The news of his passing was confirmed by Nie, the satirical weekly magazine where he was publisher and editor-in-chief until his last days, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Urban is best remembered as the controversial spokesman for successive Soviet-backed governments over the last decade of the communist era in Poland.
Spokesman for Jaruzelski regime
Appointed in 1981, Urban served as the mouthpiece and senior propagandist for the regime of Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, which sought to crush the Solidarity freedom movement by subjecting the country to martial law in December of that year.
To many Poles, Urban seemed to personify the government’s brutality after dozens were killed in the 1981 crackdown, as well as its cynicism and contempt for the Solidarity movement, led by Lech Wałęsa, and for the millions yearning for freedom, the AP news agency reported.
As the decade wore on, Urban became more of an aide and strategist, providing Gen. Jaruzelski with political advice, according to Poland’s PAP news agency.
In 1989, Urban was on the government team that negotiated with anti-communist opposition in the seminal Round Table talks.
Part of Jaruzelski’s plan to attract Solidarity leaders into the ruling circle without making major political concessions, the Round Table talks precipitated the collapse of communism in Poland, according to historians.
Smooth transition to new era
Urban made a smooth transition to the new era, founding the openly anti-Church Nie weekly in the autumn of 1990. He achieved wealth as a businessman and remained in charge of the magazine until his death.
Born in 1933 to an assimilated family of Jewish origins, Urban fled his native city of Łódź in central Poland when World War II broke out. He survived the Holocaust hiding in the countryside, the AP news agency reported.
Despite not finishing his journalism studies at the University of Warsaw in the 1950s, Urban carved out a career in the trade, writing for the Po Prostu and Polityka weeklies before joining the communist government in 1981.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, apnews.com