Michał Rola-Żymierski

Marshal
Michał Rola-Żymierski

Michał Rola-Żymierski as Marshal of Poland
Born (1890-09-04)September 4, 1890
Died October 15, 1989(1989-10-15) (aged 99)
Allegiance  Austria-Hungary
 Second Polish Republic
 Polish People's Republic
Service/branch Austro-Hungarian Army (1911 - 1914)
Polish Legions (1914 - 1919)
Polish Army (1919 - 1927)
People's Guard (1942 - 1944)
People's Army (1944)
People's Army of Poland (1944 - 1989)
Years of service 1911 - 1927; 1942 - 1949
Rank Marshal of Poland
Battles/wars World War I. Polish-Soviet War, 1926 Polish Coup d'Etat, World War II
Other work Minister of National Defence

Michał Rola-Żymierski (Polish pronunciation: [ˈmixaw ˈrɔla ʐɨˈmjɛrskʲi]; 1890–1989) was a Polish high-ranking Communist Party leader, communist military commander, NKVD secret agent, and Marshal of Poland by Joseph Stalin's order from 1945 until his death.

Biography

Generals Karol Świerczewski, Marian Spychalski and Michał Rola-Żymierski standing on the Nysa Łużycka river.
Marshal Rola-Żymierski during the Potsdam Conference in Germany.

Michał Rola-Żymierski was born as Michał Łyżwiński in Kraków on September 4, 1890. In 1910 he started studies at the law faculty of the Jagiellonian University. In 1914 he joined the Polish Legions and fought with distinction on many of the most important battlefields of the Austro-Hungarian Eastern Front. After the Oath Crisis of 1917 he retired from the Austro-Hungarian army and returned to Kraków, where he finished his law studies and graduated from the Kraków Trading School. His pseudonym Żymierski is similar to the name of November Uprising General Franciszek Żymirski.

In 1918 he joined the reborn Polish Army and took part in the Polish-Soviet War. He initially commanded the II Infantry Brigade and then was promoted to the commander of the prestigious Polish Legions 2nd Infantry Division. After the war he was sent to Paris, where he graduated from École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr. Upon his return he was promoted to General. Żymierski served in Warsaw as the Deputy Chief of Administration of the Polish Army. During the 1926 coup d'état he defended the democratically-elected government of Stanisław Wojciechowski. After the coup, in 1927, the new sanacja regime of Marshal Józef Piłsudski accused him of bribery and embezzlement, and was eventually court-martialed and demoted to private first class, expelled from the army and sentenced to five years in prison.

Upon his release in 1931 he was canvassed by the Soviet intelligence and became a secret member of the Communist Party of Poland. After Stalin's decision to disband the Polish Communist Party in 1938, Żymierski emigrated to France. However, shortly after the outbreak of World War II he returned to Poland, and as NKVD secret agent, as revealed first by Józef Światło, engaged in dealings with Nazi Germany's secret police Gestapo, and in 1943 upon Soviet order he was named the deputy commander of the Communist and Soviet-backed Gwardia Ludowa and then (since 1944) the commander of Armia Ludowa. As such he was promoted by the communist-backed Polish Committee of National Liberation back to the rank of General and became the commander-in-chief of the Polish Army fighting alongside the Soviet Union (the Polish Armed Forces in the East). He was Minister of Defence in the Provisional Government of Republic of Poland (Rząd Tymczasowy Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej, January–June 1945). On May 3, 1945, by order of Stalin he was promoted to the rank of Marshal of Poland.

Since 1946 Żymierski was the head of the Commission of State Security. He was responsible for repressions against the former resistance fighters, members of the Polish 2nd Corps and non-communist politicians, as well as for usage of the Polish Army against Polish Freedom and Independence fighters, Ukrainian citizens of Poland in Operation Vistula. Until 1949 he also held the post of Minister of National Defence. In this year he was replaced by allegedly Polish-born Soviet Marshal Konstanty Rokossowski, who received the rank of Marshal of Poland and held his office until 1956. As an effect of Stalinist purges organised in Poland by Bolesław Bierut Żymierski was arrested in 1952. However, he was released in 1955 without any charges. He was rehabilitated by the Polish government in 1956.

After the end of Stalinism in Poland he held various posts, including head of the National Bank of Poland (between 1956 and 1967) and the honorary head of the ZBoWiD (Society of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy, an organisation of Polish war veterans). He was also a member of the Polish United Workers' Party and after Wojciech Jaruzelski's introduction of martial law in Poland Żymierski also became the member of its Central Committee and of the Front of National Unity.

He died in Warsaw on October 15, 1989. He was the last officer to date to hold the rank of Marshal of Poland.

Honours and awards

Polish awards

Foreign awards

Further reading

External links

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References

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