Boleslaw Chocha

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bolesław Chocha (born August 6, 1923 in Hrodna , Białystok Voivodeship , Poland , † May 2, 1987 in Józefów ) was a Polish divisional general and politician of the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR), who was chief of the General Staff of the People's Republic's armed forces between 1968 and 1973 Poland and then from 1973 to 1977 commander of the General Staff Academy (Akademia Sztabu Generalnego) .

Life

Training to become an officer and promotion to major general

Chocha, whose father Konstanty Chocha served in the Border Guard Corps of the Polish Army , was deported with his family to Kazakhstan by employees of the NKVD (Народный комиссариат внутренних дел) because of his father's involvement in battles against the Red Army . In 1943 he joined the Polish Armed Forces in the Soviet Union (Polskie Siły Zbrojne w ZSRR) and was employed there in the 1st Infantry Division Tadeusz Kościuszko . During the Battle of Leninsk-Kuznetsky in October 1943, he served as platoon leader of a heavy machine gun platoon of the 3rd Infantry Regiment. After attending the Infantry Officers School in Ryazan , he stayed there as a teacher of machine guns and tactics.

After the end of the war and the relocation of the infantry officers' school to Lublin , he continued to work as a teacher of tactics before he became a lecturer in general tactics at this training center after graduating from the Karol Świerczewski General Staff Academy in Rembertów in 1951 due to his military-theoretical skills. Thereafter, from 1957 to December 1960 , Lieutenant Colonel Chocha was the first commander in charge of the establishment of the newly established 6th Pomeranian Airborne Division (6 Pomorska Dywizja Powietrznodesantowa) , the first paratrooper unit in Poland. During his service there he was promoted to colonel and lastly in 1960 to brigadier general. His successor as commander of the 6th Airborne Division was Colonel Józef Mroczko.

In 1960 he was appointed Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces and during this period of use, which lasted until 1968, he was promoted to Division General in 1965. Together with the then Deputy Defense Minister Lieutenant General Zygmunt Duszyński , he advocated the formation of a “Polish front” within the Warsaw Pact in the 1960s in order to obtain a grain of control over Polish units by Polish officers.

Chief of the General Staff and Commander of the General Staff Academy

On April 11, 1968, Major General Chocha succeeded Division General Wojciech Jaruzelski as Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces and held this position until his replacement by Division General Florian Siwicki on January 11, 1973. He was responsible for the planning and the highest military direction of the armed forces. Shortly after taking office, the General Staff began working out the troop entry plan in preparation for Operation Danube , known as the crackdown on the Prague Spring by Warsaw Pact troops . To this end, he instructed the head of Department II in the General Staff, Brigadier General Wojciech Barański .

In addition, Chocha, who was in the Polish Workers' Party PPR ( Polska Partia Robotnicza ) in 1947 and the PZPR in 1948, was a candidate for the PZPR's Central Committee (ZK) between 1968 and 1975 .

Subsequently, on January 24, 1973 he succeeded Major General Adam Czaplewski as commander of the General Staff Academy (Akademia Sztabu Generalnego) and remained in this position until December 6, 1977. He was succeeded in April 1978 by Lieutenant General Józef Kamiński , the former Deputy Chief of Staff of the troops of the Warsaw Pact .

Chocha, who until his death was a member of the National Council of the Association of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy ZBoWiD (Związek Bojowników o Wolność i Demokrację) , the official state-controlled war veterans association in the People's Republic of Poland, retired in 1979.

After his death, Chocha was buried in a cemetery in Józefów. Defense Minister, Army General Florian Siwicki, and the Commander of the General Staff Academy, Major General Władysław Mróz , attended the funeral . His son Piotr and daughter Krystyna emerged from his marriage to Ludwika Chocha in 1952.

Orders and awards

During his long career, Siwicki has been honored several times with domestic and foreign orders and awards. One of the most important honors is the order Odrodzenia Polski , which he received in 1958 as a knight and in 1963 as an officer . In addition, he received, among other things, the Cross of Merit of the Republic of Poland in silver in 1945 and 1946.

Among other things, he received the Grand Cross of the Finnish Order of the White Rose in 1969 as well as the Order of Lenin from the Soviet Union in 1968, the Order of Red Banner in 1973, the medal “Victory over Germany” , the medal “20. Anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945 ” , the medal“ 30. Anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945 ” and the medal“ 50 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR ” 1968.

Publications

Chocha was also the author of several books and articles in military journals on defense of national territory, reflections on tactics and operational technique, war and military doctrine, and numerous publications in military-themed journals. His most famous publications included:

  • Teritorijalna obrana zemlje , 1968
  • Obrona terytorium kraju , 2 volumes, 1974
  • Wojna i doktryna wojenna: wybrane problemy , Julian Kaczmarek, 1980
  • Rozważania o taktyce , 1982, ISBN 8-31106-787-2
  • Rozważania o sztuce operacyjnej , 1984, ISBN 8-31107-106-3

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ S. Victor Papa Cosma, Sean Kay, Mark R. Rubin (Editor): NATO After Fifty Years , 2001, p 108, ISBN 0-84202-886-2 .
  2. ↑ Ronald Haly Linden (Editor): Norms and Nannies: The Impact of International Organizations on the Central and East European States , 2002, p. 169, ISBN 0-74251-603-2 .
  3. ^ Stefan Karner (editor): Prager Frühling: Contributions , 2008, p. 449, ISBN 3-41220-207-X .
  4. ^ Andrew A. Michta: Red Eagle: The Army in Polish Politics, 1944-1988 , p. 252, ISBN 0-81798-863-7 .
personal data
SURNAME Chocha, Boleslaw
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish major general and politician
DATE OF BIRTH August 6, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Hrodna , Białystok Voivodeship , Poland
DATE OF DEATH May 2, 1987
Place of death Józefów