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Poland Development Strategy
In the postwar years, all East European countries
including
Poland adopted a fundamentally similar inward-looking
development
strategy following the Soviet model of accelerated
industrialization and collectivization of agriculture.
Planners
attempted to enforce excessively high rates of growth and
to
achieve a relatively high degree of self-sufficiency.
Strong
autarkic tendencies were modified only by the shifting
import
requirements of the Soviet Union and by specialization
agreements
within Comecon; those agreements were limited, however, by
their
insulation from the factors of real profitability and
comparative
advantage.
In 1945 the Polish economy was completely disorganized
and
urgently needed reestablishment of its prewar industrial
base.
The initial central planning organization that began work
in
Poland in late 1945 stressed socialist rather than
communist
economic goals: relative decentralization, increased
consumer
goods production to raise the standard of living, and
moderate
investment in production facilities. In 1949, however,
that
approach was scrapped in favor of the completely
centralized
Soviet planning model. During the 1950s, planners followed
Stalin's requirements for a higher growth rate in heavy
industry
than the overall industrial rate and a higher growth rate
in the
steel industry than that of heavy industry as a whole.
This
approach neglected the other economic sectors:
agriculture,
infrastructure, housing, services, and consumer goods. The
sectors that were emphasized were all capital-, fuel-, and
material-intensive. Materials shortages had developed
already in
the Comecon group by the 1960s. In response, Poland was
required
to expand its extraction of coal, copper, and sulfur, as
well as
its production of steel and other basic industrial
materials
without considering costs.
Stalinist planning also forcibly redirected foreign
economic
relations. Poland's extensive interwar commercial links
with
Western Europe were reduced, and some important prewar
markets
were lost as trade with the Soviet Union expanded rapidly.
For
Poland this trade was based mainly on export of coal and
manufactured goods primarily from the rapidly growing
heavy
industries. In return, Poland became dependent on the
supply of
Soviet oil, natural gas, iron ore, and some other raw
materials.
This arrangement meant that Poland's industrial structure
adjusted to Soviet needs and specifications, yielding many
products that could be sold only to the Soviet Union or
its
allies. Thus exports became heavily dependent on markets
in
Comecon.
Data as of October 1992
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