Wojciech Jaruzelski

For more information on Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski, visit Britannica.com.

(b. 6 July 1923) Polish; Polish leader 1981 – 9, President 1989 Jaruzelski was born into a middle-class family in eastern Poland. In 1940, following the Red Army's invasion, he and his family were deported to the Soviet Union, where his father died in captivity. Jaruzelski was made to do forced labour. Thereafter he was educated in the Soviet system, becoming a Communist. In 1944 he served in the Polish forces attached to the Red Army during the campaign in Poland. He continued in the army after the war and in 1956 became the youngest general in the Polish army. He became Chief of the Polish General Staff in 1956, Minister of Defence in April 1968, and a full member of the Politburo in 1971. In 1976 he vetoed the use of the army against demonstrating workers.

On 9 February 1981 Party First Secretary Stanisław Kania appointed Jaruzelski Prime Minister. He tried to find a compromise with the trade union movement Solidarity, who put forward demands for a democratic electoral system and a share of state power. On 18 October 1981 Jaruzelski replaced Kania as Party First Secretary. In a masterfully executed coup he introduced martial law and banned Solidarity on 13 December 1981. In the Gorbachev era Jaruzelski published his autobiography, in which he claimed that he had acted in the national interest in his coup of 1981, since this was the only way left to prevent Soviet military intervention. Because of his early history, he bitterly resented being called "a Russian in Polish uniform". In the 1980s he repeatedly tried to find the social consensus necessary for the implementation of major economic reforms. In 1982 he partially lifted martial law. Yet Jaruzelski was unable to reconcile the workers and intelligentsia who resented his continuing repression of Solidarity and his apparent subservience to Moscow. Though innocent of the crime, Jaruzelski was discredited in October 1984 by the murder of Father Jerzy Popiełuszko by members of the Religious Affairs Department of the Ministry of the Interior. Jaruzelski stopped the collapse of the economy, which had started in 1980, without taking on foreign loans. In 1988 a "second stage" of economic reform was greeted by widespread strikes. At the end of 1988, with Gorbachev's support, he initiated the "Round Table Talks" with Solidarity and the Catholic church. These led to the elections of 1989 after which the Communists lost power and Jaruzelski became a figurehead President. He resigned in November 1990 and was succeeded by Lech Wałȩsa.

A career soldier, General Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski (born 1923) became Poland's head of state in 1981. After reaching a historic compromise with the Solidarity trade unions he took the presidency in 1989 but resigned 18 months later.

Wojciech Jaruzelski was born in Kurów near Pulawy in the Lublin province on July 6, 1923. The son of a Polish landed gentry family, his origins can scarcely be called proletarian, as he came from interwar Poland's social elite. His father was said to have served in the cavalry, the prestige arm of the interwar Polish army. His family's ties to eastern Poland and its social milieu made him one of the last major Polish political figures to originate from the Kresy, the Russo-Polish borderlands.

Little is known of Jaruzelski's early years except that he was educated at a Catholic boarding school near Warsaw that was highly regarded as an establishment school. World War II, however, would prove more formative to Jaruzelski's life. Deported with his family to the interior of the Soviet Union in 1939 or 1940, Jaruzelski was its only surviving member. His odyssey ended in Soviet Central Asia, where he was put to work in the Karaganda coal mines.

While living in the uncertain world of the Polish deportee, Jaruzelski made an ideological conversion that was to lead him eventually back to Poland. By 1943 he arrived in Ryazan, a hundred miles south of Moscow, where he attended Officers School for a Soviet-sponsored Polish army. Upon graduation he joined the First Polish Army and participated in the Soviet drive to Berlin. His wartime service took in the liberation of Warsaw as well as battles on the Baltic, and the Odra and Elbe rivers. Clearly considered reliable, Jaruzelski furthered his combat experience in the postwar suppression of the anticommunist underground in Poland between 1945 and 1947.

Jaruzelski's rapid military and political advancement in postwar Peoples' Poland indicated that he had been singled out as a high-flyer. He attended the Senior Infantry School in 1947 and the General Staff Academy in Warsaw in 1948-1951. He formally joined the Polish Workers' Party (Communist Party) in 1947, and its successor, the Polish United Workers' Party (PUWP), in 1948. In 1956 he became the youngest brigadier general in the Polish army and a year later was given command of the 12th Motorized Division, a post he held until 1960. Promoted to division general, he moved from an operational command to head the Main Political Administration (MPA) of the army (1960-1965). Two years later he acquired the additional post of deputy minister of defense (1962-1968) and in 1965 moved from the MPA to become chief of the general staff (1965-1968). In what would appear to be a culmination of his career, he was promoted to general of arms and became minister of defense in March 1968.

Jaruzelski's parallel advancement in the PUWP belied his growing political importance. He entered the party's Central Committee in 1964 and the Politburo in 1970. It was only in the late 1960s and early 1970s that Jaruzelski began to emerge as a political personality. He sanctioned the use of Polish troops in the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 but reportedly opposed the use of deadly force by the army against protesting workers in 1970 and again in 1976. From these episodes comes the perhaps apocryphal story that he told his Politburo colleagues: "Polish soldiers will not fire on Polish workers." If true, the statement reflected as much Jaruzelski's realistic assessment of the limitations of employing Poland's conscript army against the civil population as any political objections he may have harbored about resolving worker unrest by force.

The birth of the Solidarity trade union in August 1980 presented the most fundamental challenge to Communist rule in Poland's cycle of political crises. The disintegration of PUWP authority and Soviet pressure for a decisive resolution of the crisis propelled Jaruzelski and the military to the fore of Polish politics. Representing the only cohesive political group within the ruling Communist establishment, almost by default the task of "saving socialism" fell on Jaruzelski's shoulders. He quickly added a number of pivotal government and party positions to his defense minister's portfolio: premier (February 1981) and first secretary of the party (October 1981).

Jaruzelski's policy toward Solidarity, when viewed with hindsight, represented a curious mixture of dialogue and threats. He apparently sought agreement in talks held with Lech Walesa, Solidarity's leader, and the Polish Catholic primate, Jozef Glemp, in November 1981 while earlier, in March, a security service operation in Bydgoszcz had the trappings of an abortive crackdown. Caught as he was between domestic political and economic demands and Brezhnev's orthodox rule in the Soviet Union, however, his options were far more limited. He had to find a Polish solution for eliminating Solidarity and reestablishing party rule.

Jaruzelski's answer to his political dilemmas was the declaration of martial law on December 13, 1981. For his decision to impose martial law, he was alternately criticized for being a Soviet stooge or praised as a patriot saving the country from Soviet intervention. Overnight, he demolished Solidarity with the mass internment of its leading elements. Public support for the organization was gradually broken through the remorseless deployment of the ZOMO riot police. On Poland's wry political joke circuit, it earned Jaruzelski the nickname of "General Zomosa." Martial law not only meant the eclipse of Solidarity but also the decoupling of the PUWP from the political process. Jaruzelski ran the country through an "old boy" network of generals and political officers. It was the communist world's first, and perhaps only, example of military rule usurping party authority.

In the decade following the imposition of martial law, Jaruzelski was firmly in control of Poland's politics. He launched a program of "normalization" that attempted to rebuild the Communist Party, repress the opposition, and restore the health of the Polish economy. After the official lifting of martial law he attempted to impose his program on the country. By 1986, however, normalization was failing on all fronts: the PUWP remained factionalized and demoralized; underground Solidarity survived and succeeded in politicizing Polish society (despite continual oppression); and the Polish economy steadily declined.

The failures of normalization and the coming to power of Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union paved the way for the most dramatic U-turn in the career of Jaruzelski. With his regime's authority measurably eroding and the Kremlin veto over Polish internal affairs discarded by Gorbachev, Jaruzelski decided to reach an accommodation with the opposition. In late 1988, preliminary contacts with the opposition paved the way for formal talks. In the new year, events moved rapidly: in January 1989 Solidarity was relegalized; in April the government reached the historic Round Table agreement which cleared the way for partially free elections; and the June balloting confirmed support for Solidarity and indicated the near complete lack of support for the Communist Party.

Under the Round Table agreement, the Polish presidency was strengthened with a view to Jaruzelski occupying the position until the five-year transition to full democracy ran its course. On June 4, 1989, he was elected to the post by a majority of one vote in the Polish parliament. The Round Table agreement, however, quickened the pace of political change both in Poland and in Eastern Europe. By August, Tadeusz Mazowiecki became Poland's first non-Communist prime minister since World War II, sparking an East European revolution that swept aside nearly a half-century of Communist rule in the region.

Taking advantage of the continued ferment for democratic reforms, Walesa now pressed for repeal of the Round Table agreements and for holding a popular election for president. Jaruzelski set late November 1990 for such an election. When Walesa announced his candidacy Jaruzelski chose to resign and participate in an orderly transfer of power.

In the early 1990s Jaruzelski wrote a book titled Martial Law. During a book signing in 1994, a farmer threw a stome at him from close range. He suffered a broken jawbone from the incident.

In November 1996 the Polish parliament voted not to charge him for imposing martial law in 1991. Jaruzelski insisted that his action of imposing martial law kept the Russians from invading. In an opinion poll, 54% of Poles surveyed agreed with his decision.

Further Reading

Details concerning Jaruzelski's career can be obtained from the following sources: Ewa Celt, "Wojciech Jaruzelski: A Prime Minister in Uniform," Radio Free Europe Background Report/ 72, March 13, 1981; Michael T. Kaufman, "The Importance of General Jaruzelski," The New York Times Magazine (December 9, 1984); and Andrew A. Michta, Red Eagle: The Army in Polish Politics, 1944-1988 (1990). See also Time magazine (October 24, 1994 and November 4, 1996).

Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski
Photograph of Wojciech Jaruzelski taken in 1968, around the time he became the Defence Minister of Poland.
President of the Republic of Poland 1st President of the Third Republic
In office 31 December 1989 – 21 December 1990
Prime Minister	Tadeusz Mazowiecki
Preceded by	(Was President of the People's Republic of Poland)
Succeeded by	Lech Wałęsa
President of the People's Republic of Poland
In office 19 July 1989 – 31 December 1989
Prime Minister	Mieczysław Rakowski, Czesław Kiszczak, Tadeusz Mazowiecki
Preceded by	Council of State
Succeeded by	(Became President of the Republic of Poland)
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	(Became President of the People's Republic of Poland)
Prime Minister of the People's Republic of Poland 8th Premier of Communist Poland
In office 11 February 1981 – 6 November 1985
President	Henryk Jabłoński (Chairman of the Council of State)
Preceded by	Józef Pińkowski
Succeeded by	Zbigniew Messner
6th First Secretary of the Central Committe of the PUWP
In office 18 October 1981 – 29 July 1989
Preceded by	Stanisław Kania
Succeeded by	Mieczysław Rakowski
4th Minister of the National Defence of the People's Republic of Poland
In office 1969 – 1985
Prime Minister	Józef Cyrankiewicz, Piotr Jaroszewicz, Edward Babiuch, Józef Pińkowski, Wojciech Jaruzelski
Preceded by	Marian Spychalski
Succeeded by	Florian Siwicki
General of the Army
In office 1981 – 1991
Born	6 July 1923 (1923-07-06) (age 86) Kurów, Second Polish Republic
Political party	Polish United Workers' Party
Spouse(s)	Barbara Jaruzelska
Profession	Military
Religion	Atheism (formerly Roman Catholicism)
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	Poland
Battles/wars	Soviet-German War Battle of Berlin
Awards	Virtuti Militari, Polonia Restituta, Cross of Valor

Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski (pronounced [ˈvɔjt​ɕɛx jaruˈzɛlskʲi]  ( listen); (born 6 July 1923 in Kurów) is a Polish military leader and the country's last leader during the communist rule which was overthrown and Poland became what is constitutionally known as the "Third Polish Republic". . He was leader of the Polish United Workers Party from 1981 to 1989, Prime Minister from 1981 to 1985 and the country's head of state from 1985 to 1990.

Contents 1 Early life and military career 2 Leader of the Polish military government 3 Political reforms and presidency 4 After retirement 5 Legacy 6 Written works 7 References 8 External links

Early life and military career

Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski was born on 6 July 1923,^[1] into a family of gentry.^[1][2] He was raised on the family estate near Wysokie (in the vicinity of Białystok). He was educated in a Catholic school during the 1930s.^[1]

Jaruzelski (right, in uniform) with Fidel Castro in Poland, May 1972

On 1 September 1939, the September Campaign started when Poland was invaded by Germany, with the latter country aided by another invasion begun sixteen days later by the Soviet Union. The invasions resulted in the defeat of Poland by the following month, and its partition between Soviet and German control. During the campaign, Jaruzelski and his family were captured by the army of the Soviet Union, and deported to that country.^[1] In 1940 at the age of sixteen,^[3] Jaruzelski was sent to the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic,^[1], where he performed forced labour in the Karaganda coal mines. During his labour work, he became an orphan, and having experienced snow blindness, developed permanent damage to his eyes and back.^[2] He was later selected for enrollment into the Soviet Officer Training School by the Soviet authorities.^[1] During his time in the Kazakh Republic, Jaruzelski wanted to join the non-Soviet controlled Polish exile army led by Władysław Anders,^[3] but in 1943,^[4] by which time the Soviet Union was fighting in Europe against Germany in the Soviet-German War, he joined the Polish army units being formed under Soviet command.^[2] He served in the Soviet-sponsored First Polish Army during the war.^[1] He participated in the Soviet military takeover of Warsaw and the Battle of Berlin,^[1] both of which occurred in 1945. By the time the war ended that year, he had gained the rank of lieutenant.^[2] He "further credited himself in Soviet eyes"^[1] by engaging in combat with the Polish Home Army, an anti-communist organization, from 1945 to 1947.^[1]

After the end of the war, Jaruzelski graduated from the Polish Higher Infantry School, an event which was followed by a graduation from the General Staff Academy.^[4] He joined Poland's communist party, the Polish United Workers Party, in 1948.^[4] In the first post-war years, he was among the military fighting the Polish anti-communist guerrillas ("cursed soldiers") in the Świętokrzyskie region. A BBC News profile of Jaruzelski says that his career "took off after the departure [from Poland] in 1956 of the Soviet Field Marshal, Konstantin Rokossovsky"^[2], who had been Poland's Commander in Chief and Minister of Defence.^[2] Jaruzelski became the chief political officer of the Polish armed forces in 1960, its chief of staff in 1964; and he became the Polish Minister of Defense in 1968,^[2] four years after he was elected to be a member of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers Party.^[4]

In 1970, he was involved in the plot against Władysław Gomułka, which led to the appointment of Edward Gierek as Communist Party General Secretary. He took part in organizing the suppression of striking workers, which led to massacres in the coastal cities of Gdańsk, Gdynia, Elbląg and Szczecin. In December 1970, Jaruzelski became a candidate member for the Politburo of the Polish United Workers Party, the chief executive body of the communist administration of Poland, obtaining full membership the following year.^[1]

Leader of the Polish military government

Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski broadcasts declaration of martial law (13 December 1981).

On 11 February 1981, Jaruzelski was elected Prime Minister of Poland and became the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers Party on October 18 the same year.^[4]

On 13 December 1981, Jaruzelski imposed martial law in Poland. He was the member of the Military Council of National Salvation. According to his explanation, this action was intended to prevent a threat of Soviet invasion^[5]. A BBC News profile of Jaruzelski contends that the establishment of martial law was "an attempt to suppress the Solidarity movement."^[2] Most former opposition members argue that it was merely an action by the Polish Communist regime to retain power and strangle the newly born and developing civil society. Some even hold that the circumstances of the martial law were even in violation of the Communist constitution.

Historical evidence released under Russian President Boris Yeltsin has been brought to light indicating that the Soviet Union did not plan to invade Poland; in fact, the Soviets strictly rejected Jaruzelski's request for military help in 1981, leaving the Solidarity "problem" to be sorted out by the Polish government (see also Soviet reaction to the Polish Crisis of 1980-1981). However, the exact plans of the Soviet Union at that time have never been determined. Jaruzelski, however, has justified cracking down by alleging that the threat of Soviet intervention was quite likely had he not dealt with Solidarity internally. This question, as well as many other facts about Poland in the years 1945–1989, are presently under the investigation of government historians at the Institute of National Remembrance (Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, IPN), whose publications reveal facts from the Communist-era archives. Additionally, there are numerous confirmations from Czech army officers of the time speaking of "Operation Krkonose", plan of armed invasion of Poland, because of which many units of the People's army of the Czechoslovakia were stationed on highest alert, ready for deployment within hours.^[6]

In 1982 he helped reorganize the Front of National Unity, the organization the Communists used to manage their satellite parties, as the Patriotic Movement for National Rebirth.

In 1985, Jaruzelski resigned as prime minister and defence minister and became chairman of the Polish Council of State--a post equivalent to that of president.

Political reforms and presidency

The policies of Mikhail Gorbachev also stimulated political reform in Poland. By the close of the tenth plenary session in December 1988, the Communist Party was forced, after strikes, to approach leaders of Solidarity for talks.

From 6 February to 15 April 1989, negotiations were held between 13 working groups during 94 sessions of the roundtable talks.^[1] These negotiations "radically altered the shape of the Polish government and society"^[1], and resulted in an agreement which stated that a great degree of political power would be given to a newly created bicameral legislature. It also created a new post of president to act as head of state and chief executive.^[1] Solidarity was also declared a legal organization.^[1] During the following Polish elections the Communists won 65 percent of the seats in the Sejm, though the seats won were guaranteed and the Communists were unable to gain a majority, while 99 out of the 100 seats in the Senate freely contested were won by Solidarity-backed candidates.^[1] Jaruzelski won the presidential ballot by one vote.^[1]

Jaruzelski was unsuccessful in convincing Wałęsa to include Solidarity in a "grand coalition"^[1] with the Communists, and Jaruzelski resigned his position of general secretary of the Polish Communist Party.^[1] The Communists' two allied parties broke their long-standing alliance, forcing Jaruzelski to appoint Solidarity's Tadeusz Mazowiecki as the country's first non-Communist prime minister since 1948. Jaruzelski resigned as Poland's leader in 1990.^[1] He was succeeded by Wałęsa in December. Subsequently, Jaruzelski faced charges for a number of actions such as murder that he committed while he was Defense Minister during the Communist period.

On 31 January 1991, General Jaruzelski retired from the army service.

After retirement

In an interview conducted in 2001, Jaruzelski said that he believes communism failed, that he is a social democrat, and that he backed Aleksander Kwaśniewski, who at that time was the President of Poland, as well as Leszek Miller, who would later become the Prime Minister of Poland.^[3]

Wojciech Jaruzelski in 2006

In May 2005, Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded a medal commemorating the 60th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany to Jaruzelski. Other former leaders awarded the medal include Romania's former King Michael I.^[7] Czech President Václav Klaus criticized this step, claiming that Jaruzelski is a symbol of the Warsaw Pact troops' invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Jaruzelski said that he had apologized and that the decision on the August 1968 invasion had been a great "political and moral mistake".^[8]

On 28 March 2006, Jaruzelski was awarded a Siberian Exiles Cross by Polish President Lech Kaczyński. However, after making this fact public Kaczyński claimed that this was a mistake and blamed the bureaucracy for giving him a document containing 1293 names without notifying him of Jaruzelski's presence within it. After this statement Jaruzelski returned the cross.

On 31 March 2006, the IPN charged him with committing communist crimes, mainly the creation of a criminal military organization with the aim of conducting crimes (mostly concerned with the illegal imprisonment of people). The second charge involves the incitement of state ministers to commit acts beyond their competence^{[citation needed]}. Jaruzelski has avoided most court appearances citing poor health.

Legacy

Jaruzelski is a controversial person in Poland. Some people, many of them a part of the "Solidarity generation", have a highly negative opinion of him, believing that Jaruzelski "is little short of a traitor".^[2] Opinion polls, as of 15 May 2001, suggest that a majority of the Polish people are open to agreeing with his explanation that martial law was implemented to prevent a Soviet invasion.^[2]

Written works

Jaruzelski, Wojciech (1999). Różnić się mądrze (English translation: To Differ Wisely).^[4] Jaruzelski, Wojciech (2008)."Być może to ostatnie słowo (wyjaśnienia złożone przed Sądem)" (English translation:"It may be my last word (explanations given in the Court)").

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t} "CNN Cold War- Profile: Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski". Cable Network News (CNN). http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/kbank/profiles/jaruzelski/. Retrieved 2008-11-24. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Repa, Jan (2001-05-16). "Profile: Poland's last communist leader". British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1332541.stm. Retrieved 2008-11-26. 
3. ^ ^{a b c} Green, Peter S. (2001-05-27). "An Aging Ex-Dictator Who Refuses To Recant". The New York Times. pp. 2. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E07E4DF143CF934A15756C0A9679C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2. Retrieved 2008-11-29. 
4. ^ ^{a b c d e f} "Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski". Britannica Online Encyclopedia. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/301467/Wojciech-Witold-Jaruzelski. Retrieved 2008-11-24. 
5. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=A3OS-7gY1qIC&pg=PA69&dq=jaruzelski+1981+december+WRON+andropov&lr=&as_brr=3#v=onepage&q=&f=false
6. ^ http://blog.aktualne.centrum.cz/blogy/petr-klan.php?itemid=4576
7. ^ Putin gives medal to Poland's communist-era strongman
8. ^ http://www.mosnews.com/news/2005/08/22/jaruzelski.shtml

External links

• Jaruzelski's official website

Political offices
Preceded by Józef Pińkowski	Prime Minister of Poland 1981–1985	Succeeded by Zbigniew Messner
Preceded by Henryk Jabłoński	Chairman of the Council of State 1985–1989	Succeeded by Himself as President of Poland
Vacant Title last held by Bolesław Bierut	President of Poland 1989–1990	Succeeded by Lech Wałęsa
Party political offices
Preceded by Stanisław Kania	General Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party 1981–1989	Succeeded by Mieczysław Rakowski

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

v • d • e Presidents of Poland and non-presidential heads of state since 1918 Republic of Poland (1918-1939) Provisional Head of State: Józef Piłsudski Presidents: Gabriel Narutowicz · Stanisław Wojciechowski · Ignacy Mościcki Marshals: Józef Piłsudski · Edward Rydz-Śmigły Government in Exile (1939-1945) Władysław Raczkiewicz (recognized by the Allies only) People's Republic of Poland (1944-1990) Secretaries: Władysław Gomułka · Bolesław Bierut · Edward Ochab · Edward Gierek · Stanisław Kania · Wojciech Jaruzelski Presidents: Bolesław Bierut · Wojciech Jaruzelski Chairmen: Aleksander Zawadzki · Edward Ochab · Marian Spychalski · Józef Cyrankiewicz · Henryk Jabłoński Republic of Poland (since 1990) Lech Wałęsa · Aleksander Kwaśniewski · Lech Kaczyński

v • d • e Prime Ministers of Poland Kingdom of Poland (1916–1918) Kucharzewski · Ponikowski · Kanty Steczkowski · Świeżyński · Wróblewski Republic of Poland (1918–1939) Daszyński · Moraczewski · Paderewski · Skulski · Grabski · Witos · Ponikowski · Śliwiński · Nowak · Sikorski · Witos · Grabski · Skrzyński · Witos · Bartel · Piłsudski · Bartel · Świtalski · Bartel · Sławek · Piłsudski · Sławek · Prystor · Jędrzejewicz · Kozłowski · Sławek · Zyndram-Kościałkowski · Składkowski Polish government in Exile (1939–1990) Sikorski · Mikołajczyk · Arciszewski · Bór-Komorowski · Tomaszewski · Odzierzyński · Hryniewski · Mackiewicz · Hanke · Pająk · Zawisza · Muchniewski · Urbański · Sabbat · Szczepanik People's Republic of Poland (1944–1989) Osóbka-Morawski · Cyrankiewicz · Bierut · Cyrankiewicz · Jaroszewicz · Babiuch · Pińkowski · Jaruzelski · Messner · Rakowski · Kiszczak · Mazowiecki Republic of Poland (1989–present) Mazowiecki · Bielecki · Olszewski · Pawlak · Suchocka · Pawlak · Oleksy · Cimoszewicz · Buzek · Miller · Belka · Marcinkiewicz · Kaczyński · Tusk

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