Stefan Staszewski

Who was Stefan Staszewski?

Stefan Staszewski, real name: Gustaw Szusterman, was a Polish-Jewish communist apparatchik, originally in the Secretariat of the CC CPP, later a graduate and instructor at the Lenin School in Moscow. At the time of the Great Purges Staszewski was arrested by NKVD and sentenced to eight years in Kolyma. On his release in 1945 he returned to Poland under the protectorate of Bolesław Bierut.

During the reign of Stalinism in the People's Republic of Poland Staszewski was in charge of propaganda, education and culture for the Katowice district of Silesia. He later became editor-in-chief of the Polish Press Agency, a post he held until 1958. After a career in the propaganda apparatus, he was appointed First secretary of the Warsaw party committee but was forced out of that position at the end of the 1950s. Staszewski supported Władysław Gomułka during Polish October of 1956 but, in spite of this, was soon removed from power and, finally, expelled from the party in 1968.