Wojciech Jaruzelski

Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski (6 July 1923 - 25 May 2014) was a Polish military officer and politician. He was leader from 1981-1989 and the first President of Poland from July 1989 to December 1990.

His Excellency Wojciech Jaruzelski
Jaruzelski in 1981
1st President of Poland
In office 19 July 1989 – 22 December 1990
Prime Minister	Mieczysław Rakowski Czesław Kiszczak Tadeusz Mazowiecki
Preceded by	Office restored Himself (As Chairman of the Council of State) Bolesław Bierut (As President before office was abolished)
Succeeded by	Lech Wałęsa
6th First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party
In office 18 October 1981 – 29 July 1989
Preceded by	Stanisław Kania
Succeeded by	Mieczysław Rakowski
6th Chairman of the Council of State
In office 6 November 1985 – 19 July 1989
Prime Minister	Zbigniew Messner Mieczysław Rakowski
Preceded by	Henryk Jabłoński
Succeeded by	Office abolished Himself (As President)
8th Prime Minister of the People's Republic of Poland
In office 11 February 1981 – 6 November 1985
Chairman of the Council of State	Henryk Jabłoński
Preceded by	Józef Pińkowski
Succeeded by	Zbigniew Messner
Minister of National Defence of the People's Republic of Poland
In office 11 April 1968 – 22 November 1983
Prime Minister	Józef Cyrankiewicz Piotr Jaroszewicz Edward Babiuch Józef Pińkowski Himself
Preceded by	Marian Spychalski
Succeeded by	Florian Siwicki
Personal details
Born	Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski (1923-07-06)6 July 1923 Kurów, Poland
Died	25 May 2014(2014-05-25) (aged 90) Warsaw, Poland
Resting place	Powązki Military Cemetery, Warsaw
Political party	Polish Workers' Party (1944–1948) Polish United Workers' Party (1948–1990) Independent (1990–2014)
Spouse(s)	Barbara Jaruzelska ​ (m. 1961)​
Children	Monika Jaruzelska
Profession	Military
Awards	Virtuti Militari, Order of Polonia Restituta, Cross of Valor
Signature
Website	Official website
Military service
Allegiance	Soviet Union Polish People's Republic
Branch/service	Polish People's Army
Years of service	1943–1991
Rank	General of the Army
Battles/wars	World War II Battle of Berlin

Personal life

Jaruzelski came from a family of Polish gentry. He was a son of Władysław Jaruzelski.

Military and political career

Wojciech Jaruzelski with Yuri Andropov in 1982

Selected by the Soviets for officer training in 1943, he served in the military working for Stalin,from 1943-1953 and Beria,Malenkov,and,Molotov,in 1953 and,Khrushchev,from 1955-1964,and Brezhnev,from 1964-1982,Andropov,from 1982-1984 and,Chernenko,from 1984-1985 and Gorbachev,from 1985 until 1989 . In total he worked for 46 year’s from 1943-1989 . He was the last commander-in-chief of the Polish People's Army (Ludowe Wojsko Polskie) and chairman of the Polish United Workers Party 1981-1989. Jaruzelski was the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland from 1981-1985 and remained as head of state until 1990 as Poland's last communist leader. He resigned to allow for democratic elections.

In 1981, Jaruzelski ordered a brutal crackdown on people who did not agree with the Communist government of Poland. Jaruzelski imposed martial law in Poland on 13 December 1981 to stop pro-democracy movements including Solidarity, the first non-Communist trade union in the Warsaw Pact.

In 2005, Jaruzelski said he was happy that Poland joined NATO for reasons of security and the European Union for reasons of economic development.^[1]

Death

Jaruzelski died on 25 May 2014, in a Warsaw hospital after having a stroke earlier that month.^[2][3][4]