Marian Spychalski

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Marian Spychalski (1965)

Marian Spychalski (born December 6, 1906 in Łódź , Kraj Nadwiślański in the Russian Empire ; † June 7, 1980 in Warsaw , VR Poland ) was a Polish politician and military man.

Origin and pre-war period

Coming from a working class family in Łódź , he graduated from the Technical University in Warsaw in 1931 and became an architect. In the same year he joined the Communist Party of Poland (KPP) (since 1929 he was a member of the Independent Socialist Youth Association "Życie", which worked together with the Communist Youth Association of Poland ). After finishing his studies, he worked as an urban planner in Poznan and Warsaw . As part of his social position as a city planner and his secret membership in the Communist Party of Poland (which worked illegally for almost the entire period of its existence), he became a member of various political and social organizations. The concern of these memberships (among other things, Spychalski became a member of the Society of Polish Architects and the Society of Polish Urban Planners) was to find out for the KP what goals and concrete activities they planned and carried out, to find out which political positions were formed there as well as among other members for the ideas of communism i. A. to agitate. During his time in Poznan (from 1933) he also carried out guiding and organizing functions within the illegal party organization of the Poznan railway workshops.

Wartime

He first experienced the German attack on Poland in Warsaw, and only in December 1939 did he flee to Lemberg , where his wife and daughter were already waiting for him. However, the family only stayed briefly in Soviet-occupied Lviv, and they returned to Warsaw in January 1940. Until 1942 he officially held a position in the Warsaw city administration that corresponded to his training, but he again acted illegally according to his political convictions and therefore took part in the activities of the Polish resistance. First he was involved in the publication of a bulletin for a group of communist intellectuals, from 1941 he became a member of the organization Związek Walki Wyzwoleńczej (German Federation of the Liberation Struggle). From 1942 he was temporarily chief of the general staff of the communist Armia Ludowa and from July 22, 1944 of the Ludowe Wojsko Polskie . He was also a member of the Polish Workers' Party in 1942.

post war period

Even before Warsaw was liberated from Nazi rule (January 17, 1945), he was appointed mayor of the city in 1944 as part of the PKWN's plans . After the actual liberation of the city, he worked on planning the reconstruction of the city. In the same year he was promoted to Brigadier General (February 6, 1945) and Division General (May 3, 1945). According to these promotions, he worked from 1945 as Deputy Defense Minister of Poland (until 1949) under Defense Minister Michał Rola-Żymierski . After the formation of the PVAP in 1948, Spychalski belonged to its Central Committee (ZK) as well as to the Politburo of the Central Committee . In March 1949 he asked for a transfer from his position as deputy minister of defense and was appointed minister for reconstruction and construction. A. - which meant degradation and is related to the fall of Władysław Gomułka in the late 1940s / early 1950s. As part of this, Spychalski was finally completely disempowered (from then on he worked as an architect in Breslau ) and even arrested in 1950. With Gomułka's return to power in 1956, Spychalski was also rehabilitated. He returned to his previous positions and functions within the party and even became Minister of Defense of Poland in November 1956 (until 1968). In 1963 he was raised to the rank of marshal (as the last Pole to date) . In 1968 he was elected chairman of the State Council of Poland, which made him head of state until 1970. In 1972 he withdrew from political life and died after a few years as a pensioner on June 7, 1980 in Warsaw.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Piotr Gontarczyk : Polska Partia Robotnicza. Droga do władzy 1941-1944 . Warsaw, 2003. p. 99
  2. ^ Władysław Rogala: Poznańskie lata Mariana Spychalskiego , in: Kronika Miasta Poznania , No. 4/1986. Pp. 53-62, ISSN 0137-3552
  3. ^ Marian Spychalski: Warszawa architekta , Warsaw, 2015. pp. 165–167
personal data
SURNAME Spychalski, Marian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish politician
DATE OF BIRTH December 6, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Łódź , Kraj Nadwiślański , Russian Empire
DATE OF DEATH June 7, 1980
Place of death Warsaw , VR Poland