No Pushover

The leadership of Communist Poland is gripped by a Byzantine intrigue in which hardly anything is really what it seems to be. The regime of Wladyslaw Gomulka, which appeared at first to be threatened mainly by the unrest of students and intellectuals, turns out to be more immediately challenged by an inner group that has used that unrest for its own ambitious purposes. Harder-lining than Gomulka, the men who make up this group have maneuvered to push their own people into power, used anti-Zionism as a club to purge many government functionaries and encouraged criticism of Gomulka in the press. They are finding, however, that the wily Gomulka, 63, who spent five years in prison for his anti-Stalinist stand before becoming party boss in 1956, is no pushover. Last week Gomulka managed to avert a showdown with his enemies while placing two of his own men in top positions.

No Toes. With the resignation of President Edward Ochab, who is 61 and nearly blind, Gomulka had sufficient strength in the Polish Sejm (Parliament) to have the post filled by a trusted lieutenant, Defense Minister Marian Spychalski, 62. The political fortunes of Spychalski, an architect by training, have waned and gained for 25 years with those of Gomulka. An underground Communist leader during World War II, he was arrested, imprisoned and tortured by Stalinists after Gomulka was purged in 1948. Never brought to trial, Spychalski left prison a cripple without toes, was made Defense Minister after Gomulka gained power in 1956, and has held the post since.

Though the post of President is largely ceremonial, Gomulka needs a loyal supporter there. By putting in Spychalski, he also managed to thwart those who would have liked to see Premier Jozef Cyrankiewicz, 56, another Gomulka backer, shifted to the ceremonial post, where his moderating influence on the government would be neutralized. Into Spychalski's place as Defense Minister, Gomulka managed to put another supporter. He was Wojciech Jaruzelski, 44, the Deputy Defense Minister and Chief of the General Staff. Aware of the factional struggle, Jaruzelski immediately appointed three new vice ministers to offset the anti-Gomulka cast of the remaining vice ministers in office.

No Explanation. Through almost every level of Polish life, the purges of the last few weeks continued and even intensified. With no explanation, the government shifted three more key generals to new commands. Also dismissed from their posts were a Catholic Deputy in Parliament who had protested police action during the student riots, the rector of Lodz University, Marxist Philosopher Adam Schaff, three junior ministers, a vice minister and the editor of the Yiddish newspaper Folksstyme. Their firing brought to 36 the number of top officials so far known to have been purged.

The continuing purges, which Gomulka has unsuccessfully tried to moderate, indicate that his troubles are far from over. Last week two of his own supporters on the ruling twelve-man Politburo, Cyrankiewicz and Party Ideologist Zenon Kliszko, came out in favor of the purges. That sign of approval from his own camp may have been the price Gomulka paid to avoid an immediate showdown with his critics, but it also whetted their desire for power. Police Boss Mieczyslaw Moczar, the man behind much of the anti-Gomulka dissidence but normally a shadowy figure, appeared three times in the past two weeks on Polish television, then held an even rarer press interview to attack the moral support given to student rioters in the weekly newspaper Polityka--a publication closely identified with Gomulka.

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