Hilary Minc - Biography

Hilary Minc (24 August 1905, Kazimierz Dolny - 26 November 1974, Warsaw) – born into a middle-class Jewish family of Oskar Minc and Stefania née Fajersztajn – was a communist politician in Stalinist Poland and pro-Soviet Marxist economist. Minc joined the Communist Party of Poland before World War II. Between 1944-1956, he was a member of the PWP/PUWP Politburo of the KCPPR.

Minc was the third in command in Bolesław Bierut's political apparatus following the Soviet takeover. He served as the Minister of Industry, Minister of Industry and Commerce, and deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs during the reign of Stalinism in the People's Republic of Poland all the way until the Polish October revolution of 1956.

Minc was a close associate of the Polish Communist leader Władysław Gomułka in their joint meetings with Joseph Stalin at the Kremlin. Stalin personally assigned Minc first to Industry and then to Transportation ministries of Poland. Minc's wife, Julia, was an Editor-in-Chief of the Polish Press Agency until 1954.

Notes and references

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• Hilary Minc records in the Open Society archives, Munich, October 15, 1956
• Andrzej Walicki, Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame's May 17, 1987 New York Times review of Teresa Torańska's book, Them: Stalin's Polish Puppets