Jakub Berman (23 December 1901 – 10 April 1984) was a Polish communist politician. An activist during the Second Polish Republic, in post-war communist Poland he was a member of the Politburo of the Polish Workers' Party (PPR) and then of the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR). From 1948, he was considered the second most powerful politician in Poland after President Bolesław Bierut, until he was removed from power in 1956, following Bierut's death.
Alongside Bierut, Berman was responsible for party oversight of the Stalinist Ministry of Public Security, commonly known as the "UB". Under Berman's leadership, 200,000 people were imprisoned for alleged political crimes, and 6,000 were executed.
Early career
Jakub Berman was born into a middle-class Jewish family in Warsaw on 23 December 1901. His younger brother was Adolf Berman. Jakub became a member of the Communist Youth Union and in 1928 joined the Communist Party of Poland (KPP). He was arrested a few times, but unlike many other activists, had not been imprisoned for a prolonged period.Lucyna Tychowa and Andrzej Romanowski, Tak, jestem córką Jakuba Bermana [Yes, I'm the Daughter of Jakub Berman], p. 27. UNIVERSITAS, Kraków 2016, . He received a law degree in 1925 from the University of Warsaw. "Jakub Berman’s Papers Received at the Hoover Institution Archives", Stanford University Hoover Institution, August 11, 2008 He wrote a magister thesis entitled Służba domowa w Warszawie w końcu w. XVIII oraz próby jej zrzeszenia się zawodowego ('Domestic servantry in Warsaw at the end of the 18th century and its attempts to establish a trade association'). Berman's academic adviser, Marxist sociologist Prof. Ludwik Krzywicki, wanted to hire Berman at the university as his assistant, but this was not allowed because of Berman's Jewish origin. Krzywicki's efforts to find Berman a mainstream non-university job also failed and Berman ended up working for a Jewish agency, in a poorly paid position.Lucyna Tychowa and Andrzej Romanowski, Tak, jestem córką Jakuba Bermana [Yes, I'm the Daughter of Jakub Berman], pp. 28–29. The family was supported largely by Berman's wife, Gustawa (née Grynberg), who was a well-regarded physician and dentist.Lucyna Tychowa and Andrzej Romanowski, Tak, jestem córką Jakuba Bermana [Yes, I'm the Daughter of Jakub Berman], p. 21.
Berman's social contacts in Warsaw included many communist sympathizing members of the Polish intelligentsia; Janina and Władysław Broniewski, as well as Wanda Wasilewska, were among his associates.Lucyna Tychowa and Andrzej Romanowski, Tak, jestem córką Jakuba Bermana [Yes, I'm the Daughter of Jakub Berman], pp. 45–51. Between 1935 and 1936, he worked with Aleksander Wat (as his tutor on behalf of the KPP) in an attempt to establish a leftist periodical, with the intention of the cooperation of the communists with other leftist forces in Poland (mostly the Polish Socialist Party (PPS)), within the popular front.Marci Shore, Caviar and Ashes, pp. 108–109. Yale University Press, New Haven, 2006. .
World War II
On 6 September 1939, after the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, Berman followed government directions for "able-bodied men" and took a train going in an easterly direction.Lucyna Tychowa and Andrzej Romanowski, Tak, jestem córką Jakuba Bermana [Yes, I'm the Daughter of Jakub Berman], p. 38. He went to Białystok, occupied by the Soviet Union after the Soviet invasion of Poland. With his friend Alfred Lampe, Berman was active in Polish-communist circles there and became a Soviet citizen. In March 1941 he moved to Minsk, where he worked as an editor at Sztandar Wolności ('The Banner of Freedom'), a Polish-language bulletin published by the Communist Party of Byelorussia. Berman's doctoral dissertation, written under the direction of Krzywicki and entitled O strukturze miast polskich na podstawie spisu ludności w 1791 r. ('On the structure of Polish cities based on the population census of 1791'), was brought to Białystok by his friend and colleague Irena Sawicka, but burned in Minsk when a dormitory where Berman and other journalists were housed was bombed by the Germans.Lucyna Tychowa and Andrzej Romanowski, Tak, jestem córką Jakuba Bermana [Yes, I'm the Daughter of Jakub Berman], pp. 51–55.
After the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Berman escaped to Moscow. He later became an instructor at the International Lenin School, the Comintern school, where he trained displaced Polish communists, activists for the new Soviet-sponsored Polish Workers' Party (PPR).Lucyna Tychowa and Andrzej Romanowski, Tak, jestem córką Jakuba Bermana [Yes, I'm the Daughter of Jakub Berman], pp. 57–63. With the help from Georgi Dimitrov and Jerzy Borejsza, Berman was able to bring his wife and daughter Lucyna there too.
In December 1943, Berman met Joseph Stalin at a Kremlin reception for activists of the Union of Polish Patriots (ZPP). Berman became a prominent figure among the Polish communists in the Soviet Union (according to Berman, however, Stalin hated him).Lucyna Tychowa and Andrzej Romanowski, Tak, jestem córką Jakuba Bermana [Yes, I'm the Daughter of Jakub Berman], pp. 74–79.
In 1945, after a survey suggested that 4.8 million Polish citizens including 3 million Jews had died in the war, Berman stated "if we accept that 3 million Jews were murdered, we must significantly increase the number of Polish victims". He declared that 3 million non-Jewish Poles had died, in order to equalize the numbers, to make them acceptable to Polish public opinion. According to Jan Grabowski, this policy of "equalizing" the respective numbers of Jewish and Polish victims has since been propagated in Poland and that is how the issue is presently taught to students in public schools.
Political career in communist-ruled Poland
In the summer of 1944, Berman joined the Politburo of the Polish Workers' Party (PPR) and returned to Poland. In Lublin, at the Polish Committee of National Liberation (PKWN), Berman practically led the foreign affairs department; which was primarily concerned with securing international recognition for the new communist-led governing entity.Lucyna Tychowa and Andrzej Romanowski, Tak, jestem córką Jakuba Bermana [Yes, I'm the Daughter of Jakub Berman], pp. 101–102.
In January 1945, with the conquest of Warsaw from the Nazis by the Red Army, the Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland (formerly the PKWN) moved from Lublin to the Praga district of Warsaw. Berman, as a member of the Politburo of the PPR, was charged with oversight of the state security apparatus (the Ministry of Public Security).Lucyna Tychowa and Andrzej Romanowski, Tak, jestem córką Jakuba Bermana [Yes, I'm the Daughter of Jakub Berman], pp. 104–111.Lucyna Tychowa and Andrzej Romanowski, Tak, jestem córką Jakuba Bermana [Yes, I'm the Daughter of Jakub Berman], pp. 119–120. In post-war Poland Berman organized state censorship, supervised the development of, and permissions for political parties and organizations, and was the main liaison between the PPR and the PKWN. Berman's decisions had to be consulted with and could be vetoed by two resident Soviet advisers, who remained in Poland until 1953 and 1954.
From 1948, together with Bolesław Bierut, general secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR), a successor of the PPR, and economist Hilary Minc, Berman formed a triumvirate of Stalinist leaders of Poland. According to Lucyna Tych, Berman's daughter, all three "Stalinist" leaders sought to implement communism in Poland in ways different from the manner in which it was done earlier in the Soviet Union (while remaining entirely loyal to the Soviet leadership). Berman and Minc were close friends and partners. They successfully cooperated in protecting Poland's economic interests. For example, after their repeated interventions with the Soviets, the practice of dismantling industrial equipment in Poland and taking it to the Soviet Union was discontinued. They were somehow able to fend off Soviet attempts to introduce broader (Soviet-like) railroad tracks in Poland, which would cut-off Poland's transportation links with Germany and the West.Lucyna Tychowa and Andrzej Romanowski, Tak, jestem córką Jakuba Bermana [Yes, I'm the Daughter of Jakub Berman], pp. 114–115.
In late 1949, Stalin attempted to remove Berman from his position of power, accusing him of participation in an international anti-communist conspiracy and illicit foreign contacts, but the effort did not succeed.Jerzy Eisler, Siedmiu wspaniałych. Poczet pierwszych sekretarzy KC PZPR [The Magnificent Seven: first secretaries of the PZPR], pp. 36–37. Wydawnictwo Czerwone i Czarne, Warszawa 2014, . In 1952 Berman's friend Wasilewska, having found out Stalin's plan to eliminate Berman, traveled from Kyiv to Warsaw to warn him.Marci Shore, Caviar and Ashes, p. 268. Berman attributed his own survival to Bierut's protection.Marci Shore, Caviar and Ashes, p. 310.
In August 1951, Gomułka was arrested, probably on Stalin's and Lavrentiy Beria's orders; they demanded his quick trial. Berman and Bierut, however, managed to keep delaying the proceedings to the point that the trial never took place.
Berman became a member of the Politburo of the PZPR and remained in that capacity until 1956. He was responsible for science, literature and cultural affairs, propaganda and ideology. From 1949 to 1953, he was officially and personally involved in the fight for the dominant position of socialist realism in art and literature, but in the post-war years he also helped and cultivated contacts with many Polish artistic personalities and his influence was essential to the establishment and continuous existence of such Polish mainstream institutions as the Czytelnik publishing house or Cepelia chain of craft stores. The canon of classical Polish literature was published and the production of memorable films commenced.Lucyna Tychowa and Andrzej Romanowski, Tak, jestem córką Jakuba Bermana [Yes, I'm the Daughter of Jakub Berman], pp. 130–136. Berman helped Tadeusz Sygietyński organize the folk ensemble Mazowsze.Lucyna Tychowa and Andrzej Romanowski, Tak, jestem córką Jakuba Bermana [Yes, I'm the Daughter of Jakub Berman], pp. 140–141. Following Berman's repeated interventions with Vyacheslav Molotov and other Soviet authorities, the Ossolineum collections were transferred from Lviv to Wrocław in 1946 and 1947.Lucyna Tychowa and Andrzej Romanowski, Tak, jestem córką Jakuba Bermana [Yes, I'm the Daughter of Jakub Berman], p. 150. In the spring of 1955, Berman authorized the creation of the Crooked Circle Club, a free discussion forum in Warsaw, which marked the gradual departure from Stalinism.Lucyna Tychowa and Andrzej Romanowski, Tak, jestem córką Jakuba Bermana [Yes, I'm the Daughter of Jakub Berman], pp. 158–164.
While Berman was one of the officials responsible for party oversight of the security apparatus, at least 200,000 people were imprisoned and some 6,000 executed on political charges. Hundreds of former members of the Polish resistance movement in World War II were persecuted, especially from the Home Army and the National Armed Forces.
Fall from power