General
General is the generic Polish language term for the rank of General. In narrow sense it is used to denote the rank of a Four-star general introduced on August 15, 2002. It is currently the highest military rank of the
Polish Army, with the rank of
Marshal of Poland currently being unused. The symbols of the rank are the
general's wavy line and four stars, featured both on the
rogatywka, sleeves of the uniform and above the breast pocket of a field uniform.
In Polish military traditions the highest rank was always the rank of
Marshal of Poland, with three General's grades below.
Encyclopedia
General is the generic Polish language term for the rank of General. In narrow sense it is used to denote the rank of a Four-star general introduced on August 15, 2002. It is currently the highest military rank of the
Polish Army, with the rank of
Marshal of Poland currently being unused. The symbols of the rank are the
general's wavy line and four stars, featured both on the
rogatywka, sleeves of the uniform and above the breast pocket of a field uniform.
In Polish military traditions the highest rank was always the rank of
Marshal of Poland, with three General's grades below. However, the system differed significantly from other systems of rank insignia used in both armies of the
Warsaw Pact and the
NATO. Because of lack of the rank of four star general, the Polish ranks were usually a grade higher than their name suggested. Thus the rank of
General brygady was an equivalent of
Major General rather than
Brigadier General as the name suggested.
In 1954, during the integration of the Polish Army with the structures of the
Warsaw Pact , a new rank of
general armii was introduced, as a direct copy of the Soviet rank of
??????? ?????. However, after the death of
Joseph Stalin and the end of
Stalinism in Poland, the general officers rank structure returned to the pre-war pattern. In 1981 Gen.
Wojciech Jaruzelski introduced again the rank of general of the army. As the only person to hold the newly-introduced rank, he was thought of as an
ersatz-Marshal, as he could not promote himself to the rank of Marshal of Poland after the death of
Marian Spychalski. In 1995 the rank was yet again abolished and the only people to still hold it are Jaruzelski and Gen. Florian Siwicki, both retired.
However, with Poland's entry into the structures of
NATO a need arose to unify the Polish rank system with that of English speaking countries . Hence the rank of a
General was introduced. The rank of Marshall of Poland remains as the "war time" rank, given to the chief of general staff in case of war or a successful military commander after a victorious campaign.
