Jerzy Urban was born on August 3, 1933, in Łódź into a family with Jewish roots, assimilated for generations. His father was the editor of 'Głos Poranny' associated with the PPS.
After the outbreak of the war, he escaped from the Germans with his parents to get to Lviv. After the city was taken over by the Germans in 1941, his family hid in the so-called Aryan papers. After the war, she returned to Łódź, and after a few years, she moved to Warsaw, where Jerzy Urban at the Stanisław Staszic passed his secondary school-leaving examination.
Even before graduating from high school, he joined the "Nowa Wieś" weekly.
In 1951, he began studying journalism at the University of Warsaw, which he did not, however, graduate.
In 1955, he moved from Nowa Wieś to the editorial office of Po Prostu, where he worked until 1957.
In the years 1957-1961 and 1964-1969, he was banned from printing, he published under pseudonyms (including Jan Rem, Jerzy Kibic).
From 1961 to 1981, he headed the national section of the Polityka weekly.
In August 1981, he became the press spokesman of the government of General Wojciech Jaruzelski. He held this position in successive offices until 1989.
From 1986, together with Stanisław Ciosek and the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs intelligence, General Władysław Pożoga, he developed political analyzes and proposals for action for General Jaruzelski.
He became a member of the staff appointed by the Politburo to supervise the preparations for the Round Table and its course.
During the Round Table talks, he was the press spokesman of the coalition and government side. He also participated in the meetings of the sub-table for mass media.
In 1989 (from April to September) he was the chairman of the Radio and Television Committee, then until May 1990 the director and editor-in-chief of the National Workers' Agency.
In 1990, he joined the Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland. Before that, he remained independent.
Since the fall of 1990, he has been the publisher and editor-in-chief of the weekly "Nie".
Wojciech Jaruzelski was born on July 6, 1923 in Kurów (a village between Puławy and Lublin) in the family of Władysław and Wanda née Zarębów Jaruzelska. Raised in Kurów, 10-year-old Jaruzelski entered the gymnasium in 1933. Marian Fathers in Bielany in Warsaw.
In September 1939, the Jaruzelski family set off to the East and found refuge in Lithuania, which was then independent. In June 1941, after the annexation of Lithuania by the USSR, the Jaruzelskis were arrested and deported to Siberia. Father was sent to a labor camp in Krasnoyarsk Krai, mother, and son to Altai Krai. Wojciech Jaruzelski worked felling trees in the taiga, he was released from the labor camp after signing the Sikorski-Majski pact. The father died of dysentery shortly thereafter.
In May 1943, Wojciech Jaruzelski appeared at the assembly point for volunteers for the Polish army formed by Polish communists in the USSR, commanded by General Zygmunt Berling; However, his service was postponed until the creation of a cadet school. In July 1943 he entered the officer school in Ryazan. In the fall of 1943, he became a platoon commander in the 5th Infantry Regiment in the 2nd Infantry Division. Jan Henryk Dąbrowski. In the summer of 1944, he crossed the Vistula near Puławy and fought in Przyczółek Magnuszewski. In September 1944 he took part in the fighting in Warsaw's Praga district. In the period of January-March 1945, he participated in fierce fighting on the Pomeranian Wall. He ended the war with the rank of lieutenant. From the fall of 1945 to the beginning of 1947, he took part in fights with the Polish independence underground and Ukrainian nationalists.
In 1947, Jaruzelski joined the Polish Workers' Party (from December 1948 - PZPR). He graduated from the Academy of the General Staff and did short studies of strategy at the Military Academy. Voroshilov in Moscow. In 1956 he was nominated a brigadier general, from 1973 he was an army general.
He was a member of the Sejm of the People's Republic of Poland. From 1964 - a member of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party. In the years 1960-1965, he was the head of the Main Political Board of the Polish Army. From 1965 to 1968 - the chief of the General Staff of the Polish Army, and from 1962 to April 1968 also the deputy minister of national defense.
During the March events of April 13, 1968, Jaruzelski was appointed the head of the Ministry of National Defense after the departure of Marshal Marian Spychalski. As deputy chief and head of the Ministry of National Defense, he participated in the removal of Jewish officers from the army. In August 1968, the 2nd Polish Army under the personal supervision of Jaruzelski entered Czechoslovakia as part of the aggression of the Warsaw Pact troops in order to suppress the "Prague Spring". The Polish army took, inter alia, the town of Hradec-Kralove.
In December 1970, there was a bloody suppression of workers' protests against price increases in the Coast - at least 44 people were killed by bullets by the militia and the army, and several hundred were injured. In 2001, Jaruzelski assured the court that he had taken steps to "soften" the decision of Władysław Gomułka, the head of the Polish United Workers' Party, to shoot workers: the first shots were to be fired into the air, then into the ground, and the next shots - at the legs of the demonstrators. The prosecution accused him of not protesting against Gomułka's decision (because only the Council of Ministers could then issue such an order) and that he had handed it over to his subordinates. According to historians, in December 1970 Jaruzelski played an important role in removing Gomułka and his team from power and in taking over the leadership of the Polish United Workers' Party by Edward Gierek. He became a deputy member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party, and in 1971 - a member of the Bureau (he was until 1989).
Jaruzelski entered the wider political arena during the Solidarity period in 1980-1981. On February 10, 1981, the Seym entrusted him with the function of prime minister (he held it until September 1985). On October 16, 1981, the 4th plenum of the Central Committee of the PZPR elected him as the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party, which he was until July 1989. In the summer of 1980, a wave of strikes broke out in Poland, which led to the establishment of NSZZ "Solidarity" - the first independent union organization in non-communist countries. The signing of the August Agreements in Gdańsk and the rise of "S" marked the beginning of the 1989 transformations - the overthrow of communism and the end of the Yalta system. "S" as a compound was registered on November 10, 1980. Soon it had almost 10 million members. It was headed by Lech Wałęsa. When Jaruzelski became prime minister in February 1981, he called for 90 quiet days without protests.
On December 13, 1981, Jaruzelski introduced martial law in Poland and became the head of the non-constitutional Military Council for National Salvation (WRON). "Citizens and citizens of the Polish People's Republic, I am addressing you today as a soldier and head of the Polish government. I am addressing you in matters of the highest importance: our homeland is on the edge of the abyss," Jaruzelski said then in the television message. According to many historians, Jaruzelski was responsible for the mass repressions against society at that time. Right after the declaration of martial law, Lech Wałęsa and most of the union authorities were interned. In October 1982, after the entry into force of the new act on trade unions, NSZZ "S" was dissolved. It was then that John Paul II appealed to the authorities of the People's Republic of Poland "that there would be no more tears". "My nation deserves not to be moved to tears of despair and despondency, but to create its better future," he added. Martial law was being prepared already from August 1980. Its introduction was justified by the threat of a coup d'état and the seizure of power by the opposition from "S", the collapse of the economy, and the possibility of Soviet intervention. To this day, there is a discussion as to how real the threat of such an intervention was, and to what extent martial law was introduced to protect the authority of the PZPR in Poland.
"I do not regret the decision to introduce martial law. I believe that it was necessary, it was salutary, it saved Poland from a multidimensional catastrophe," Jaruzelski told "Trybuna" in 2000. "I know that many bad things have happened, internment has been widespread, the revival of all kinds of retaliatory tendencies in the links of power and other problems that people have had to grapple with. But it is in no proportion to what could have happened then" - added.
On May 13, 1981, John Paul II was assassinated in Rome. In spring 2011, in a statement for the Italian Catholic monthly "Jesus", Jaruzelski stated that the "most logical" theme of the assassination attempt on the Pope was the "Islamic trail". He argued that the so-called Bulgarian trace of the attack. He also admitted that the election of Cardinal Karol Wojtyła to the papacy in 1978 was a "blow" for the Soviet bloc.
In the same statement, he referred to another dramatic event from the period in which he was in power - the murder of Father Jerzy Popiełuszko by the SB functionaries in 1984. He suggested that Moscow may have been behind the murder. "Our Soviet allies were very critical of the relations between the Polish state and the Church and had an interest in causing a conflict between both sides," he said.
In 1985 Jaruzelski resigned from the position of prime minister and assumed the position of chairman of the State Council (he was until July 1989); at the same time, he maintained the leadership of the party. He was the originator of economic reforms, which, however, did not bring results, which led to another social crisis at the end of the 1980s.
On January 18, 1989, as a result of pressure from Jaruzelski and his allies, the Political Bureau of the Polish United Workers' Party adopted a resolution supporting the Round Table talks with some of the opposition. In order to force a decision on the Round Table, Jaruzelski announced his readiness to resign but obtained a vote of confidence.
Talks of the Round Table - representatives of the authorities, the opposition, and the Church, OPZZ, as well as persons appointed by both parties recognized as independent authorities - took place from February 6, 1989, for two months. The contract concluded by the authorities and the non-systemic solidarity opposition resulted in the first partially free elections to the Sejm in Poland's post-war history and completely free elections to the restored Senate. They took place on June 4. The election result was a great triumph for the then opposition, led by Solidarity, and a defeat for the ruling coalition.
The first significant event in the history of the Sejm contract was the election of the president of the Polish People's Republic on July 19, 1989. The National Assembly elected Jaruzelski with only one vote, thanks to the support of the members of the Civic Parliamentary Club. On July 28, President Jaruzelski resigned as the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party, which was taken over by Mieczysław Rakowski.
After General Czesław Kiszczak's unsuccessful attempt to form a government, President Jaruzelski entrusted Tadeusz Mazowiecki with the mission of establishing a government on August 19, thus becoming the initiator of the first non-communist government. On August 24, the Seym elected Mazowiecki as prime minister, and on September 12 it accepted his government.
On December 31, 1989, an amendment to the Constitution of the People's Republic of Poland entered into force, regarding the change of the name of the state to the Republic of Poland. As a result, Jaruzelski became the first president of the Third Polish Republic.
In September 1990, the Sejm adopted a resolution to shorten the president's term of office. He decided that presidential elections should be held by the end of the year and introduced into the constitution a provision on the universal nature of these elections. On December 9, 1990, Lech Wałęsa became president.
Jaruzelski withdrew from active political life - he started writing books and articles, participated in lectures and conferences, and in trials concerning the events of December 1970, and then martial law.
From the beginning of the 90s, on the anniversaries of the introduction of martial law, at the Jaruzelski house in Warsaw at ul. Icarus held demonstrations of his opponents and supporters.
In free Poland, attempts were made to judge Jaruzelski - initially under constitutional responsibility.
In February 1992, the Seym declared martial law illegal. A special commission was also set up to study its course and effects. When in the autumn of 1993 the parliament was dissolved by President Lech Wałęsa, the new Sejm, governed by the SLD-PSL coalition, did not continue the work of this committee.
In 1996, the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Accountability, which dealt with applications for bringing the authors of martial law before the State Tribunal, decided that its introduction was "a greater necessity". Sharing the committee's opinion, the Sejm - with the votes of the then ruling coalition SLD-PSL, and with the opposition's opposition - in October 1996 discontinued the proceedings against Jaruzelski and others.
The issue of their criminal liability - admissible in the absence of indictment before the CJ - was raised by the investigative department of the Institute of National Remembrance from Katowice, which initiated an investigation in 2004. In March 2006, he charged Jaruzelski with a communist crime, in which he led an "organized criminal association of an armed character" in 1981, which prepared for martial law at the highest levels of government. The second accusation is the incitement of members of the State Council to exceed their powers by enacting martial law decrees. He was threatened with 10 years in prison. He said then that if there was a trial, it would be a "moral judgment" on "those in uniform and without uniforms" and "millions who supported martial law".
In April 2007, the investigative department of the Institute of National Remembrance from Katowice brought indictments to the court against nine people - members of the authorities, WRON, and the State Council. The allegations concerned, inter alia, of directing and participating in an "armed criminal association". The main accused were: Jaruzelski (he was threatened with up to 10 years in prison), Kiszczak and Stanisław Kania, former First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party. They did not plead guilty to the charges.
In March 2011, the Constitutional Tribunal declared martial law decrees inconsistent with the constitution of the People's Republic of Poland and the Republic of Poland. The Constitutional Tribunal stressed that the State Council broke the constitution of the People's Republic of Poland because it had no right to issue them during a session of the Sejm. They were therefore issued by an "unauthorized entity" and "the Council's law-making activity was illegal".
In the summer of 2011, the martial law court ordered new medical examinations after the oncological procedures performed by the former head of WRON. They showed that Jaruzelski could not participate in the hearings for the next year. The Jaruzelski case was excluded from the trial and suspended in August 2011. The process went on without him.
On January 12, 2012, the court ruled that martial law was illegally introduced by a secret criminal group led by General Jaruzelski - in order to liquidate NSZZ "S", preserve the communist regime and maintain personal positions in the authorities. The court sentenced Kiszczak to a suspended two-year prison sentence for participating in this criminal group. Stanisław Kania was acquitted of this charge. Due to the statute of limitations, but on finding guilty, the case of the third accused, Eugenia Kempara, a former member of the State Council of the People's Republic of Poland, was accused of violating her powers by voting for the adoption of martial law decrees, was dismissed.
In July 2011, the same court suspended - for the same reason - Jaruzelski's trial for the "executive perpetration" of the 1970 murder of coastal workers (for which he was threatened with life imprisonment).
Charges of the Jaruzelskie Coast massacre were brought in April 1993. Initially - in 1995 - the indictment was sent to the Provincial Court in Gdańsk. In 1999, the trial was transferred to Warsaw, where it resumed in the fall of 2001.
Jaruzelski assured the court that, as the head of the Ministry of National Defense, he felt political and moral responsibility, but not criminal responsibility. He argued that many activities of the army and militia were "necessary defense or a state of higher necessity" because then there was "a strong destructive, criminal current". He added that the process would end for "biological reasons".
In February 2006, President Lech Kaczyński signed a decision to award Jaruzelski with the Siberian Deportee Cross. After disclosing this, the Chancellery of the President announced that its employees "against the will of the president, and without the knowledge and consent of the director of the Office of Personnel and Decorations, entered the general's name on the list of honors and handed it over to the president for signature." In March 2006, Jaruzelski returned the decoration to the president.
Wojciech Jaruzelski died in Warsaw on May 25, 2014.
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