Józef Cyrankiewicz

Józef Cyrankiewicz (born April 23, 1911, Tarnow, Austria–Hungary [now in Poland]—died Jan. 20, 1989, Warsaw, Pol.) was a Polish prime minister (1947–52, 1954–70) who presided over Poland’s turbulent post-World War II period.

Cyrankiewicz attended Jagiellonian University in Kraków, where he became secretary of the local branch of the Polish Socialist Party (PSP) in 1935. During World War II he was captured by German forces (1939), but he escaped and worked for the Polish resistance until 1941, when he was recaptured and interned in the Auschwitz concentration camp for the duration of the war. In 1945 Cyrankiewicz was named secretary-general of the pro-Soviet PSP Central Executive Committee. As prime minister, he presided over the forcible merger of the PSP with the Soviet-backed Polish Workers’ Party to form the Polish United Workers’ Party (1948). He was briefly demoted to deputy prime minister (Nov. 1952) but soon was reinstated (March 1954). On Dec. 7, 1970, he signed a treaty with West German Chancellor Willy Brandt that formally established the West German–Polish border. Later that month, Cyrankiewicz and controversial First Secretary Władysław Gomułka were forced out of office after food-price increases touched off riots in several Polish cities. For the next two years, Cyrankiewicz held the ceremonial post of chairman of the Council of State (president). He also served as chairman of the Polish Peace Committee from 1973 to 1986.