Wojciech Jaruzelski
General Wojciech Jaruzelski | |
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President of Poland | |
In office 19 July 1989 – 22 December 1990 | |
Prime Minister | |
Preceded by | First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party |
In office 18 October 1981 – 29 July 1989 | |
Prime Minister |
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Preceded by | Council of State |
In office 6 November 1985 – 19 July 1989 | |
Prime Minister |
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Deputy | |
First Secretary |
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Preceded by | Henryk Jabłoński |
Succeeded by | Office abolished; Himself as President |
Prime Minister of Poland | |
In office 11 February 1981 – 6 November 1985 | |
First Secretary |
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Preceded by | Minister of National Defence |
In office 11 April 1968 – 22 November 1983 | |
Preceded by | Marian Spychalski |
Succeeded by | Florian Siwicki |
Personal details | |
Born | Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski 6 July 1923 Kurów, Poland |
Died | 25 May 2014 Warsaw, Poland | (aged 90)
Resting place | Powązki Military Cemetery, Warsaw |
Political party |
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Spouse | |
Children | Monika Jaruzelska |
Signature | |
Military service | |
Allegiance |
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Branch/service | |
Years of service | 1943–1991 |
Rank | General |
Battles/wars | |
Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski (
Born to Polish nobility in
Jaruzelski became the First Secretary of the
By the mid-1980s, censorship lost its importance and the authority of the United Workers' Party disintegrated, allowing more freedom of expression in Poland. During the revolutions of 1989 in Central and Eastern Europe, Jaruzelski supported the change of government for the benefit of the country and resigned after the Polish Round Table Agreement, which led to multi-party elections in Poland. He briefly served as President of Poland but exercised no real power and, in the 1990 Polish presidential election, Lech Wałęsa succeeded him as the first President elected in a popular vote.
Jaruzelski remains a controversial figure in Poland today; he was praised for allowing the peaceful transition into democracy. However, he was fiercely criticized by contemporaries for instigating martial law, during which thousands of opposition activists were imprisoned without definite charges, and other human rights violations.
Early life
Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski was born on 6 July 1923 in Kurów,[1] into a family of Polish gentry.[1][2] He was the son of Wanda (née Zaremba) and Władysław Mieczysław Jaruzelski, a Czech-educated agronomist and volunteered soldier who fought in the war against Soviet Russia in 1920[3][4] and was raised on the family estate near Wysokie (in the vicinity of Białystok).[5] From 1933 until September 1939, he was educated in a Catholic school in Warsaw where he received strict religious education.[3][1]
World War II commenced on 1 September 1939 with the invasion of Poland by Germany, aided by the Soviet invasion of Poland sixteen days later. These resulted in the complete defeat of Poland by October and a partition between Soviet and German zones of control. Jaruzelski and his family fled to Lithuania to stay with some friends. However, a few months later, after Lithuania and the other Baltic states were forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union, Jaruzelski and his family were captured by the Red Army and designated for deportation to Siberia.[1][6]
In June 1941, they were stripped of their valuable possessions and deported. At the railway station, Jaruzelski was separated from his father, who was sent directly to a gulag. Jaruzelski and his mother were sent on a month-long journey to Biysk, Altai Krai. After that, Jaruzelski walked for 180 kilometres (110 mi) to Turochak where he was responsible for forest cleaning.[3][7] During his labour work, he was stricken with snow blindness, suffering permanent damage to his eyes as well as to his back.[2] His eye condition forced him to wear dark sunglasses most of the time for the rest of his life, which became his trademark.[6] Jaruzelski's father died on 4 June 1942 from dysentery; his mother and sister survived the war (she died in 1966).
Military career
Jaruzelski was selected by the Soviet authorities for enrollment into the Soviet Officer Training School.
After the end of the war, Jaruzelski graduated from the Polish Higher Infantry School and then from the General Staff Academy.
In August 1968, Jaruzelski, as the
Leader of the Polish military government
On 11 February 1981, Jaruzelski was named Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister). On 18 October, Stanisław Kania was ousted as First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party after a listening device recorded him criticising the Soviet leadership. Jaruzelski was elected his successor, becoming the only professional soldier to become the leader of a ruling European Communist party.[6][8]
A fortnight after taking power, Jaruzelski met with Solidarity head Lech Wałęsa and Catholic bishop Józef Glemp, and hinted that he wanted to bring the church and the union into a sort of coalition government. However, his intention was to crush Solidarity.[13] As early as September, while he was still merely prime minister, he met with his aides to find an excuse to impose martial law.[13] On 13 December, citing purported recordings of Solidarity leaders planning a coup, Jaruzelski organised his own coup by proclaiming martial law.[6] A Military Council of National Salvation was formed, with Jaruzelski as chairman. A BBC News profile of Jaruzelski contends that the establishment of martial law was "an attempt to suppress the Solidarity movement."[2]
According to Jaruzelski, martial law was necessary to avoid a Soviet invasion.[14] In a May 1992 interview with Der Spiegel, Jaruzelski said: "Given the strategic logic of the time, I probably would have acted the same way if I had been a Soviet general. At that time, Soviet political and strategic interests were threatened."[15] However, at a press conference in September 1997 Viktor Kulikov, former supreme commander of Warsaw Pact forces, denied that the Soviet Union had either threatened or intended to intervene.[16] According to Politburo minutes from 10 December 1981, Yuri Andropov stated "We do not intend to introduce troops into Poland. That is the proper position, and we must adhere to it until the end. I don't know how things will turn out in Poland, but even if Poland falls under the control of Solidarity, that's the way it will be."[17]
Jaruzelski also claimed in 1997 that Washington had given him a "green light", stating that he had sent Eugeniusz Molczyk to confer with Vice-President George H. W. Bush, who had agreed with Molczyk that martial law was the lesser of two evils.[18] Whether this meeting with the American vice-president occurred is disputed. While it is erroneously cited,[clarification needed] Harvard historian Mark Kramer has pointed out that no documents support Jaruzelski's claim.[19]
Jaruzelski was chiefly responsible for the imposition of martial law in Poland on 13 December 1981 in an attempt to crush the pro-democracy movements, which included Solidarity, the first non-Communist trade union in Warsaw Pact history. Subsequent years saw his government and its internal security forces censor, persecute, and jail thousands of journalists and opposition activists without charge; few lost their lives in the first days of the introduction of martial law. The socio-economic crisis deepened even more than in the late 1970s and rationing of basic foods such as sugar, milk, and meat, as well as materials such as gasoline and consumer products, continued while the median income of the population fell by as much as 10 percent. During Jaruzelski's rule from 1981 to 1989, between 100,000 and 300,000 people left the country.[19]
Historical evidence released under
10 December 1981, Yuri Andropov stated "We do not intend to introduce troops into Poland. That is the proper position, and we must adhere to it until the end. I don't know how things will turn out in Poland, but even if Poland falls under the control of Solidarity, that's the way it will be..[19]
Yuri Andropov had considered the idea of foreign intervention in Poland as futile, his belief was that the Poles were a nation of revolts during the 19th century and such atmosphere had weakened the Russian Rear and led to a Polish Legion marching in front of Napoleons troops..[20]
In 1982, Jaruzelski helped reorganise the Front of National Unity, the organisation the Communists used to manage their satellite parties, as the Patriotic Movement for National Rebirth.[19]
In 1985, Jaruzelski resigned as prime minister and defence minister and became the Chairman of the
Presidency
The policies of Mikhail Gorbachev stimulated political reform in Poland as well as in other communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe.[21]
From 6 February to 4 April 1989, negotiations were held between 13
Jaruzelski was unsuccessful in convincing Lech Wałęsa to include Solidarity in a "grand coalition"[1] with the Communists. He resigned as first secretary of the PZPR on 29 July 1989.[1][23] Mieczysław Rakowski succeeded him as party leader.[23]
The Communists initially intended to give Solidarity a few token cabinet posts for the sake of appearances. However, Wałęsa persuaded the Communists' two allied parties, the United People's Party (ZSL) and the Alliance of Democrats (SD), to break their alliance with the PZPR.[24] Accepting that he would have to appoint a Solidarity member as prime minister, Jaruzelski then asked Wałęsa to select three candidates, one of whom he would ask to form a government. Ultimately, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, who had helped organise the roundtable talks, was selected as first non-Communist prime minister of an Eastern Bloc country in four decades.[25] Jaruzelski resigned as president in 1990.[1] He was succeeded by Wałęsa, who had won the presidential election on 9 December.[26]
On 31 January 1991, Jaruzelski retired from the army.[27]
After retirement
In October 1994, while attending a book-selling activity in
In an interview in 2001, Jaruzelski said that he believed communism failed and that he was now a social democrat. He also announced his support for President Aleksander Kwaśniewski and Leszek Miller, later Prime Minister. Both Kwaśniewski and Miller were members of the Democratic Left Alliance, the social democratic party that included most of the remains of the PUWP.[7]
In May 2005, Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded a medal commemorating the 60th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany to Jaruzelski and other former leaders, including former Romanian King Michael I.[29] Czech President Václav Klaus criticised this step, saying that Jaruzelski was a symbol of the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Jaruzelski said that he had apologised and that the decision on the August 1968 invasion had been a great "political and moral mistake".[30]
On 28 March 2006, Jaruzelski was awarded a Siberian Exiles Cross by Polish President Lech Kaczyński. However, after making this fact public, Kaczyński said that this was a mistake and blamed his staff for giving him a document containing 1,293 names without notifying him of Jaruzelski's inclusion. After this statement, Jaruzelski returned the cross.[31][32]
On 31 March 2006, the IPN charged Jaruzelski with committing
Death
Jaruzelski died on 25 May 2014 in a Warsaw hospital after suffering a stroke earlier that month.
Personal life
Jaruzelski married Barbara Halina Jaruzelska (1931–2017)[41] in 1961.[42] They had a daughter, Monika who was born on 11 August 1963. Monika has a son, Gustaw.
In 2014, his wife Barbara threatened to file for divorce, saying she had caught his nurse Dorota in a compromising position with him.[43][44]
Legacy
The BBC reported in 2001 that "for some Poles — particularly the Solidarity generation — he is little short of a traitor". However, opinion polls as of 15 May 2001 suggested that a majority of the Polish people were open to agreeing with his explanation that martial law was implemented to forestall a Soviet invasion.[2] Available documents indicate that Jaruzelski actually lobbied for Soviet intervention.[12] In interviews in Russian media (Rossiyskaya Gazeta, for example), he has been presented as the harbinger of Poland's democracy.[45]
Croatian writer Slavenka Drakulić described Jaruzelski as a "tragic believer in Communism who made a pact with the devil in good faith".[46]
Written works
Różnić się mądrze (English translation: To Differ Wisely; 1999).[8]
"Być może to ostatnie słowo (wyjaśnienia złożone przed Sądem)" (English translation: "It may be the last word (explanations given in the Court)"; 2008).
Honours and awards
This section needs additional citations for verification. (December 2021) |
Poland
Silver Cross of the Virtuti Militari | |
Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta | |
Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta – 5 November 1948 | |
Order of the Builders of People's Poland | |
Order of the Banner of Work , 1st class
| |
Order of the Cross of Grunwald, 3rd class – 2 September 1945 | |
Cross of Valour (twice) – 24 June 1945, 14 January 1946 | |
Silver Cross of Merit – 20 July 1945 | |
Silver Medal "For Meritorious Field of Glory" (thrice) – 4 February 1945, 27 March 1945, 12 May 1945 | |
Medal "For Participation in the Fights in Defense of the People's Power" | |
Medal of the 10th Anniversary of People's Poland – 1954 | |
Medal of the 30th Anniversary of People's Poland – 1974 | |
Medal of the 40th Anniversary of People's Poland – 1984 | |
Medal "For Oder, Neisse and the Baltic"
| |
Medal "For Warsaw 1939-1945"
| |
Medal "For Participation in the Battles for Berlin"
| |
Medal of Victory and Freedom 1945 | |
Gold Medal of the Armed Forces in the Service of the Fatherland | |
Silver Medal of the Armed Forces in the Service of the Fatherland | |
Bronze Medal of the Armed Forces in the Service of the Fatherland | |
Gold Medal of Merit for National Defence | |
Silver Medal of Merit for National Defence | |
Bronze Medal of Merit for National Defence | |
Medal of the National Education Commission | |
Medal Pro Memoria – 2005 | |
Gold Badge of them. Janek Krasicki | |
Polish State Millennium Badge |
Soviet Union
Other countries
Commander of the Order of the Crown (Belgium) – 1967 | |
Order of Georgi Dimitrov (Bulgaria) – 1983 | |
Medal of 30th Anniversary of the Bulgarian Armed Forces (Bulgaria) – 1974 | |
Order of José Martí (Cuba) – 1983 | |
Collar of the Order of the White Lion (Czechoslovakia) – 1978 | |
Order of Klement Gottwald (Czechoslovakia) – 1983 | |
Order of the Red Banner (Czechoslovakia) – 1971 | |
Medal “For Strengthening Friendship in Arms”, Golden class (Czechoslovakia) | |
Grand Cross of the White Rose of Finland (Finland) – 1989 | |
Grand Cross of the Legion d'Honneur (France ) – 1989
| |
Order of Karl Marx (East Germany) – 1983 | |
Scharnhorst Order (East Germany) – 1975 | |
Grand Cross of Order of the Redeemer (Greece) – 1987 | |
Order of the Flag of the Republic of Hungary, 1st with diamonds (Hungary ) – 1983
| |
Order of the Red Banner (Hungary) – 1977 | |
Medal of 60th Anniversary of the End of World War II (Israel) – 2005 | |
Knight Grand Cross with Ribbon of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (Italy) – 1989 | |
Order of Sukhbaatar (Mongolia) – 1977 | |
Order of the Red Banner (Mongolia) – 1983 | |
Order of the National Flag, 1st class (North Korea) – 1977[citation needed] | |
Grand Collar of the Order of Prince Henry (Portugal) | |
Order of the Star of the Romanian People's Republic, 1st class ( Romania ) – 1983
| |
Gold Medal "Virtutea Ostăşească" (Romania) – 1971 | |
Medal of Zhukov (Russia) – 1996 | |
Jubilee Medal "50 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" (Russia) – 1995 | |
Jubilee Medal "60 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" (Russia) – 2005 | |
Gold Star Order (Vietnam) – 1983 |
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "Profile: Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski". Cable Network News (CNN). Archived from the original on 13 June 2008. Retrieved 24 November 2008.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Repa, Jan (16 May 2001). "Profile: Poland's last Communist leader". British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) News. Retrieved 26 November 2008.
- ^ ISBN 9787501252299.
- ISBN 9780080333663. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
- ^ Chodakiewicz, Marek Jan (12 December 2006). "The Jaruzelski Case: The Ascent of Agent 'Wolski'". World Politics Review.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-375-42532-5.
- ^ a b c Green, Peter S. (27 May 2001). "An Aging Ex-Dictator Who Refuses To Recant". The New York Times. p. 2. Retrieved 29 November 2008.
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 24 November 2008.
- ^ "The Jaruzelski Case: The Ascent of Agent 'Wolski'". www.worldpoliticsreview.com. Archived from the original on 11 November 2007. Retrieved 1 April 2018.
- ^ "Profile: Poland's last communist leader". 16 May 2001.
- ^ The Struggle in the Polish Leadership and the Revolt of the ApparatArchived 27 May 2010 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b c Szporer, Michael. "General Wojciech Jaruzelski". Global Museum on Communism. Archived from the original on 9 October 2011.
- ^ a b Poland marks Communist crackdown, BBC News, 13 December 2006
- ^ Suraska, Wisła (1 April 1998). How the Soviet Union Disappeared: An Essay on the Causes of Dissolution. Duke University Press. p. 69. Retrieved 1 April 2018 – via Internet Archive.
jaruzelski 1981 december WRON andropov.
- ^ Das war psychische Folter Der Spiegel, 11 May 1992.
- ^ Malcolm Byrne, "New Evidence on the Polish Crisis 1980–1981", Cold War International History Project Bulletin 11 (Winter 1998), p. 4
- ^ Minutes of CPSU CC Politburo, 10 December 1981, Document No. 21, p. 165.
- ^ Jane Perlez, "Warsaw Journal: Old Cold War Enemies Exhume One Battlefield", The New York Times, 11 November 1997, p. 14.
- ^ a b c d e CIA Historical Review Program (24 October 1997). The Warsaw Pact 1955-1991 - Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance (PDF file, direct download 12.2 MB). Soviet – East European Military Relations in Historical Perspective - Sources and Reassessments. The Historical Collections Division (HCD) of the Office of Information Management Services. p. 18. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 November 2013.
- ^ a b "Petr Klan » Když disident ujede". Aktuálně.cz. 16 September 2008. Retrieved 1 April 2018.
- JSTOR 151930.
- ISBN 9780465064946.
- ^ a b Butturini, Paula (30 July 1989). "Solidarity Foe Is New Polish Party Chief". Chicago Tribune. Warsaw. Retrieved 14 July 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-8214-1892-5. Retrieved 4 June 2011.
- ^ Martin, Douglas (28 October 2013). "Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Ex-Premier of Poland, Dies at 86". The New York Times.
- ^ "A Biographical Note". Lech Wałęsa Institute. Archived from the original on 14 June 2009.
- ^ "Stanisław Ciosek: Gen. Jaruzelski to wielki Polak. Powinniśmy być mu wdzięczni". Wiadomosci.onet.pl. 25 May 2014. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
- ISBN 9787501252299.
- ^ "Putin gives medal to Poland's communist-era strongman - AFP - Find Articles at BNET.com". 1 May 2008. Archived from the original on 1 May 2008. Retrieved 1 April 2018.
- ^ "Former Polish President Apologizes for 1968 Soviet-Led Invasion of Cz…". mosnews.com. 17 January 2004. Archived from the original on 17 January 2004. Retrieved 1 April 2018.
- ^ "Wyborcza.pl". wyborcza.pl. Retrieved 1 April 2018.
- ^ a b "Gwardianie generała". Wiadomosci.onet.pl. 26 July 2013. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
- ^ "Wojciech Jaruzelski 'admitted to hospital with pneumonia'". Telegraph. 29 December 2010. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
- ^ Herald, Catholic. "Do not judge Jaruzelski, say Polish archbishops". CatholicHerald.co.uk. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
- ^ Poland's last Communist leader Wojciech Jaruzelski dies. 25 May 2014, BBC News.
- ^ Poland's Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski dies at 90. Warsaw, Poland (AP), 25 May 2014.
- ^ a b "Prayers, protests at Polish general's funeral - US News". usnews.com. Retrieved 1 April 2018.
- ^ a b Poland's Walesa kneels in prayer at funeral mass for former foe Jaruzelski | Reuters. 30 May 2014
- ^ "Walesa: 'I will leave God to judge Jaruzelski'". scotsman.com. Retrieved 1 April 2018.
- ^ Three presidents to attend Jaruzelski funeral - National. 30 May 2014, TheNews.pl
- ^ "Zmarła Barbara Jaruzelska, żona Wojciecha Jaruzelskiego - Wiadomości". onet.pl. 5 June 2017. Archived from the original on 5 June 2017. Retrieved 1 April 2018.
- ^ Hella Pick (25 May 2014), "General Wojciech Jaruzelski obituary", The Guardian, retrieved 29 October 2014
- ^ Gover, Dominic (10 February 2014). "Poland's Last Soviet-Era Dictator, aged 90, Seduces his Nurse". International Business Times. Retrieved 18 April 2020.
- ^ "Wife of former Polish dictator seeking divorce over his affair with nurse: report". New York Daily News. 11 February 2014.
- ^ "Войцех Ярузельский: Начал менять взгляды на Россию, находясь в депортации в Сибири". Российская газета (in Russian). 16 July 2008. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
- ^ Vanessa Gera (25 May 2014), Poland's last Communist leader, Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, dies at age 90, The Associated Press, retrieved 28 May 2014
- ^ "Jaruzelski gets highest Soviet prize". Reading Eagle. Moscow. AP. 5 July 1983. Retrieved 7 September 2013.
Bibliography
- Berger, Manfred E. Jaruzelski: Traitor or Patriot? London: Hutchinson, 1990. ISBN 0091744660
- Berger, Manfred E., and Zbigniew Bauer. Jaruzelski. Kraków: Oficyna Cracovia, 1991. ISBN 8385104216
- Labedz, Leopold. Poland Under Jaruzelski: A Comprehensive Sourcebook on Poland During and After Martial Law. New York: Scribner, 1984. ISBN 0684181169
- Pelinka, Anton. Politics of the Lesser Evil: Leadership, Democracy, & Jaruzelski's Poland. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1999. ISBN 1560003677
- Swidlicki, Andrzej. Political Trials in Poland, 1981–1986. London: Croom Helm, 1988. ISBN 0709944446
- Weschler, Lawrence. The Passion of Poland, from Solidarity Through the State of War. New York: Pantheon Books, 1982. ISBN 0394722868
- ISBN 9787501252299
External links
- Official website
- Jaruzelski: Selected Speeches
- Marek Jan Chodakiewicz (12 December 2006), The Jaruzelski Case: The Ascent of Agent 'Wolski' Archived 11 November 2007 at the Wayback Machine, World Politics Review