Leonid Brezhnev and Edward Gierek

The article examines the relationship between the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Leonid Brezhnev, and the First Secretary of the Polish United Worker’s Party, Edward Gierek, during the 1970s and contributes to the understanding of relationships between Brezhnev and other leaders of the Eastern Bloc. In order to fulfill his foreign policy goals, Brezhnev needed active and willing cooperation from the Eastern Bloc and its leaders benefited from this endeavor. Gierek responded to this demand by entering into an “uneven friendship” with Brezhnev that was established according to the Soviet “friendship code.” This privileged relationship was dependent on the inner situation within the Soviet leadership, the progress of détente, Poland’s domestic stability, and ultimately did not counterbalance Poland’s structurally disadvantageous status in the Eastern Bloc

Communism · Development economics · Economic history · Economics · Friendship · Order (exchange · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Soviet union · Eastern European Communism and Reforms · Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics · History · Law · Polish Historical and Cultural Studies