Some help on Polish history needed

In December 1970, Gdansk was the scene of anti-regime demonstrations, which led to the downfall of Poland's communist leader Wladyslaw Gomulka. During the demonstrations in Gdansk and Gdynia, military as well as the police opened fire on the demonstrators causing several dozen deaths. Edward Gierek, took over the Party leadership and tensions eased. Gomulka was forced to retire.

The Demonstrations were in response to an economic crisis involving a system of fixed, artificially low food prices which kept urban discontent under control. However it caused stagnation in agriculture and made more expensive food imports necessary. This situation was unsustainable, and in December 1970, the regime suddenly announced massive increases in the prices of basic foodstuffs.

It is possible that the price rises were imposed on Gomulka by enemies of his in the Party leadership who planned to maneuver him out of power. The raised prices were unpopular among many urban workers. Gomulka believed that the agreement with West Germany had made him more popular, but most Poles seemed to feel that since the Germans were no longer a threat to Poland, they no longer needed to tolerate the Communist regime as a guarantee of Soviet support for the defense of the Oder-Neisse line.

Demonstrations against the price rises broke out in the northern coastal cities of Gdansk, Gdynia, Elblag and Szczecin. Gomulka's right-hand man, Zenon Kliszko, made matters worse by ordering the army to fire on protesting workers. Another leader, Stanislaw Kociolek, appealed to the workers to return to work. However, in Gdynia the soldiers had orders to prevent workers from returning to work, and they fired into a crowd of workers emerging from their trains; hundreds of workers were killed.

The protest movement spread to other cities, leading to more strikes and causing angry workers to occupy many factories. The Party leadership met in Warsaw and decided that a full-scale working-class revolt was inevitable unless drastic steps were taken. With the consent of Brezhnev in Moscow, Gomulka, Kliszko and other leaders were forced to resign.

Since Moscow would not accept the appointment of Mieczyslaw Moczar(who was Gomulka's security chief at one point, until he formed a new faction, "the Partisans", based on principles of Communist nationalism and anti-inteligencja and anti-Jewish sentiment.) , Edward Gierek was drafted as the new First Secretary of the PZPR.

Prices were lowered, wage increases were announced, and sweeping economic and political changes were promised. Gierek went to Gdansk and met the workers personally, apologizing for the mistakes of the past, and saying that as a worker himself, he would now govern Poland for the people.