Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski (6 July 1923 – 25 May 2014) was a Polish military general, politician and de facto leader of the Polish People's Republic from 1981 until 1989, serving as a military dictator from 13 December 1981 until 22 July 1983. He was the First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party between 1981 and 1989, making him the last leader of the Polish People's Republic. Jaruzelski served as Prime Minister from 1981 to 1985, the Chairman of the Council of State from 1985 to 1989 and briefly as President of Poland from 1989 to 1990, when the office of President was restored after 37 years. He was also the last commander-in-chief of the Polish People's Army, which in 1990 became the Polish Armed Forces.
Born to Polish nobility in Kurów in eastern (then-central) Poland, Jaruzelski was deported with his family to Siberia by the NKVD after the invasion of Poland. Assigned to forced labour in the Siberian wilderness, he developed photokeratitis, which forced him to wear protective sunglasses for the rest of his life. In 1943, Jaruzelski joined the newly created First Polish Army and fought alongside the Soviets against Nazi Germany in the Eastern Front, most notably in the liberation of Warsaw and in the Battle of Berlin. Following the Polish October and the expatriation of Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky back to the Soviet Union, Jaruzelski became the chief political officer of the Polish People's Army and eventually Polish Minister of Defence in 1968.
Jaruzelski became the First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party and leader of Poland after the brief one-year term of Stanisław 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; the Solidarity union was also gaining support, which worried the Polish Central Committee and the Soviet Union, which viewed Solidarity as a threat to the Warsaw Pact. After his request for a joint Soviet-Polish operation was denied by the Soviets, who were already deeply embroiled in the Soviet-Afghan war, Jaruzelski imposed martial law in Poland on 13 December 1981 to crush the anti-communist opposition. The military junta, curfew and travel restrictions lasted until 22 July 1983.
With the Brezhnev doctrine now effectively rendered forceless due to deepening Soviet entanglement in Afghanistan and their own economic crisis, the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR)'s two unsuccessful reform attempts in 1982 and 1987, resulting in the complete collapse of the party's legitimacy and support, as highlighted by the 1988 Polish strikes and a resurgent Solidarity, Jaruzelski began negotiations with the still-banned movement's leaders in late 1988. Acquiescing to their demands, the Polish Round Table Talks were held in early 1989, transforming the system to a multi-party one, with the first semi-free election in the Communist bloc scheduled for 4 June 1989. Solidarity scored an unexpectedly overwhelming victory in the election, starting the chain reaction that resulted in the Fall of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe. Prices were fully freed on 1 August 1989, with Poland becoming only the second Communist country to do so after China in 1985. Facing hyperinflation and increasing strike pressure, Jaruzelski's Prime Minister-designate Czesław Kiszczak failed to clear the vote as PZPR's satellite parties shifted their support to Solidarity's candidate Tadeusz Mazowiecki, who formed the first non-communist government in the Eastern Bloc. Left with only a ceremonial post from July 1989 as President of the Polish People's Republic, he exercised no real power; the PZPR dissolved itself in January 1990 and Jaruzelski retired, with the Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa succeeding him in the 1990 Polish presidential election 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 criticised 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, at 9 PM in Kurów, into a family of Polish gentry. The name which he had received was a tribute to his grandfather, who fought in the January Uprising. He was the 7th out of the total of 8 children, which Wanda (née Zaremba) and Władysław Mieczysław Jaruzelski, a Czech-educated agronomist and volunteered soldier who fought in the war against Soviet Russia in 1920 had and was raised on the family estate near Wysokie (in the vicinity of Białystok). From 1933 until September 1939, he was educated in a Catholic school in Warsaw where he received strict religious education. During the period of time from 1937 to 1939, he was a member of the Polish Scouting and Guiding Association.
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, at the time of the aggression, were residing in one of the properties they owned, which was located in Lida Powiat. As a result of the attack, during the night from 22 to 23 September, they decided to flee 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.
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. During his labour work, he was stricken with snow blindness, suffering permanent damage to his eyes as well as to his back. His eye condition forced him to wear dark sunglasses most of the time for the rest of his life, which became his trademark. In January 1942, he made a decision to leave Turochak and make his way towards Biysk with the objective of reuniting with his father, who died on 4 June 1942 from dysentery; his mother and sister survived the war (she died in 1966).
Military service and early political career
Jaruzelski was selected by the Soviet authorities for enrollment into the Soviet Officer Training School. During his time in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, Jaruzelski wanted to join the non-Soviet controlled Polish exile army led by Władysław Anders, but in 1943, by which time the Soviet Union was fighting in Europe against Germany in the Eastern Front, he joined the Polish army units being formed under Soviet command. He served in this Soviet-controlled First Polish Army during the war. He participated in the 1945 Soviet military takeover of Warsaw and the Battle of Berlin. By the time the war ended that year, he had gained the rank of lieutenant. On 1 July 1945 he crossed the Lusatian Neisse back into Poland.
On 5 July 1945, as a result of the Polish-Czechoslovak border conflicts, the regiment in which he served received an order to defend a 107 kilometres long part of the border from Racibórz to Racławice Śląskie. The regiment was stationed in Głubczyce and on 3 August of the same year, he was selected as a military commandant of the city.