Józef Cyrankiewicz

Józef Adam Zygmunt Cyrankiewicz (; 23 April 1911 – 20 January 1989) was a Polish Socialist (PPS) and after 1948 Communist politician. He served as premier of the Polish People's Republic between 1947 and 1952, and again for 16 years between 1954 and 1970. He also served as Chairman of the Polish Council of State from 1970 to 1972.

Early life and education

Cyrankiewicz was born in Tarnów in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire, to father Józef (1881–1939) and mother Regina née Szpak (1879–1967). His father was a local activist of the National Democracy as well as lieutenant in the Polish Armed Forces while his mother was an owner of several sawmills. Cyrankiewicz attended the Jagiellonian University. He became secretary of the Kraków branch of the Polish Socialist Party in 1935.

World War II

Active in the Union of Armed Struggle (Związek Walki Zbrojnej, later renamed to Armia Krajowa), the Polish resistance organisation, from the beginning of Poland's 1939 defeat at the start of World War II, Cyrankiewicz was captured by the Gestapo in the spring of 1941 and, after imprisonment at Montelupich, was sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. He arrived on 4 September 1942, and received registration number 62,933.

He, along with other Auschwitz prisoners, was eventually transferred to Mauthausen as the Soviet front line approached Auschwitz late in the war. He was eventually liberated by the United States Army.

The Auschwitz controversy

According to post-war communist era-propaganda, while in Auschwitz, Cyrankiewicz attempted to organize a resistance movement among the other imprisoned socialists and also worked on bringing the various international prisoners' groups together; those claims, used to build up his reputation in post-war Poland, are considered exaggerated by modern historians. Instead, modern historians note that Cyrankiewicz controversially not only refused an appeal of a death sentence by Witold Pilecki, a Home Army resistance fighter who infiltrated Auschwitz and is considered to be the main creator of the resistance there, but suggested that he be treated "harshly, as an enemy of the state".

Cyrankiewicz gave up the prime minister's post in 1952 because party boss Bolesław Bierut wanted the post for himself. He did, however, become a deputy premier under Bierut.

Second period in office

However, in 1954, after Poland returned to "collective leadership", Cyrankiewicz returned to the premiership, a post he would hold until 1970. By this time, there was little left of Cyrankiewicz the socialist, as evidenced during the 1956 upheaval following Nikita Khrushchev's "secret speech". He tried to repress the rioting that erupted across the country at first, threatening that "any provocateur or lunatic who raises his hand against the people's government may be sure that this hand will be chopped off."

Cyrankiewicz was also responsible for the order to fire on the protesters during the 1970 demonstrations on the coast in which 42 people were killed and more than 1,000 wounded. A few months after these demonstrations, Cyrankiewicz turned over the premiership to his longtime deputy, Piotr Jaroszewicz, and was named chairman of the Council of State — a post equivalent to that of president. Although it was nominally the highest state post in Poland, Cyrankiewicz had gone into semi-retirement. He held this post until he formally retired in 1972.

Cyrankiewicz died in 1989, a few months before the collapse of the communist regime. However, Cyrankiewicz (with others involved in the 1948 show trial) was posthumously charged in 2003 with complicity in Witold Pilecki's judicial murder.

Honours and awards

National honours

70px Order of the Cross of Grunwald, 2nd Class (1946)
70px Partisan Cross (1946)
70px Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1949)
70px Order of the Banner of Labour, 1st Class (1951)
70px Order of the Builders of People's Poland (1954)
70px Auschwitz Cross (1985)
70px Medal of the 30th Anniversary of People's Poland
70px Medal of the 40th Anniversary of People's Poland
70px Medal of the 10th Anniversary of People's Poland
70px Medal of Ludwik Waryński (1986)
70px Golden Medal of Merit for National Defence
70px Silver Medal of Merit for National Defence
70px Bronze Medal of Merit for National Defence
70px Badge of the 1000th Anniversary of the Polish State (1963)
70px Honorary Badge of the City of Poznań (1966)

Foreign honours

70px Order of the White Lion, 1st Class (1947)
70px Order of People's Liberation (1947)
70px Order of 9 September 1944, 1st Class (1948)
70px Grand Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit (1948)
70px Order of the Star of the Romanian People's Republic, 1st Class (1948)
70px Order of the National Flag, 1st Class (1957)
70px Grand Cross of the Order of the Aztec Eagle (1963)
70px Grand Cross of the Order of the White Rose of Finland with Collar (1964)
70px Order of the Yugoslav Great Star (1964)
70px Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (1965)
70px Grand Cordon of the Order of the Crown (1966)
70px Order of Georgi Dimitrov (1967)
70px Grand Cross of the Légion d'honneur (1967)
70px Jubilee Medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin" (1969)