Piotr Jaroszewicz on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
Piotr Jaroszewicz (; 8 October 1909 – 1 September 1992) was a post-
After the war, he became the deputy minister of defence (1945–1950). Since 1956, he was the Polish ambassador to COMECON. At the same time, between 1952 and 1970, he served as a deputy Prime Minister of Poland and briefly (1954–1956) as the minister of mining industry. Jaroszewicz was a member of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party since its creation in 1948, and since 196,4 he was also a member of the Political Bureau. From December 1970 until February 1980, he was the Prime Minister of Poland. The economic policies of Jaroszewicz and Edward Gierek led to a wave of protests in 1976 and 1980. In 1980, he gave up all his party posts and was expelled from the party the following year.
Chorąży (Standard-bearer (Eastern Europe), Standard-bearer) - 1 February 1944
* 
Porucznik (First lieutenant) - 1 May 1944
* 
Kapitan (Captain) - 27 July 1944
* 
Major (Major (United States), Major) - 1 October 1944
* 
Podpułkownik (Lieutenant colonel) - 3 November 1944
* 
Pułkownik (Colonel) - 18 April 1945
* Generał brygady (Brigadier general) - 15 December 1945
* Generał dywizji (Major general) - 11 November 1950
Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1979, deprived of in July 1981)
** Order of the Cross of Grunwald, 1st Class (8 October 1979)
** 
Order of the Banner of Labour, 1st Class (1964)
** Order of the Cross of Grunwald, 2nd Class (12 July 1945)
** 
Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (19 July 1946)
** Order of the Cross of Grunwald, 3rd Class (5 June 1945)
** 
Silver Cross of Virtuti Militari (1945)
** 
Medal of the 30th Anniversary of People's Poland (1974)
** Medal for Warsaw 1939–1945 (17 January 1946)
** Medal for Oder, Neisse and Baltic
** Medal of Victory and Freedom 1945
** 
Medal of the 10th Anniversary of People's Poland (30 December 1954)
** Medal for Participation in the Battle of Berlin (1966)
** Golden Medal of Merit for National Defence
** Silver Medal of Merit for National Defence
** Bronze Medal of Merit for National Defence
** Badge of the 1000th Anniversary of the Polish State
** Golden Badge of the Association of Volunteer Fire Departments (1966)
* Soviet:
** 
Order of the October Revolution (1974)
** 
Order of Friendship of Peoples (1979)
** 
Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"
** 
Jubilee Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" (1972)
** 
Jubilee Medal "Thirty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" (1975)
** 
Jubilee Medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin" (1969)
* From other countries:
** Military Order of the White Lion, 1st Class (Czechoslovakia, 1949)
** 
Grand Cross of the Order of the White Rose of Finland (Finland, 1974)
** 
Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour (France, 1975)
** 
Knight Grand Cordon of Order of the Crown (Iran), Order of the Crown (Pahlavi Iran, Iran, 1974)
** 
Grand Collar of the Order of Prince Henry (Portugal, 1976)
** 
Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold (Belgium), Order of Leopold (Belgium, 1977)
** 
Grand Cross of the Order of May (Argentina, 1974)
** 
Order of José Martí (Cuba, 1979)
** 
Order of Georgi Dimitrov (Bulgaria)
** 
Order of the Balkan Mountains, 1st Class (Bulgaria, 1979)
** 
Medal of 90th Anniversary of the Birth of Georgi Dimitrov (Bulgaria, 1972)''Medale Georgi Dymitrowa dla członków kierownictwa PZPR'', [w:] „Trybuna Robotnicza”, nr 266, 8 listopada 1972, s. 1.
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
* Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...
political figure. He served as the Prime Minister of Poland
A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only wa ...
between 1970 and 1980. After he was forced out of office, he lived quietly in a suburb of Warsaw
Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...
until his murder in 1992.
Life and career
Jaroszewicz was born on 8 October 1909 inNieśwież
Nyasvizh or Nesvizh is a town in Minsk Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative centre of Nyasvizh District. Nyasvizh is the site of Nesvizh Castle, a World Heritage Site. In 2009, its population was 14,300. As of 2025, it has a populat ...
, in the Minsk Governorate
Minsk Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire, with its capital in Minsk. It was created from the land acquired in the partitions of Poland and existed from 1793 until 1921. Its territory covered th ...
of the Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
(present-day Belarus
Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...
). After finishing secondary school in Jasło
Jasło is a county town in south-eastern Poland with 36,641 inhabitants, as of 31 December 2012. It is situated in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship (since 1999), and it was previously part of Krosno Voivodeship (1975–1998). It is located in Lesser ...
, he started working as a teacher and headmaster in Garwolin
Garwolin is a town on the Wilga (Garwolin), Wilga river in eastern Poland, capital of Garwolin County, situated in the southeast part of the Garwolin plateau in Masovian Voivodeship, southeast of Warsaw, northwest of Lublin. As of December 2021, ...
. After the outbreak of World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
and the Nazi-Soviet alliance established by the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, officially the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and also known as the Hitler–Stalin Pact and the Nazi–Soviet Pact, was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Ge ...
, he moved to the Soviet-occupied zone of Poland. It has been claimed that he was a headmaster at Pinsk gymnasium. However, on 10 July 1940, he was deported to Slobodka, Krasnoborski region, Arkhangelsk, from Stolin together with his first wife, Oksana Gregorevna (born in Salov/Calow 1914) and daughter Olila (born 1940). In 1943 he joined the 1st Polish Army
First most commonly refers to:
* First, the ordinal form of the number 1
First or 1st may also refer to:
Acronyms
* Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array
* Far Infrared a ...
of Gen. Zygmunt Berling
Zygmunt Henryk Berling (27 April 1896 – 11 July 1980) was a Polish general and politician. He fought for the independence of Poland in the early 20th century. Berling was a co-founder and commander of the First Polish Army (1944–1945), First ...
. The following year he joined the Polish Workers Party and was promoted to deputy politruk, political commander of the 1st Army.
After the war, he became the deputy minister of defence (1945–1950). Since 1956, he was the Polish ambassador to COMECON. At the same time, between 1952 and 1970, he served as a deputy Prime Minister of Poland and briefly (1954–1956) as the minister of mining industry. Jaroszewicz was a member of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party since its creation in 1948, and since 196,4 he was also a member of the Political Bureau. From December 1970 until February 1980, he was the Prime Minister of Poland. The economic policies of Jaroszewicz and Edward Gierek led to a wave of protests in 1976 and 1980. In 1980, he gave up all his party posts and was expelled from the party the following year.
Death
After his departure from office and the party, Jaroszewicz and his second wife, Alicja Solska, settled in theWarsaw
Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...
suburb of Anin, Warsaw, Anin. The couple largely kept to themselves and did not socialise much. Jaroszewicz was obsessed with security; he had a 3.3-metre (11-foot) fence topped with barbed wire installed around their villa. When he walked their [Schnauser], neighbours said, he often carried a pistol with him.
Despite these measures, their son Jan Jaroszewicz found the couple murdered when he entered the house on 3 September 1992. Poison gas had been used to incapacitate the dog. Jaroszewicz's body, found in his upstairs study, had the belt that had been used to strangle him secured by an antique ice axe from his collection. The attackers had also beaten him, yet had bandaged the wounds.
Solska's body was next to her husband's. Her hands had been tied behind her back, and she had been shot in the head at close range with one of the couple's hunting rifles. Investigators believe that she had earlier managed to injure one of the killers during a struggle, since blood from her and an unknown individual was found in another room in the house.
The killers appeared to have searched every room in the house. It was initially reported that they only took what were presumed to have been documents from one safe and left behind valuable old coins and art, suggesting the thieves were not motivated by financial gain. However, police records show the thieves actually stole two guns, 5,000 German marks, five gold coins and a lady's watch.
Friends and family said that Jaroszewicz had been even more paranoid than usual in the days before the murders, which were determined to have occurred on 1 September, two days before the bodies were discovered. The killings received significant media attention in Poland, due both to Jaroszewicz's past leadership and the brutality of the crime. While initial theories suspected that the murders were politically motivated, in 2017, Warsaw police revealed the burglary had been committed by the 'Karate Gang' of Radom, a group of violent criminals active through the 1990s. They had broken into Jaroszewicz's home expecting to find significant sums of money and tortured him in an effort to find it. When Jaroszewicz broke free, the gang murdered both him and his wife, then hurriedly left. Several Karate Gang members went on trial for this and other crimes in 2021. They denied any political motivation for the burglary.
Promotions
* Chorąży (Standard-bearer (Eastern Europe), Standard-bearer) - 1 February 1944
* Porucznik (First lieutenant) - 1 May 1944
* Kapitan (Captain) - 27 July 1944
* Major (Major (United States), Major) - 1 October 1944
* Podpułkownik (Lieutenant colonel) - 3 November 1944
* Pułkownik (Colonel) - 18 April 1945
* Generał brygady (Brigadier general) - 15 December 1945
* Generał dywizji (Major general) - 11 November 1950
Awards and decoration
* Polish: ** Order of the Builders of People's Poland (18 July 1969) ** Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1979, deprived of in July 1981)
** Order of the Cross of Grunwald, 1st Class (8 October 1979)
** Order of the Banner of Labour, 1st Class (1964)
** Order of the Cross of Grunwald, 2nd Class (12 July 1945)
** Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (19 July 1946)
** Order of the Cross of Grunwald, 3rd Class (5 June 1945)
** Silver Cross of Virtuti Militari (1945)
** Medal of the 30th Anniversary of People's Poland (1974)
** Medal for Warsaw 1939–1945 (17 January 1946)
** Medal for Oder, Neisse and Baltic
** Medal of Victory and Freedom 1945
** Medal of the 10th Anniversary of People's Poland (30 December 1954)
** Medal for Participation in the Battle of Berlin (1966)
** Golden Medal of Merit for National Defence
** Silver Medal of Merit for National Defence
** Bronze Medal of Merit for National Defence
** Badge of the 1000th Anniversary of the Polish State
** Golden Badge of the Association of Volunteer Fire Departments (1966)
* Soviet:
** Order of the October Revolution (1974)
** Order of Friendship of Peoples (1979)
** Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"
** Jubilee Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" (1972)
** Jubilee Medal "Thirty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" (1975)
** Jubilee Medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin" (1969)
* From other countries:
** Military Order of the White Lion, 1st Class (Czechoslovakia, 1949)
** Grand Cross of the Order of the White Rose of Finland (Finland, 1974)
** Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour (France, 1975)
** Knight Grand Cordon of Order of the Crown (Iran), Order of the Crown (Pahlavi Iran, Iran, 1974)
** Grand Collar of the Order of Prince Henry (Portugal, 1976)
** Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold (Belgium), Order of Leopold (Belgium, 1977)
** Grand Cross of the Order of May (Argentina, 1974)
** Order of José Martí (Cuba, 1979)
** Order of Georgi Dimitrov (Bulgaria)
** Order of the Balkan Mountains, 1st Class (Bulgaria, 1979)
** Medal of 90th Anniversary of the Birth of Georgi Dimitrov (Bulgaria, 1972)''Medale Georgi Dymitrowa dla członków kierownictwa PZPR'', [w:] „Trybuna Robotnicza”, nr 266, 8 listopada 1972, s. 1.
See also
* List of prime ministers of Poland * List of unsolved murders (20th century), List of unsolved murdersReferences
External links
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jaroszewicz, Piotr 1909 births 1992 deaths People from Nyasvizh People from Slutsky Uyezd Polish Workers' Party politicians Members of the Politburo of the Polish United Workers' Party Prime ministers of the Polish People's Republic Deputy prime ministers of Poland Members of the Polish Sejm 1947–1952 Members of the Polish Sejm 1952–1956 Members of the Polish Sejm 1957–1961 Members of the Polish Sejm 1961–1965 Members of the Polish Sejm 1965–1969 Members of the Polish Sejm 1969–1972 Members of the Polish Sejm 1972–1976 Members of the Polish Sejm 1976–1980 Members of the Polish Sejm 1980–1985 Puławianie Polish People's Army generals Polish military personnel of World War II Recipients of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1944–1989) Commanders of the Order of Polonia Restituta Recipients of the Order of the Builders of People's Poland Recipients of the Order of the Cross of Grunwald, 1st class Recipients of the Order of the Cross of Grunwald, 2nd class Recipients of the Order of the Cross of Grunwald, 3rd class Recipients of the Order of the Banner of Work Recipients of the Silver Cross of the Virtuti Militari Recipients of the Medal of the 10th Anniversary of the People's Republic of Poland Recipients of the Order of the October Revolution Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples Recipients of the Order of the Red Star Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour Recipients of the Military Order of the White Lion Grand Collars of the Order of Prince Henry Bearers of the Leopold Order People murdered in Poland Polish murder victims Unsolved murders in Poland