Franciszek Jóźwiak

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Franciszek Jóźwiak
Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland
In office
16 April 1955 – 16 October 1956
Prime MinisterBolesław Bierut
Minister of State Control
In office
12 December 1952 – 16 April 1955
Preceded byPosition established after the liquidation if the Supreme Audit Office
Succeeded byRoman Zambrowski
Member of the Polish State Council
In office
9 March 1949 – 20 November 1952
Personal details
Born20 October 1895
Huta, Congress Poland
Died23 October 1966(1966-10-23) (aged 71)
Warsaw, Polish People's Republic
Political partyCommunist Party of Poland
Polish Workers' Party
Polish United Workers' Party
AwardsOrder of the Builders of People's Poland
2 Order of the Banner of Work
Order of Polonia Restituta
Partisan Cross
Military service
Branch/serviceGwardia Ludowa
Armia Ludowa
Polish People's Army
Milicja Obywatelska
Battles/warsFirst World War
Polish-Soviet War
Second World War

Franciszek Jóźwiak (20 October 1895 – 23 October 1966) was a Polish communist politician, military commander, chief of staff of the People's Guard, the People's Army and the Citizen's Militia as well as deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Polish People's Republic and a long time member of the Politburo of the Polish United Workers' Party.[1]

Early life and military service[edit]

Jóźwiak was born into a peasant family. He was a member of the Polish Military Organisation and joined the Polish Socialist Party in 1912.[2]

When the First World War broke out, Jóźwiak was mobilized into the Imperial Russian Army. However, in 1914, he went over to the side of Austria-Hungary and joined the Polish Legions. In July 1917, he followed the call of Józef Piłsudski and refused to take the oath to the Kaiser of the German Empire and the Central Powers. Until the end of the war, he was interned in Shchiporno concentration camp.

After First World War, Jóźwiak joined the Army of the Second Republic of Poland and participated in the Polish-Soviet War of 1920, but was later demobilized as a non-commissioned officer.[3]

Communist activities[edit]

Jóźwiak joined the Polish Communist Workers' Party in 1921. During the Polish-Soviet War, the Communist Party supported the Soviet Union and many of its members were arrested. A year later he was detained for the first time and arrested for 18 months in Lublin. In December 1924 he was arrested a second time. He left the prison in December 1926 and managed the work of district committees of the KPP in Lublin, Radom-Kielce and Poznan-Pomerania. In the years 1928–1929, he was under military training in the USSR. In 1931 he became the head of the Military Department of the Central Committee of the KPP, dealing with intelligence for the USSR and communist propaganda in the Polish Army. In April this year, he was arrested for the third time and sentenced to six years' imprisonment. In January 1937 he was imprisoned in Bereza Kartuska. In the same year, Jóźwiak was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment. Until 1939 he was serving a sentence in a prison in Tarnów.[4]

World War 2 and resistance[edit]

After Germany invaded Poland, he was released from prison. Then he remained in the territories of the Soviet occupation and fought alongside Soviet partisans. In May 1941 he became a member of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). In 1942, Jóźwiak made his way into Poland and became a member of the leadership of the Polish Workers' Party. He was the secretary of the Central Committee of the PPR and supervised the power structures in the party. From August 1942, he was the chief of staff of the Gwardia Ludowa, and from January 1944, he served as the chief of staff of the Armia Ludowa. He played a prominent role in the communist Polish Resistance. His partisan pseudonym was "Witold".[5]

In the Polish People's Republic[edit]

In the years 1944–1949 he was the first chief commander of the Citizens' Militia and from March 1945 also served as the deputy Minister of Public Security. In April 1946 he was promoted to the rank of Major General. Then he was the president of the Supreme Audit Office, and after its liquidation from 1952 to 1955 he became the Minister of State Control. At the same time, from 1949 to 1952, he was a member of the State Council. In the years 1955–1956 he was deputy prime minister. From 1948 to 1956 he was a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party and chairman of the Central Party Control Commission. He was a member of the National Council, the Legislative Sejm and the Sejm of the People's Republic of Poland of the first term.[6] From 1945 to 1948 he was the president of the Main Board of the Union of Participants in the Armed Struggle for Freedom and Democracy. In the years 1948–1949 he was the president of the Main Board of the Union of Fighters against Fascism and the Hitlerite Invaders for Independence and Democracy, and until 1956 the Union of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy. In November 1949 he became a member of the National Committee for the Celebration of the 70th anniversary of the birth of Joseph Stalin.

Later career and fall from power[edit]

The Polish October undermined the political position of Franciszek Jóźwiak. On 24 October 1956, the day of Władisław Gomułka's speech with the so called "thaw" program, he was removed from the post of deputy chairman of the government and removed from the Politburo.

In the last decade of his life, Jóźwiak did not hold government posts and did not enjoy the same influence in the party leadership. He headed a group of "Natolins" that was the faction of the hardliners of the PUWP who protested against the moderate liberalization of the regime.[7]

Franciszek Jóźwiak died three days after his 71st birthday. He is buried at the Voinsky Powązki cemetery.

Private life and family[edit]

Jóźwiak was married twice. In the years 1942–1956 he was the married to Helena Wolińska, a military prosecutor in political trials, who left him during the de-Stalinization and returned to Włodzimierz Brus, her first husband.[8] Franciszek's brother, Józef Jóźwiak, was a soldier of the 2nd Polish Corps, he fought at Monte Cassino.[9]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Data of the person from the catalog of party and state management positions in the People's Republic of Poland".
  2. ^ "JÓŹWIAK Franciszek". www.dws-xip.pl. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
  3. ^ "Franciszek Jóźwiak - IV Rozbiór Polski". www.ivrozbiorpolski.pl. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
  4. ^ Polska Partia Robotnicza w walce o wyzwolenie narodowe i społeczne - Franciszek Jóźwiak.
  5. ^ Władysław Gomułka , Franciszek Jóźwiak : Nowotko - Mołojec: From the beginnings of the PPR . London: Puls Publications, 1986.
  6. ^ "07 się nie zgłasza. Jak bardzo nieudolna była Milicja Obywatelska?". CiekawostkiHistoryczne.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 2020-11-26.
  7. ^ "Ewolucja układu sił politycznych w aparacie władzy PRL w latach 1956-1964". niniwa22.cba.pl. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
  8. ^ "Brus, Jóźwiak, Wolińska. "Była w latach 1945-1955 jedną z bardziej wpływowych osób na szczytach komunistycznej władzy"". wpolityce.pl. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
  9. ^ "ASME: Odsłaniamy historię dwóch braci - Franciszka i Józefa Jóźwiaków…". archive.is. 2013-05-03. Archived from the original on 2013-05-03. Retrieved 2020-12-04.