A Polish-born Soviet general who commanded the suppression of the Poznań uprising
On 28 June 1956, arriving in Poznań around 2 p.m., he at once ordered troops to take control of the situation before the security headquarters.
Born into a Polish peasant family in Podolia, Ukraine, and illiterate until eighteen, he was drafted into the Red Army and rose to become a Soviet general. At the end of the Second World War he commanded the Polish First Army in the battle for Berlin and was made a Hero of the Soviet Union. After the war he stayed on in the high command of the Polish army as a Soviet overseer, and in June 1956, as deputy defence minister, directed the military suppression of the Poznań workers' protest on the ground.
Career Timeline
- 1923Drafted into the Red Army
- 1935–1938Frunze Military Academy
- 1944–1945Commanded the Polish First Army, Battle of Berlin
- 1945Hero of the Soviet Union
- 1949–1956Deputy Minister of National Defence, Poland
- 1956Commanded the suppression of the Poznań June protest
- 1956–1963Returned to the Soviet Defence Ministry, retired as army general