A communist leader who helped shape postwar Poland's state
At Bierut's funeral in March 1956 he said, "Bierut has died, but our party, united as a monolith, lives on." That month the Sixth Plenum chose Edward Ochab as First Secretary; Władysław Gomułka became First Secretary only at the Eighth Plenum of October 1956.
A Polish communist politician and divisional general, born into a steelworker's family and a member of the Communist Party of Poland from 1923. Arrested in 1925 and again in 1936, he served years in prison, then from 1939 worked in the USSR, helping found the Union of Polish Patriots and the Polish Workers' Party and serving as a political officer of the Polish Army formed there. After the war he was voivode of Silesia and deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers, working to halt Soviet removals of people and equipment from Silesia. On 20 November 1952 he was appointed chairman of the Council of State, an office he held until his death. In March 1956 he was the other major candidate for First Secretary at the Sixth Plenum, which chose Edward Ochab; he was thereafter counted among the party's hardline natolin faction. He died of cancer on 7 August 1964.
Activities and affiliations
- 1944–1964 Political and party leadership · Poland
- 1952–1964 Government and administration · Poland
Career Timeline
- 1923–1939Communist Party of Poland activist; imprisoned
- 1943–1945Political officer in the Polish forces formed in the Soviet Union; deputy commander for political affairs
- 1944–1948Politburo member of the Polish Workers' Party
- 1945–1948Voivode of the Silesian-Dąbrowskie Voivodeship
- 1948–1954Polish United Workers' Party Central Committee secretary and Politburo member
- 1949–1952Deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers
- 1952–1964Chairman of the Council of State of Poland
Related historical events
- 1944–1948Poland: From the Lublin Committee to the United Workers' PartyWorkers' Party Politburo memberHe worked in the State National Council and the political department of the Polish army in 1944, remained in the Politburo after the plenum of September 1948 and took part in the unification congress.
- 1956.06The Poznań Uprisingrival for the first secretary postAfter Bierut's death, he competed with Ochab for the first secretary post but lost at the Sixth Central Committee plenum.