Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski

Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski (born July 6, 1923, Kurow, Poland—died May 25, 2014, Warsaw) was a Polish army general and political leader who served as premier (1981–85), chairman of the Council of State (1985–89), and president (1989–90) during the final years of communist rule in Poland, but he eventually oversaw the country’s move to a market economy and a multiparty democracy.

When World War II broke out, the young Jaruzelski and his family were trapped by the invading Red Army, and he was deported to the Soviet Union. In 1943 he joined the Polish army formed in the Soviet Union and eventually joined the fight against Germany.

After the war Jaruzelski graduated from the Polish Higher Infantry School and later from the General Staff Academy. He joined Poland’s communist party (renamed the Polish United Workers’ Party [PUWP]) in 1947 and steadily rose through the ranks of the party and the army, becoming minister of defense in 1968. He was elected a member of the party’s Central Committee in 1964 and became a member of the Politburo in 1971.

As Poland came under increasing pressure from the Solidarity trade union, Jaruzelski was elected premier on February 11, 1981, and first secretary of the party on October 18, 1981, while retaining his post as minister of defense. In an effort to crush Solidarity and restore economic stability, he declared martial law in Poland on December 13, 1981; the move was accompanied by mass arrests of political dissidents and Solidarity leaders, including Lech Wałęsa. With Solidarity suppressed, Jaruzelski lifted martial law in July 1983 but remained firmly in control of both the Polish government and the PUWP. In 1985 he relinquished the post of premier, simultaneously assuming the position of president of the Council of State.

Though adept at suppressing the political opposition, Jaruzelski proved less successful in his efforts to restore Poland’s stagnant economy. In 1988 Jaruzelski changed course and approved negotiations between the government and the outlawed Solidarity. Those talks culminated in April 1989 in an agreement providing for far-reaching reforms in Poland’s political system, notably the legalization of Solidarity, the holding of free elections to a restructured Parliament, and the conversion of the hitherto largely ceremonial post of president into an office carrying strong executive powers.

Jaruzelski was elected president by the Parliament in July 1989 and then resigned all his high posts in the PUWP. In December 1990, after Wałęsa was elected president, Jaruzelski withdrew from active politics. He later was charged with crimes related to the 1981 imposition of martial law. After a substantial delay, the trial began in 2008 but was suspended in 2011 when he as diagnosed with cancer. Jaruzelski was the author of many books, including Różnić się mądrze (1999; “To Differ Wisely”).