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 {{Poland-politician-stub