Born to Polish nobility inKurów in eastern (then-central) Poland, Jaruzelski was deported with his family toSiberia by theNKVD after theinvasion of Poland. Assigned to forced labour in the Siberian wilderness, he developedphotokeratitis which forced him to wear protective sunglasses for the rest of his life. In 1943, Jaruzelski joined the newly createdFirst Polish Army and fought alongside the Soviets against Nazi Germany in theEastern Front, most notably in the liberation ofWarsaw and in theBattle of Berlin. Following thePolish October and the expatriation of MarshalKonstantin Rokossovsky back to the Soviet Union, Jaruzelski became the chief political officer of the Polish People's Army and eventuallyPolish Minister of Defence in 1968.
Jaruzelski became the First Secretary of thePolish United Workers' Party and leader of Poland after the brief one-year term ofStanisław Kania. Kania's predecessor,Edward Gierek, left Poland indebted by accepting loans from foreign creditors and the country's economy, rocked by strikes, was unstable by the time Jaruzelski became head of state. As Poland headed towards insolvency,rationing was enforced due to shortages of basic goods, which only contributed to the tense social and political situation. The declining living and working conditions triggered anger among the masses and strengthened anti-Communist sentiment; theSolidarity union was also gaining support, which worried thePolish Central Committee and the Soviet Union, which viewed Solidarity as a threat to theWarsaw Pact. Fearing a Soviet intervention similar to those inHungary (1956) andCzechoslovakia (1968), Jaruzelski imposedmartial law in Poland on 13 December 1981 to crush the anti-communist opposition. Themilitary junta, curfew and travel restrictions lasted until 22 July 1983.
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 therevolutions of 1989 in Central and Eastern Europe, Jaruzelski supported the change of government for the benefit of the country and resigned after thePolish Round Table Agreement, which led to multi-party elections in Poland. He briefly served as President of Poland from July 1989[1] but exercised no real power and, in the1990 Polish presidential election,Lech Wałęsa succeeded him as the first President elected in a popular vote.
Having served as the country's leader during its turbulent final years of Communist rule, Jaruzelski remains a controversial figure in Poland to this day. He was praised for allowing the country's peaceful transition into democracy, but was also fiercely criticized by contemporaries for his imposition of martial law, including his government's violent suppression of protests and imprisonment of thousands of opposition activists without definite charges, among other human rights violations.
Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski was born on 6 July 1923 inKurów,[2] into a family of Polishgentry.[2][3] He was the son of Wanda (née Zaremba) and Władysław Mieczysław Jaruzelski, a Czech-educatedagronomist and volunteered soldier who fought in thewar against Soviet Russia in 1920[4][5] and was raised on the family estate nearWysokie (in the vicinity ofBiałystok).[6] From 1933 until September 1939, he was educated in a Catholic school inWarsaw where he received strict religious education.[4][2]
World War II commenced on 1 September 1939 with theinvasion of Poland by Germany, aided by theSoviet 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 toLithuania to stay with some friends. However, a few months later, after Lithuania and the otherBaltic states wereforcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union, Jaruzelski and his family were captured by theRed Army and designated for deportation toSiberia.[2][7]
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 agulag. Jaruzelski and his mother were sent on a month-long journey toBiysk,Altai Krai. After that, Jaruzelski walked for 180 kilometres (110 mi) toTurochak where he was responsible for forest cleaning.[4][8] During his labour work, he was stricken withsnow blindness, suffering permanent damage to his eyes as well as to his back.[3] His eye condition forced him to wear dark sunglasses most of the time for the rest of his life, which became his trademark.[7] Jaruzelski's father died on 4 June 1942 fromdysentery; his mother and sister survived the war (she died in 1966).
Jaruzelski was selected by the Soviet authorities for enrollment into the Soviet Officer Training School.[2] During his time in the Kazakh Republic, Jaruzelski wanted to join the non-Soviet controlled Polish exile army led byWładysław Anders,[8] but in 1943,[9] by which time the Soviet Union was fighting in Europe against Germany in theEastern Front, he joined the Polish army units being formed under Soviet command.[3] He served in this Soviet-controlledFirst Polish Army during the war.[2] He participated in the 1945 Soviet military takeover ofWarsaw and theBattle of Berlin.[2] By the time the war ended that year, he had gained the rank of lieutenant.[3] He "further credited himself in Soviet eyes"[2] by engaging in combat against the non-CommunistPolish Home Army, from 1945 to 1947.[2]
Jaruzelski (right) withFidel Castro (left) in Poland, May 1972
In August 1968, Jaruzelski, as thedefence minister, ordered the 2nd Army under GeneralFlorian Siwicki (of the "LWP") to invadeCzechoslovakia, resulting in military occupation of northern Czechoslovakia until 11 November 1968 when under his orders and agreements with the Soviet Union his Polish troops were withdrawn and replaced by theSoviet Army. In 1970, he was involved in the successful plot againstWładysław Gomułka, which led to the appointment ofEdward Gierek as General Secretary of the Polish United Workers Party. There is some question whether he took part in organising the brutal suppression of striking workers; or whether his orders to the Communist military led tomassacres in the coastal cities ofGdańsk,Gdynia,Elbląg andSzczecin. AsMinister of Defense, General Jaruzelski was ultimately responsible for 27,000 troops used against unarmed civilians.[13] He claims that he was circumvented, which is why he never apologised for his involvement.[13] Jaruzelski became a candidate member for thePolitburo of the Polish United Workers' Party, the chief executive body of the party, obtaining full membership the following year.[2]
Jaruzelski in a television studio, preparing to announce the imposition of martial law, 1981
On 11 February 1981, Jaruzelski was namedChairman of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister). On 18 October,Stanisław Kania was ousted asFirst 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.[7][9]
A fortnight after taking power, Jaruzelski met withSolidarity headLech Wałęsa and Catholic bishopJózef 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.[14] As early as September, while he was still merely prime minister, he met with his aides to find an excuse to impose martial law.[14] On 13 December, citing purported recordings of Solidarity leaders planning a coup, Jaruzelski organised his own coup byproclaiming martial law.[7] AMilitary 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."[3]
Protests held in response to martial law were violently suppressed by the military of paramilitary units mostly by the use ofwater cannons,tear gas,batons, truncheons, and clubs, with one notable exception inWujek: following a "shoot-to-kill" order, ZOMO units opened fire on demonstrators there, killing nine and wounding 21 others. The total number of deaths during martial law, while still uncertain and subject to dispute, is estimated to be 91 in total.[15]
Jaruzelski (second from right) with other communist leaders and members of theWarsaw Pact, Berlin, 1987
In spite of severe economic sanctions introduced by theReagan Administration, martial law was largely successful in suppressing and demoralising the opposition, marginalising the Solidarity movement until the late 1980s. As demonstrators gradually declined towards the end of 1982, martial law was suspended on 31 December of that year, and was formally lifted (along with the final restrictions) on 22 July 1983.
In 1985, Jaruzelski resigned as prime minister and defence minister and became the Chairman of thePolish Council of State, a post equivalent to that of the head of state of Poland. However, his power centered on and firmly entrenched in his coterie of "LWP" generals and lower ranks officers of the Polish Communist Army.[16] There were plans in the government circles to award him the rank ofMarshal of Poland, ultimately abandoned largely due to his own negative attitude towards the proposal.
Subsequent years saw his government and its internal security forces censor, persecute, and jail thousands of journalists and opposition activists without charge. 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.[16]
According to Jaruzelski, an internal crackdown on Solidarity through martial law was necessary to avoid a Soviet invasion.[18] In a May 1992 interview withDer 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."[19] Jaruzelski also claimed in 1997 that Washington had given him a "green light", stating that he had sent Eugeniusz Molczyk to confer with Vice-PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush, who had agreed with Molczyk that martial law was the lesser of two evils.[20] 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.[16] At a press conference in September of that same year, however, former Warsaw Pact forces supreme commanderViktor Kulikov denied that the Soviet Union had either threatened or intended to intervene.[21]
Historical evidence released under Boris Yeltsin's presidency paints a more complicated picture: while Eastern Bloc countries were fully in favour of a crackdown on Solidarity, minutes fromPolitburo, Warsaw Pact and special commission meetings from the year leading up martial law details strong internal divisions on the question of intervening: Senior Soviet party figures and ministers in a special commission formed to respond to developments in Poland, such asMikhail Suslov,Yuri Andropov,Andrei Gromyko, andDmitriy Ustinov were reluctant to intervene, citing the1970 Polish protests and the ongoingSoviet-Afghan war,[22] while the Soviet leaderLeonid Brezhnev, along withEast German andCzechoslovak leaders Erich Honecker andGustáv Husák, expressed a strong willingness to intervene if necessary.[23] To this end, plans were made for a joint Soviet, East German, and Czechoslovak attack under the pretext of aWarsaw Pact military exercise called 'Soyuz-80,' (dubbedOperationKrkonoše in Czechoslovakia) in December 1980;[23][24] Before it could be carried out, Brezhnev was convinced by Kania to postpone the planned invasion in order to give Polish leadership a chance.
By the time of Jaruzelski's rise to power, the Soviet leadership's anti-intervention faction had prevailed thanks to the influence of Andropov, who at this point was already a highly influential figure in the Politburo: minutes from their 29 October 1981 meeting details a discussion of Jaruzelski's demands for military support if he failed to control the situation, which were unanimously rejected.[23] Contrary to his public statements after the fact, Jaruzelski was in fact highly insistent on Warsaw Pact military support.[13] Following a long back-and-forth at Warsaw Pact and Politburo meetings, in which even a proposed bluffing statement of support was vetoed byRomania,[23][25] any notion of a Warsaw Pact intervention was firmly and consequently shut down by Andropov in a Politburo meeting three days before Jaruzelski's proclamation: "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."[26][16]
The policies ofMikhail Gorbachev stimulated political reform in Poland as well as in other communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe.[27]
From 6 February to 4 April 1989, negotiations were held between 13working groups during 94 sessions of theroundtable 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 createdbicameral legislature. It also restored the post ofpresident to act as head of state and chief executive. Solidarity was also declared a legal organisation. During the ensuingpartially-free elections, the Communists and their allies were allocated 65 percent of the seats in theSejm. Solidarity won all the remaining elected seats, and 99 out of the 100 seats in the fully elected Senate were also won by Solidarity-backed candidates.[2] Amid such a crushing defeat, there were fears Jaruzelski would annul the results. However, he allowed them to stand.[28] Jaruzelski waselected by parliament to the position of president. He was the only candidate.
Jaruzelski was unsuccessful in convincingLech Wałęsa to include Solidarity in a "grand coalition"[2] with the Communists. He resigned as first secretary of the PZPR on 29 July 1989.[2][29]Mieczysław Rakowski succeeded him as party leader.[29]
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, theUnited People's Party (ZSL) and theAlliance of Democrats (SD), to break their alliance with the PZPR.[30] 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.[31] Jaruzelski resigned as president in 1990.[2] He was succeeded by Wałęsa, who had won thepresidential election on 9 December.[32]
On 31 January 1991, Jaruzelski retired from the army.[33]
In October 1994, while attending a book-selling activity inWrocław, Jaruzelski was attacked by a male pensioner with a stone; his jaw was injured, requiring surgery. The attacker, who had been imprisoned during the martial law period, was sentenced to two years' imprisonment and fined 2,000,000złoty.[34]
In an interview in 2001, Jaruzelski said that he believed communism failed and that he was now asocial democrat. He also announced his support for PresidentAleksander Kwaśniewski andLeszek Miller, later Prime Minister. Both Kwaśniewski and Miller were members of theDemocratic Left Alliance, the social democratic party that included most of the remains of the PZPR.[8]
On 28 March 2006, Jaruzelski was awarded aSiberian Exiles Cross by Polish PresidentLech 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.[37][38]
On 31 March 2006, the IPN charged Jaruzelski with committingcommunist crimes, mainly the creation of a criminal military organisation with the aim of carrying out criminal acts—mostly concerned with the illegal imprisonment of people. A second charge involved inciting state ministers to commit acts beyond their competence.[38] Jaruzelski evaded most court appearances, citing poor health. In December 2010, Jaruzelski suffered from severepneumonia[39] and, in March 2011, he was diagnosed withlymphoma.[40]
Urn containing the ashes of JaruzelskiJaruzelski's grave at Powązki Military Cemetery in Warsaw
Jaruzelski died on 25 May 2014 in a Warsaw hospital after suffering a stroke earlier that month.[41][42] He had reportedly requestedconfession andlast rites by a Roman Catholic priest.[43][44] PresidentBronisław Komorowski, former Presidents Lech Wałęsa and Aleksander Kwaśniewski, and hundreds of other Poles attended his funeral mass at theField Cathedral of the Polish Army in Warsaw on 30 May. Wałęsa and Komorowski, who were among the thousands imprisoned during the crackdown onSolidarity in 1981, both said that judgment against Jaruzelski "would be left to God".[44][45] Jaruzelski was cremated and buried with full military honours atPowązki Military Cemetery in Warsaw, near the grave ofBolesław Bierut, the first Communist leader of Poland after World War II.[46] The decision to bury Jaruzelski at Powązki, the burial place of Polish soldiers killed defending their country since the early 19th century, caused protests.[43]
Jaruzelski marriedBarbara Halina Jaruzelska (1931–2017)[47] in 1961.[48] They had a daughter,Monika who was born on 11 August 1963. Monika has a son, Gustaw.
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.[3] In interviews in Russian media (Rossiyskaya Gazeta, for example), he has been presented as the harbinger of Poland's democracy.[49]
Croatian writerSlavenka Drakulić described Jaruzelski as a "tragic believer in Communism who made a pact with the devil in good faith".[50]
Różnić się mądrze (English translation:To Differ Wisely; 1999).[9]
"Być może to ostatnie słowo (wyjaśnienia złożone przed Sądem)" (English translation: "It may be the last word (explanations given in the Court)"; 2008).
^abcLiu, Yanshun (1 July 2016).Jaruzelski, the Shaker of Polish History (in Chinese) (1 ed.). Beijing, China: Shijiezhishi. pp. 14–15.ISBN9787501252299.
^abcdeCIA 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.
^Piotr Wróbel,Rebuilding Democracy in Poland, 1989-2004, inM. B. B. Biskupski; James S. Pula; Piotr J. Wrobel (25 May 2010).The Origins of Modern Polish Democracy. Ohio University Press. pp. 273–275.ISBN978-0-8214-1892-5. Retrieved4 June 2011.
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