Home > Wojciech Jaruzelski

Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski (voy-tsyekh vit-old yar-uz-el-shkee) (born July 6, 1923) in the family of Polish gentry was a communist Polish political and military leader, Prime Minister from 1981-1985, and President from 1985-1990.

Following Nazi-Soviet pact as a child deported to Asian part of Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR ( Russian: ; tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik (SSSR) also called the Soviet Union ( ; tr. Sovetsky Soyuz , was a state in much of the northern region of Eurasia that existed from 1922 until 1 (see Polish areas annexed by Soviet Union), where his father dies of lack of medical treatment.

An officer of the Polish ArmyAn army comprises all of a nation's land-based military forces or a specific large military force. Military land forces An army is a military organization. The word army can refer to any armed force, or more specifically a force primarily designed for lan, he was trained at the Polish Higher InfantryInfantry (or Infantrymen are soldiers who fight primarily on foot, using personal weapons. They may arrive on scene in various ways, and are deployed either in formations or as skirmishers and guerillas. In the modern period, the term "infantryman" is res School and the General Staff Academy, and joined the Polish United Workers' PartyThe Polish United Workers' Party (PUWP; in Polish, Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza, PZPR), was the governing political party in communist-ruled Poland from its creation (through a fusion of the communist Polish Workers' Party and the left wing of the (the former Polish Communist Party), of which Central Committee he became a member in 1964. Soon he was also named the minister of defense. Jaruzelski declared martial law ( December 13, 1981) In 1968 he was heavily involved in the "cleansing" of the Polish army due to Moczar's antisemite campaign. In the same year, he led the invasion on Czechoslovakia. In 1970 was involved in the plot against Wladyslaw Gomulka, probably took part in organisation of the massacre in the coastal cities of Gdansk, Gdynia, Elblag and Szczecin.

Jaruzelski became the party's national secretary and prime minister in 1981, when Lech Walesa's movement ( Solidarity) was starting to earn national and external popularity. The Soviet Union became more and more concerned and threatened with invasion - a very credible threat, as they had invaded Afghanistan two years before. To avert this, Jaruzelski imposed martial law. The leaders of Solidarnosc were confined to a luxury resort, where Lech Walesa was spotted enjoying lure-fishing. Jaruzelski with Fidel Castro (Poland, May 1972) The policies of Mikhail Gorbachev also stipulated political reform in Poland. By the close of the 10th plenary session in December 1988, the Communist Party had decided to broach leaders of Solidarity for talks. These talks, which became known as the "roundtable talks," with 13 working groups in 94 sessions from February 6 to April 15, radically altered the shape of the Polish government and society. The talks resulted in an agreement in which real political power was vested in a newly created bicameral legislature and in a president who would be the chief executive. Solidarity was legalized. After the elections, the Communists, who were guaranteed 65 percent of the seats in the Sejm (the parliament), did not win a majority, and Solidarity-backed candidates won 99 out of 100 freely contested seats in the Senate. Jaruzelski, whose name was the only one the Communist Party allowed on the ballot for the presidency, won by just one vote in the National Assembly.

Although Jaruzelski tried to persuade Solidarity to join the Communists in a "grand coalition," Lech Walesa refused. Jaruzelski resigned as general secretary of the Communist Party but found he was forced to come to terms with a government formed by Solidarity. In 1990 Jaruzelski resigned as Poland's leader, succeeded in December, by Lech Walesa. Subsequently, Jaruzelski has faced charges for a number of actions he committed while he was defense minister during the communist period.