On 25th May Wojciech Jaruzelski passed away.
Wojciech Jaruzelski was a communist leader who was one of the most effective and most appreciated by the USSR authorities in People’s Republic of Poland.
During Second World War Jaruzelski was captured by the army of the Soviet Union and deported to Siberia.
From his early years he was fighting against Polish Resistance Movement being responsible for many deaths, health and freedom losses. His fast career in the Stalinist military forces allowed him to hold many important offices: 6th First Secretary of the Polish United Workers’ Party, Prime Minister (1981-1985) and the chairman of the Council of State (1985 – 1990).
He was also a Minister of National Defence and as such – jointly responsible for the anti-Semitic cleansings in the army as well as for the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia (1968) and bloody suppression of protests in Gdańsk in 1970.
Ten years later he was using all his power to crush the Solidarity movement and its members. On 13th December 1981 Jaruzelski implemented the martial law in Poland aiming to break the political opposition. It resulted in numerous repressions, internments and fake trials.
It is worth mentioning that as a First Secretary of the Polish United Workers’ Party he was the last communist leader in People’s Republic of Poland.
In 1989, after Round Table agreements, the presidential office was created and Jaruzelski became first President of People’s Republic of Poland and since 31st December 1989 – President of the Republic of Poland. It is significant that the first elected President of the Third Republic of Poland was representing the former communist system, being against democracy and all its values.
Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation, accused Wojciech Jaruzelski of the communist crime and encouraging the officers of the State Council of People’s Republic of Poland to introduce the martial law against the Constitution. He was also brought to justice and accused of the massacre of Workers in 1970 in Gdańsk.
Wojciech Jaruzelski was never sentenced and he kept all his military ranks till the end.