Zbigniew Stefan Messner (; 13 March 1929 – 10 January 2014) was a
Communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
economist and politician in Poland. His ancestors were of German Polish descent who had assimilated into Polish society. In 1972, he became Professor of Karol Adamiecki University of Economics in
Katowice
Katowice ( , , ; szl, Katowicy; german: Kattowitz, yi, קאַטעוויץ, Kattevitz) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Upper Silesian metropolitan area. It is the 11th most popul ...
. He was a member of the Central Committee of the
Polish United Workers' Party from 1981 to 1988, Deputy Prime Minister from 1983 to 1985, and 53rd Prime Minister from 1985 to 1988.
In 1988, Messner's
cabinet
Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to:
Furniture
* Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers
* Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets
* Filing ...
received a
motion of no confidence in the
Sejm (
Parliament) and had to transfer power to
Mieczysław Rakowski. This was an unprecedented event in the Communist world, one of the strongest signs of democratic change brought by
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...
. Alternatively, this change in cabinet could easily be viewed as one of many similar steps of internal reorganization conducted periodically by regimes in all Communist-dominated countries.
He died in Warsaw on 10 January 2014.
References
1929 births
2014 deaths
People from Stryi
People from Stanisławów Voivodeship
Members of the Politburo of the Polish United Workers' Party
Prime Ministers of the Polish People's Republic
Deputy Prime Ministers of Poland
Members of the Polish Sejm 1985–1989
Polish economists
Recipients of the Order of Polonia Restituta
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