Rakowski, Mieczyslaw Franciszek

▪ 2009

      Polish newspaper editor and politician

born Dec. 1, 1926, Kowalewko, Pol.

died Nov. 7, 2008, Warsaw, Pol.

as the last communist prime minister of Poland (September 1988–July 1989), presided over the dissolution of the old regime and the transfer of power to the country's first democratically elected government. Rakowski was the son of poor farmers who were executed during the World War II Nazi occupation of Poland. He joined (1946) the communist party, which sponsored his studies at the Institute of Social Science (Ph.D. in history, 1957). As deputy editor (1956–58) and editor (1958–82) of the party's prestigious weekly newspaper Polityka, he provided an approved outlet for modest dissent among Poland's intelligentsia. He was promoted in 1975 to membership in the Central Committee, was made deputy prime minister in 1981, and was appointed prime minister on Sept. 28, 1988. Rakowski was considered a hard-line communist who endorsed the imposition of martial law in 1981, but he was also noted for his defense of Jewish colleagues and his support for far-reaching economic reforms and a free-market economy.

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