Zofia Gomułkowa, or Zofia Gomułka (born Liwa Szoken; 12 May 1902 – 27 November 1986), was a wife of First Secretary of the

Polish United Workers' Party The Polish United Workers' Party ( pl, Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza; ), commonly abbreviated to PZPR, was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other lega ...

Władysław Gomułka Władysław Gomułka (; 6 February 1905 – 1 September 1982) was a Polish communist politician. He was the ''de facto'' leader of post-war Poland from 1947 until 1948. Following the Polish October he became leader again from 1956 to 1970. G ...

, leader of

communist Poland The Polish People's Republic ( pl, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million nea ...

from 21 October 1956 until 20 December 1970. Zofia was a pro-Soviet activist since the age of 18, as well as an executive member of the delegalized

Communist Party of Poland The interwar Communist Party of Poland ( pl, Komunistyczna Partia Polski, KPP) was a communist party active in Poland during the Second Polish Republic. It resulted from a December 1918 merger of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland a ...

(KPP) in the interwar period. After the Soviet takeover of Poland at the end of World War II, she initially worked as her husband's secretary and later, as a communist functionary in the

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

headquarters of

PZPR The Polish United Workers' Party ( pl, Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza; ), commonly abbreviated to PZPR, was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other lega ...

Life

Liwa Szoken was born in 1902 in

, to an impoverished family of Orthodox Jews. She left her home at the age of 16, and in 1920 joined the

delegalized in 1919. She worked at a match factory Płomyk in the Warsaw neighbourhood of Pelcowizna '' (pl)'', part of

Praga-Północ Praga-Północ (from Polish: ''North Prague'') is a district in Warsaw located in the central part of the city. History Praga is one of the oldest districts in Warsaw. Through the centuries, Warsaw's right-bank was an independent town. In 1648 i ...

. She met Władysław Gomułka (a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

by birth, and an ironworker) at the age of 25 in 1927. A year earlier, he joined the Communist Party of Poland sponsored financially by the

Communist International The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by ...

and served as leader of the Trade Union of Chemical Industry Workers at the time. They started living together in a common-law relationship. Liwa broke all contact with her Jewish family. The next year, Władysław Gomułka, age 23, was transferred to

Zawiercie Zawiercie is a city in the south of Poland located in the Silesian Voivodeship with 49,334 inhabitants (2019). It is situated in the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland near the source of the Warta River. The town lies near the historical region of Sile ...

. Gomułkowa gave birth to a son there, who died within days. They relocated back to Warsaw and did not return to Zawiercie ever again. In 1930 Zofia Gomułkowa gave birth to her son Ryszard. She did not get married because, in prewar

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

, marriage was a religious ceremony. Her common-law husband was arrested in 1932 for communist agitation during a workers' protest in

Łódź Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of cant ...

. Upon his release, Władysław Gomułka left Poland for Moscow to study ideology at the Lenin's Academy. She could not afford to keep her son and gave him to Gomułka's family in the village of

Białobrzegi Białobrzegi is a town in Poland, in Masovian Voivodeship, about south of Warsaw. It is the capital of the Białobrzegi County and Gmina Białobrzegi (commune). The town is located on the border of the ''Białobrzegi Valley'' and ''Radom Plai ...

near

Krosno Krosno (in full ''The Royal Free City of Krosno'', pl, Królewskie Wolne Miasto Krosno) is a historical town and county in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in southeastern Poland. The estimated population of the town is 47,140 inhabitants as of ...

. Ryszard Gomułka-Strzelecki grew up without knowing about his Jewish roots. His daughter Ewa learned about her grandmother's Jewish background only as an adult. Zofia Gomułkowa married Władysław Gomułka in Stalinist Poland on 21 April 1951 in a civil ceremony without a wedding. At about that time, she changed her given name officially from Liwa to Zofia. Years later, she has supported her husband's anti-Zionist campaign of March 1968. Their son remarked that in the opinion of his father, those who like other places better and don't identify with Poland should leave. Notably, Zofia voiced no objections either to the massacre of the striking shipyard workers in 1970, an event that ultimately led to her husband's fall from power.Niezłomni (2014/01/21)
Sekret Władysława Gomułki, czyli o synu pochowanym w tajemnicy na kirkucie. Oraz o żonie, która została „Janem Chrzcicielem PPR”.
Portal informacyjno-historyczny.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gomulkowa, Zofia 1902 births 1986 deaths Politicians from Warsaw Communist Party of Poland politicians Polish Workers' Party politicians Polish atheists