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 APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200070027-9


 * October
 * Cumulative impact of poor harvests and agricultural disincentives leads to meat shortages and mounting popular disgruntlement.


 * December
 * Polish-West Germany treaty, initiated in November, is signed in Warsaw on 7 December by Chancellor Brandt and Premier Cyrankiewicz; despite Western qualifications, treaty is viewed by the Poles as definitive recognition of the territorial integrity of the postwar Polish state.
 * Gomulka regime announces price increases in 13 December, as part of economic measures that include onerous work rules and potential reduction of take-home pay.
 * Strikes and riots begin among shipyard workers in Gdansk on 14 December, spread to Gdynia on 16 December, and to Szczecin and other northern cities on 17 December.
 * Party Central Committee meets on 20 December to approve and announce replacement of Gomulka leadership by that of Edward Gierek; shift is promptly endorsed by the Soviet Union which, though anxious and watchful, retains posture of strict nonintervention.
 * New government installed on 23 December, with Piotr Jaroszewicz as Premier and Cyrankiewicz as head of state; Jaroszewicz offers to "normalize" relations with Roman Catholic Church.

1971
 * January
 * Gierek and Jaroszewicz arę warmly received during inaugural visit to Moscow.


 * February
 * Party Central Committee plenum condemns former leaders' policies and pledges broad program of gradual but potentially far-reaching economic, political, and social reforms.
 * New wave of strikes by militant workers brings Soviet hard-currency credit and rescission of December 1970 price increases.


 * March
 * Jaroszewicz and Cardinal Wyszynski meet to explore avenues toward improved church-state relations.


 * June
 * Regime grants the Roman Catholic Church legal title to church property in former German territories.


 * December
 * Sixth Party Congress endorses Gierek and his program; visiting Soviet leader Brezhnev gives Gierek full support.

1972
 * March
 * National elections, with a rigged, single slate as in the past, result in no change in party representation; however, heavy turnover of deputies bolsters regime claim that new parliament is more representative of the people. New government appointed with Henryk Jablonski replacing Cyrankiewicz as head of state.
 * Period of rapidly improving US-Polish relations is climaxed by President Nixon's visit to Warsaw - 31 March-1 June - following Moscow summit.


 * June
 * Following West Germany's ratification of the treaty with Poland in mid-May, the Holy See reorganizes and regularizes ecclesiastical administration in the former German territories - in effect recognizing Poland's postwar frontiers.


 * September
 * Poland and West Germany establish diplomatic relations; ambassadors exchanged in November.


 * October
 * Gierek pays official visit to France.


 * November
 * Major US-Polish trade agreement concluded.


 * December
 * Gierek is accorded rank of "first among equals" vis-a-vis other Eastern European party chiefs attending observances in Moscow of 50th anniversary of the USSR.

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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200070027-9