Bolesław Bierut

Bolesław Bierut
President of the Republic of Poland
In office February 5, 1947 – November 21, 1952
Prime Minister	Józef Cyrankiewicz
Preceded by	Himself as President of the Popular Council
Succeeded by	Aleksander Zawadzkias Chairman of the Council of State (next title held by Wojciech Jaruzelski in 1989)
President of the Popular Council
In office December 31, 1944 – February 4, 1947
Prime Minister	Edward Osóbka-Morawski
Preceded by	Władysław Raczkiewicz as President in Exile
Succeeded by	Himself as President of Poland
Secretary General of the Central Committee of the PUWP
In office December 22, 1948 – March 12, 1956
Preceded by	Władysław Gomułka as Secretary of PWP
Succeeded by	Edward Ochab as First Secretary
Prime Minister of the People's Republic of Poland
In office November 21, 1952 – March 12, 1956
Preceded by	Józef Cyrankiewicz
Succeeded by	Józef Cyrankiewicz
Born	April 18, 1892(1892-04-18) Rury Jezuickie, now a part of the city of Lublin, then in the Russian Empire, now in Poland
Died	March 12, 1956 (aged 63) Moscow, Soviet Union
Political party	Communist Party of Poland Polish Worker's Party Polish United Workers' Party
Spouse(s)	Wanda Górska
Religion	none

Bolesław Bierut ([bɔˈlɛswaf ˈbjɛrut] ( listen); born as Bolesław Biernacki April 18, 1892 – March 12, 1956) was a Polish Communist leader, NKVD agent^[1] and a Stalinist who became President of Poland after the Soviet occupation of the country in the aftermath of World War II.

[edit] Life

Damaged monument to Bierut formerly standing in Lublin, 2007

1951 East German stamp commemorative of the Treaty of Zgorzelec establishing the Oder-Neisse line as a “border of peace”, featuring the presidents Wilhelm Pieck (GDR) and Bolesław Bierut shaking hands over the new border

He was born in Rury, now a part of Lublin as the son of Henryk Rutkowski, a village teacher, and his wife Barbara Biernacka. He later adopted the surname "Bierut". combining the first syllables of his parents' surnames. In 1925 he went to Moscow to be trained at the school of the Communist International.

In 1933 he became an agent of Soviet military intelligence, the GRU. When the Communist Party of Poland was dissolved by Joseph Stalin in 1938, he was fortunate that he had been sentenced in Poland to 10 years in prison for his anti-state political activities and, therefore, avoided being caught in the Great Purge, which led to the execution of most of the leaders of the Communist Party of Poland. After an amnesty from the Polish government in 1938 he settled down in Warsaw and worked as a bookkeeper in a cooperative.

After the outbreak of World War II, Bierut fled to Eastern Poland (soon occupied by the Red Army) in order to avoid military service. Bierut would spend part of the war in the USSR and was sent to head the new Polish Workers' Party in 1943. He functioned as head of the Provisional National Council, a quasi-parliament (Krajowa Rada Narodowa), created by the pro-Soviet and Moscow-based Union of Polish Patriots, from 1944 to 1947.

Bierut played a leading role in the Soviet takeover of Poland and the installation there of a Stalinist regime. From 1947 to 1952, he served as President and then (after the abolition of the Presidency with the creation of the People's Republic of Poland) Prime Minister. He was also the first Secretary General of the ruling Polish United Workers Party from 1948 to 1956.

Bierut oversaw the trials of many Polish wartime military leaders wartime Polish , such as General Stanisław Tatar and Emil Fieldorf, 40 members of the Wolność i Niezawisłość (Freedom and Independence) organisation, various Church officials and many other opponents of the new regime, including the "hero of Auschwitz", Witold Pilecki, who were sentenced to death during secret trials. Bierut signed many of those death sentences.

[edit] Death

Bierut's grave in Powązki Military Cemetery, 2004

Bolesław Bierut died under mysterious circumstances in Moscow in 1956 during a visit to the Soviet Union, shortly after attending the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during which Nikita Khrushchev delivered his "Secret Speech", denouncing the Stalin's cult of personality and dictatorship.

Bierut's death, which gave rise to much speculation about poisoning or a suicide, symbolically marked the end of the era of Stalinism in Poland.

[edit] Theories about identity

This section contains information which may be of unclear or questionable importance or relevance to the article's subject matter. Please help improve this article by clarifying or removing superfluous information. (April 2010)

The late Polish historian Paweł Wieczorkiewicz argued in recent times that it is possible that there were two persons claiming to be Bolesław Bierut. One of them was shot by an unidentified person at the French Hotel in Kraków, Poland in April 1945 or in 1947. According to this theory, the assassination was kept secret by the authorities and the dead "Bierut" was replaced by a double within an hour. ^[2]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• [1]

v • d • e Chairmen of the Polish Council of State Bolesław Bierut · Aleksander Zawadzki · Edward Ochab · Marian Spychalski · Józef Cyrankiewicz · Henryk Jabłoński · Wojciech Jaruzelski

v • d • e First Secretaries of the Central Committee of the PUWP Bolesław Bierut · Edward Ochab · Władysław Gomułka · Edward Gierek · Stanisław Kania · Wojciech Jaruzelski · Mieczysław Rakowski