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Wojciech Jaruzelski
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Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski (pronounced: ) (born 6 July 1923 in Kurów) is a Polish statesman, and a former communist political and military leader. He served as Prime Minister from 1981 to 1985, head of the Polish Council of State from 1985 to 1989, and President from 1989 to 1990.
iech Witold Jaruzelski was born on 6 July 1923, into a family of gentry.
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Encyclopedia
Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski (pronounced: ) (born 6 July 1923 in Kurów) is a Polish statesman, and a former communist political and military leader. He served as Prime Minister from 1981 to 1985, head of the Polish Council of State from 1985 to 1989, and President from 1989 to 1990.
Early life and military career
Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski was born on 6 July 1923, into a family of gentry. He was raised on the family estate near Wysokie (in the vicinity of Bialystok). He was educated in a Catholic school during the 1930s.
On 1 September 1939, the September Campaign started when Poland was invaded by Germany, with the latter country aided by another invasion begun sixteen days later by the Soviet Union. The invasions resulted in the defeat of Poland by the following month, and its partition between Soviet and German control. During the campaign, Jaruzelski and his family were captured by the army of the Soviet Union, and deported to that country. In 1940 at the age of sixteen, Jaruzelski was sent to the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic,-the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic was the immediate predecessor to the Republic of Kazakhstan-where he performed forced labour in the Karaganda coal mines. During his labour work, he became an orphan, and developed permanent damage to his eyes and back. He was later selected for enrollment into the Soviet Officer Training School by the Soviet authorities. During his time in the Kazakh Republic, Jaruzelski wanted to join the non-Soviet controlled Polish exile army led by Wladyslaw Anders, but in 1943, by which time the Soviet Union was fighting in Europe against Germany in the Soviet-German War, he joined the Polish army units being formed under Soviet command. He served in the Soviet-sponsored First Polish Army during the war. He participated in the Soviet military takeover of Warsaw and the Battle of Berlin, both of which occurred in 1945. By the time the war ended that year, he had gained the rank of lieutenant. He "further credited himself in Soviet eyes" by engaging in combat with the Polish Home Army, an anti-communist organization, from 1945 to 1947.
After the end of the war, Jaruzelski graduated from the Polish Higher Infantry School, an event which was followed by a graduation from the General Staff Academy. He joined Poland's communist party, the Polish United Workers Party, in 1948. In the first post-war years, he was among the military fighting the Polish anti-communist guerrillas ("cursed soldiers") in the Swietokrzyskie region. A BBC News profile of Jaruzelski says that his career "took off after the departure [from Poland] in 1956 of the Soviet Field Marshal, Konstantin Rokossovsky", who had been Poland's Commander in Chief and Minister of Defence. Jaruzelski became the chief political officer of the Polish armed forces in 1960, its chief of staff in 1964; and he became the Polish Minister of Defense in 1968, four years after he was elected to be a member of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers Party.
In 1970, he was involved in the plot against Wladyslaw Gomulka, which led to the appointment of Edward Gierek as Communist Party General Secretary. He took part in organizing the suppression of striking workers, which led to massacres in the coastal cities of Gdansk, Gdynia, Elblag and Szczecin. In December 1970, Jaruzelski became a candidate member for the Politburo of the Polish United Workers Party, the chief executive body of the communist administration of Poland, obtaining full membership the following year.
Leader of the Polish military government
On 11 February 1981, Jaruzelski was elected to be the Prime Minister of Poland, and became the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers Party on October 18 the same year.
On 13 December 1981, Jaruzelski imposed martial law in Poland. He was the member of the Military Council of National Salvation. According to his explanation, this action was intended to prevent a threat of Soviet invasion. A BBC News profile of Jaruzelski contends that the establishment of martial law was "an attempt to suppress the Solidarity movement." Most former opposition members argue that it was merely an action by the Polish communist regime to retain power and strangle the newly born and developing civil society. Some even hold that the circumstances of the martial law were even in violation of the communist constitution.
Moreover, historical evidence released under Russian President Boris Yeltsin has been brought to light indicating that the Soviet Union did not plan to invade Poland; in fact, the Soviets strictly rejected Jaruzelski's request for military help in 1981, leaving the Solidarity "problem" to be sorted out by the Polish government. This question, as well as many other facts about Poland in the years 1945-1989, are presently under the investigation of government historians at the Institute of National Remembrance (Instytut Pamieci Narodowej, IPN), whose publications reveal facts from the communist-era archives.
In 1982 he co-founded the Patriotic Movement for National Rebirth.
Political reforms and presidency
The policies of Mikhail Gorbachev also stimulated political reform in Poland. By the close of the tenth plenary session in December 1988, the Communist Party was forced, after strikes, to approach leaders of Solidarity for talks.
From 6 February to 15 April 1989, negotiations were held between 13 working groups during 94 sessions of the roundtable talks. These negotiations "radically altered the shape of the Polish government and society", and resulted in an agreement which stated that a great degree of political power would be given to a newly created bicameral legislature, and that the president would act as the chief executive. Solidarity was also declared a legal organization. During the following Polish elections the Communists won 65 percent of the seats in the Sejm, though the seats won were guaranteed and the Communists were unable to gain a majority, whilst 99 out of the 100 seats in the Senate freely contested were won by Solidarity-backed candidates. Jaruzelski won the presidential ballot by one vote.
Jaruzelski was unsuccessful in convincing Walesa to include Solidarity in a "grand coalition" with the Communists, and Jaruzelski resigned his position of general secretary of the Polish Communist Party. A government was formed by Solidarity, and Jaruzelski resigned as Poland's leader in 1990. He was succeeded by Walesa in December. Subsequently, Jaruzelski faced charges for a number of actions such as murder that he committed while he was Defense Minister during the Communist period.
On 31 January 1991, General Jaruzelski retired from the army service.
After retirement
In an interview conducted in 2001, Jaruzelski said that he believes communism failed, that he is a social democrat, and that he backed Aleksander Kwasniewski, who at that time was the President of Poland, as well as Leszek Miller, who would later become the Prime Minister of Poland.
In May 2005, Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded a medal commemorating 60th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany to Jaruzelski. Other former leaders awarded the medal include Romania's former King Michael I. Czech President Václav Klaus criticized this step, claiming that Jaruzelski is a symbol of the Warsaw Pact troops' invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Jaruzelski said that he had apologized and that the decision on the August 1968 invasion had been a great "political and moral mistake".
On 28 March 2006, Jaruzelski was awarded a Siberian Exiles Cross by Polish President Lech Kaczynski. However, after making this fact public Kaczynski claimed that this was a mistake and blamed the bureaucracy for giving him a document containing 1293 names without notifying him of Jaruzelski's presence within it. After this statement Jaruzelski returned the cross.
On 31 March 2006, the IPN charged him with committing communist crimes, mainly the creation of a criminal military organization with the aim of conducting crimes (mostly concerned with the illegal imprisonment of people). The second charge involves the incitement of state ministers to commit acts beyond their competence. Jaruzelski has avoided most court appearances citing poor health.
The Polish Ministry of Defense is currently engaged in a process that would allow it to deny Jaruzelski any military pension he currently receives.
Legacy
Jaruzelski is a controversial person in Poland. Some people, many of them a part of the "Solidarity generation", have a highly negative opinion of him, believing that Jaruzelski "is little short of a traitor". Opinion polls, as of 15 May 2001, suggest that a majority of the Polish people are open to agreeing with his explanation that martial law was implemented to prevent a Soviet invasion.
Written works
Jaruzelski, Wojciech (1999). Róznic sie madrze (English translation: To Differ Wisely).
External links
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