Historical calendar: February 5, 1947 – Bolesław Bierut president of Poland

Bolesław Bierut came from a peasant household from Tarnobrzeg. He was born on 18 April 1892 in the Brygidkowski Pipes close Lublin as the youngest kid of Wojciech Bierut and Marianna Salomei from the Wolska House. From 1910 he was part of the labour force led by John Hempl, who had a crucial influence on his youthful views – including under his influence Birut broke up with religion and became an atheist. At the age of 20, he joined the Polish Socialist organization – Left.

He besides worked in the reading section of the Lublin Social and Educational Society "The Future". After the outbreak of planet War I, he avoided military service and hid under the name “Jerzy Bolesław Bielak”. Since December 1918, after the union of the PPS – Left with the Sociallemocracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, he belonged to the Communist Workers organization of Poland. During the time of the Second Republic he was arrested many times for communist activity.

After the outbreak of planet War II, he fled to areas occupied by the Red Army to Białystok. He was then in the russian business area. He accepted russian citizenship. From October 1939 he worked in Kowl and then on the construction organized by the People's Communication Station ZSRS (November 1939 – June 1940). After the German attack on the ZSRS, he had been in Minsk since the summertime of 1941, as head of the Food Department at the city office (then under the German administration), while remaining a russian intelligence agent.

In July 1943, he received an operational task and was transferred to Poland (the PPR Initiative Group), where he joined the KC of the Polish Workers' organization under the name “Bolesław Birkowski”. As of January 1944, he presided over the National Council, an authority created by communists.

On 5 August 1944, Birut was summoned by Józef Stalin to Moscow, where he participated in talks with the Prime Minister of the Polish Government in exile Stanisław Mikołajczyk. He then assured that he knew nothing about the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising, which would make it hard for Mikołajczyk to usage the fact of the uprising as an argument in talks about the creation of the alleged "interim government" with the participation of non-communist forces.

From 28 September to 3 October 1944, a delegation was in Moscow PKWN composed of Bolesław Bierut, Edward Osóbka-Morawski, Michał Rola-Żymierski, Andrzej Witos and Wincenty Romowski. On the night of 29 to 30 September, during a dinner at the Stalin residence, in which the first 3 attended, and on the part of the russian Stalin, Lavrintij Beria, Wiacheslaw Molotov and Anastas Mikojan, Stalin communicated to Beirut his decision to radicalize the political course in the Polish territory administered by PKWN.

He ordered the PPR to strengthen its position towards the National Army and the "London Camp", to intensify its repression of the "reactive underground", and in peculiar to immediately expel landowner families from their properties and homes, contrary to the provisions of the PKWN Decree of 6 September 1944 on agricultural reform.

In March 1945, Stalin called Bieruta to Moscow and informed him about the Yalta arrangements, recommending him to advance the agreements of this conference in the country as the basis of a "new Poland" – which was considered by most of the society to be a betrayal of national interests.

From 19 to 26 April 1945, Bierut was again in Moscow at the head of the Polish delegation, where Józef Stalin and Edward Osóbka-Morawski signed a “agreement on friendship, common assistance and post-war Polish-Soviet cooperation” (at the time, the NKVD held 16 leaders of the Polish Underground State arrested in late March 1945, which, as officially reported, the communist Polish authorities did not know).

From 1945 Bolesław Bierut lived and served in Belvedere, where he photographed with children, youth and women for propaganda purposes. He was constantly accompanied by many guards, mostly Soviet, commanded by Colonel Faustyna Grzybowski (since 1944 the head of the Provincial Public safety Office in Białystok and Wrocław), which prevented 3 attempts to assassinate his life (in 1951, 1952 and 1953), killing at the scene of the bombers.

On 5 February 1947, Birut was elected president of the Republic of Poland by the Legislative Sejm. It was until the election of the State Council by the recently elected Sejm of the Polish People's Republic, i.e. until 20 November 1952.

Bolesław Bierut's governments were characterised by the Sovietization of Poland and service towards Moscow. In the course of these events, about 2,500 people were executed, including many soldiers of the National Army and the “Cursed” (including Witold Pilecki, August Emil Fieldorf, Zygmunt Szendzierz ps. “Łupuszko”). He powerfully advocated deepening the repression of political opponents. In addition, he was personally liable for falsifying the results of the 1946 referendum vote and oversaw the rigged elections to the Legislative Sejm of 19 January 1947.

Previous entry from our calendar is available Here.