Jakub Berman was born on December 26, 1901, in
WarsawWarsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River roughly from both the Baltic Sea coast and the Carpathian Mountains. Its population as of 2009 was estimated at 1,709,781, and the Warsaw metropolitan area at approximately 2,785,000...
, then
Russian EmpireThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, into a middle-class Polish Jewish family, and died on April 10, 1984. Berman was a
PolishPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
communistCommunism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general. Karl Marx posited that communism would be the final stage in human...
politician, and a member of the
Polish United Workers' PartyThe Polish United Workers' Party was the Communist party which governed the People's Republic of Poland from 1948 to 1989. Ideologically it was based on the theories of Marxism-Leninism.- The Party's Program and Goals :...
's
PolitburoPolitburo, from German Politbüro, short for Political Bureau, , is the executive committee for a number of communist political parties.- Marxist-Leninist states :...
where he was in charge of State Security Services (
Urząd Bezpieczeństwa), and considered
Joseph StalinJoseph Stalin was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953...
's right hand in the
People's Republic of PolandThe Polish People's Republic was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1990.Although the Polish People's Republic was a sovereign state as defined by international law, its leaders were at the very least approved by the Kremlin...
between 1944 and 1953.
He received a
Law degreeA Law degree is the degree conferred on someone who successfully completes studies in law. However many law degrees are insufficient education for a license to practice law by the administrative body of that jurisdiction...
in 1925 from the Warsaw University, and was an assistant to
MarxistMarxism is the political philosophy and economic worldview based upon a materialist interpretation of history, a Marxist analysis of capitalism, a theory of social change, and an atheist view of human liberation derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels; three primary aspects of...
sociologist Prof.
Jakub Berman was born on December 26, 1901, in
WarsawWarsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River roughly from both the Baltic Sea coast and the Carpathian Mountains. Its population as of 2009 was estimated at 1,709,781, and the Warsaw metropolitan area at approximately 2,785,000...
, then
Russian EmpireThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, into a middle-class Polish Jewish family, and died on April 10, 1984. Berman was a
PolishPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
communistCommunism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general. Karl Marx posited that communism would be the final stage in human...
politician, and a member of the
Polish United Workers' PartyThe Polish United Workers' Party was the Communist party which governed the People's Republic of Poland from 1948 to 1989. Ideologically it was based on the theories of Marxism-Leninism.- The Party's Program and Goals :...
's
PolitburoPolitburo, from German Politbüro, short for Political Bureau, , is the executive committee for a number of communist political parties.- Marxist-Leninist states :...
where he was in charge of State Security Services (
Urząd Bezpieczeństwa), and considered
Joseph StalinJoseph Stalin was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953...
's right hand in the
People's Republic of PolandThe Polish People's Republic was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1990.Although the Polish People's Republic was a sovereign state as defined by international law, its leaders were at the very least approved by the Kremlin...
between 1944 and 1953.
He received a
Law degreeA Law degree is the degree conferred on someone who successfully completes studies in law. However many law degrees are insufficient education for a license to practice law by the administrative body of that jurisdiction...
in 1925 from the Warsaw University, and was an assistant to
MarxistMarxism is the political philosophy and economic worldview based upon a materialist interpretation of history, a Marxist analysis of capitalism, a theory of social change, and an atheist view of human liberation derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels; three primary aspects of...
sociologist Prof.
Ludwik KrzywickiLudwik Krzywicki was a Polish anthropologist, economist and sociologist. One of the early champions of sociology in Poland, he approached historical materialism from a sociological viewpoint...
. He was working on the doctoral thesis but was never to finish it. Member of the Communist Youth Union and from 1928
Communist Party of PolandThe Communist Party of Poland was a historical communist party in Poland. It was a result of the fusion of Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania and the Polish Socialist Party-Left in the Communist Workers Party of Poland .-1918-1921:The KPRP was founded on 16 December 1918 as...
. After the break out of the
Polish-German-Soviet WarThe Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II...
in September 1939, he fled to the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
-occupied eastern part of Poland, first to Białystok, and in the
springSpring is one of the four temperate seasons, the transition period between winter and summer. Its days are close to twelve hours long with increasing day length, as it occurs near the time of an equinox. In the Northern Hemisphere, spring runs from March into May, and in the Southern Hemisphere it...
of 1941 to
MinskMinsk is the capital and largest city in Belarus, situated on the Svislach and Niamiha rivers. Minsk is also a headquarters of the Commonwealth of Independent States . As the national capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is also the administrative centre of Minsk...
. There, worked as an editor at Sztandar Wolności (
The Banner of Freedom), the Polish-language organ of the Belarusian Communist Party. After the
German invasion of the Soviet UnionOperation Barbarossa was the code name for Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a 2,900 km front...
in 1941, he escaped to Moscow and later became an instructor at the
CominternThe Comintern was an international Communist organization founded in Moscow in March 1919...
school in the city of
UfaUfa is the capital of the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia Ufa is the one of the largest cities of Russia, administrative, political, economic, scientific and cultural center of the republic. Population: 1,021,500 ; 1,042,437...
, southeast of Kuibyshev, training activists who would form a new party for Polish communists the
Polish Workers' PartyThe Polish Workers' Party was a communist party in Poland from 1942 to 1948. It was founded as a reconstitution of the Communist Party of Poland, and merged with the Polish Socialist Party in 1948 to form the Polish United Workers' Party.-History:...
. In December 1943 he met with Joseph Stalin at the
KremlinKremlin is the Russian word for "fortress", "citadel" or "castle" and refers to any major fortified central complex found in historic Russian cities. This word is often used to refer to the best-known one, the Moscow Kremlin, or metonymically to the government that is based there...
, gained his trust and became a prominent figure among Polish communists in the Soviet Union. In 1944 Berman became Politbiuro member of the communist Polish Workers' Party. Upon his return to Poland in 1944, he, together with Bolesław Bierut and the economist
Hilary MincHilary Minc , born into a middle-class Polish Jewish family of Oskar and Stefania , was a Polish politician, Marxist economist, member of the Communist Party of Poland and the PWP/PUWP Politburo of the KCPPR between 1944-1956, the third in command in Bolesław Bierut's political apparatus...
, formed a triumvirate of Stalinist leaders in postwar Poland.
Between 1944–1956 Berman was a member of Politbiuro of Polish United Workers' Party (PUWP) responsible for Urząd Bezpieczeństwa (State Security Services), propaganda, and ideology.
After the death of Bolesław Bierut, first secretary of the PUWP, he resigned in June 1956 from the PUWP Politbiuro, was relieved in fall of 1956 from
Central CommitteeA central Committee is commonly the central executive unit of a Leninist or Communist party, whether ruling or non-ruling. In a Communist party, the Central Committee is made up of delegates elected at a Party Congress...
of PUWP, and in 1957 dismissed from PUWP altogether as responsible for "Stalinist-era errors and mistakes". Until retirement in 1969, he worked in the state-run "Ksiażka i Wiedza" ("Book and Knowledge") publishing house.
Berman was the brother of
Adolf BermanAdolf Avraham Berman was a Polish-Israeli activist and politician.-Biography:Born in Warsaw in the Russian Empire , Berman attended the University of Warsaw, where he earned a PhD in philosophy...
, a Zionist activist.