Conversation between Władysław Gomułka and Stalin on 14 November 1945".
  3. ^ R. M. Douglas. Orderly and Humane. The Expulsion of the Germans after the Second World War. Yale University Press. p. 258.
  4. ^ (in Polish) Aleksander Kochański: Polska 1944–1991. Informator historyczny Struktury i ludzie część 2. Zielona Góra: Drukarnia Wydawnicza im. W.L. Anczyca S.A., 2022, s. 1118-1121.
  5. ^ (in Polish) Aleksander Mazur, Order Krzyża Grunwaldu. Monografia historyczna, 2005.
  6. ^ (in Polish) Delegacja czechosłowacka wyjechała do Pragi, „Trybuna Robotnicza”, nr 71, 12 marca 1947, s. 1.
  7. ^ (in Polish) „Dziennik Zachodni”, nr 119, 9 kwietnia 1948, s. 2.
  8. ^ (in Polish) Symbole braterskiej współpracy, „Gazeta Robotnicza”, nr 149, 1 czerwca 1948, s. 2.
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