sentially bankrupting the Polish economy (Fleet, 1995, p. 6).
There was only one bright spot in this picture - and a weak one at that. In order to obtain valuable "hard" currency to counter a growing national debt, from the 1960s-on the Polish government began development of certain non-Soviet-required sectors of the economy in order to make products that could be sold in the Western market. Most of those sectors were still government-run: for example, truck manufacturing. Still the government took advantage of (and encouraged) Poland's small-scale private sector, in particular agriculture. Simultaneously, however, increased production highlighted the weak basic infrastructure the Soviets had fashioned for Poland.
Thus, when Poland became independent in 1989 and voted-in the provisional non-Communist government of Tadeusz Mazowiecki, the first recognized need was to restructure Poland's basic infrastructure. The original plan was to go "cold turkey" and transfer all government-run industries to the private sector - along the lines advocated by t
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