ORGANISATION DU TRAITÉ DE LATLANTIQyE NORD NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION PALAIS DE CHAILLOT PARIS-XVI Tél. : KLEbcr 50-20 ENGLISH ONLY UNCLASSIFIED NATO UNCLASSIFIED RDC/467/56 and PUBLIC DISCLOSED MEMORANDUM To: Secretaries of Delegations , . ... From-: Executive Secretary' • Biographical Notes on Satellite Leaders : Certain delegations thought that it-would be useful to have information on the history of some of the satellite leaders. 2. The Political Division have therefore prepared the attached biographical notes on the members of the new Polish and Hungarian Politbüros. (Signed) COLERIDGE DECLASSIFIED - PUBLIC DISCLOSURE / DÉCLASSIFIÉ - MISE EN LECTURE PUBLIQUE LECTURE EN - MISE / DÉCLASSIFIÉ DISCLOSURE - PUBLIC DECLASSIFIED 2nd November, 1956. The following were elected to the Politburo of the "Polish. .United Workers Party" on 21st October, 1956: GOMULKA;' 'ctRANKIEWICZ; LOGA-SOWINSKI ; ZAWADZKI; ZAMBROWSKI;" OCHAB; MORAWSKI; JEDRYCHOWSKI and RAPACKI. (Rokossowski, Nowak Zenon, Novak Roman, Mazur, Jozwiak, Dworakowski, Gierek failed to be re-elected. )- I . CYRANKIEWICZ. Jozef - Prime Minister Born at Tarnow in 1911.- Studied law at Cracow Jniversity but did not complete his studies.. Joined the Polish Socialist Party and in 1935 was elected secretary to the Cracow District Committee. Took part in the. Polish-German war as an artillery officer; taken prisoner but succeeded in., escaping and returned to Cracow where he joined the Socialist Part in the inderground movement. Was captured by the Germans in 1941 and Imprisoned in the Oswiecim concentration camp. Freed by the American army, returned to Poland, where he rejoined the Polish Socialist Party of which he became Secretary-General and advocated closest co-operation with the Communists, and was responsible for the merger of his Party with the Communist Party ^at that time known under the initials PPR and laterimder the Initials PZPR). Has been member of the Politburo of the workers 'United" Party since the merger of December, 1948. Was Prime Sinister from February, 1947, until November, 1952. Re- appointed Prime Minister in March, 195k. -. LOGA-SOWINSKI. Ignacy Born in 1914. As a young boy he joined the Communist fouth Organization. Served in the army during the Polish-German var, took part in the Battle of Warsaw, 1939. Later was active Ln the communist underground in the textile industries of Lodz, elected to the Central Committee for the first time in 1945; since that time served on the Central Committee as a member or jandidate. Since 1948 has been active in the government- îontrolled trade union movement. i. ZAWADZKI. Aleksander Born in 1899 in the coal-mining district of Dabrowa- •ornicza. As a young man served in the Polish army. Worked as . miner in the Dabrowa coal basin, 1921-23 and joined at that ime the Communist Youth Organization of which he was member of he Central Committee. Was arrested in 1925; released from rison in 1931. Several times re-arrested; last time in 1936 and entenced to 15 years of imprisonment. During the war went to he Soviet Union, joined the Soviet forces and as a Soviet officer DECLASSIFIED - PUBLIC DISCLOSURE / DÉCLASSIFIÉ - MISE EN LECTURE PUBLIQUE LECTURE EN - MISE / DÉCLASSIFIÉ DISCLOSURE - PUBLIC DECLASSIFIED ook part in the defence of Stalingrad. Later when the Soviet- ontrolled Polish army was formed in the USSR, appointed a olitical education officer in that army. Rose to the rank of a eneral and appointed Deputy C-in-C, Polish Forces (under Soviet ommand). After the war became governor of the Silesia-Dabrowa rovince. Has been member of the Politburo since 1945. At resent he is Chairman of the Council of State and in this apacity performs some functions as Head of State. He has been lentified up until recently with the orthodox Soviet faction but s known now to support the "démocratisation" group. ATP UNCLASSIFIED -2- 4. ZAMBROWSKIt Roman Born in 1-909 in Warsaw. Was arrested at the age of 16 for subversive activities. •• In 1927 imprisoned and sentenced for six years. Again imprisoned 1939, was released at the outbreak of the Second.World War. Served in the Soviet army and then transferred te the Soviet-controlled 'Polish army where attained the rank of a colonel. Has been member of the Central Committee since 19.45 and was Deputy Speaker of the Sejn (Parliament), He specialises in problems of general state .administration and in those of agriculture. Was responsible for the reform of local administration, which was carried out on the Soviet pattern. 5. OCHAB. Edward -' Party Secretary Born in 1906 in Cracow. Graduated from Cracow School of Commerce (1925). From 1929 was active in the Communist Youth Organization. He was imprisoned several times in the. early 30s , and in 1935/37 took part in the Popular Front movement. In 1937 sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment; Released in September, 1939, took part, in the defence of Waraawj'. after its capitulation, escaped to the Soviet Union, Joined-the Soviet-controlled Polish army where he obtained the rank of Brigadier-General. Has been a member of the Central Committee since 1945. Was elected Head of the Party (First-Secretary of the Central Committee) after the death of Bierut, in March, 1956. 6. MORAWSKIt Jerzy Born in 1914. Was active before the war in the Communist Youth Organization, which he headed -in post-war times. Was expelled from the Party, since he was suspected of sympathising with Gomulka. He was able to convince the Party of his loyalty and reinstated to the Propaganda Department: and in December, 1954 he advanced to the position of Party Secretary. 7. JEDRYCHOWSKIt.. Stefan - Vice-Premier Born in 1910 in Warsaw. Graduated from the University of Wilno. and was assistant lecturer in-economics at the same University until 1936 when he was tried on the charge of belonging to Communist Youth Organization. During the war in 1940 he was granted Soviet citizenship and appointed member for Wilno of the USSR Supreme Soviet. Later joined the Soviet-controlled Polish forces. In 1943 became Member of the Central Executive Committee of the Union of Polish Patriots in Moscow,' a body formed to prepare on Soviet soil the future regime .of Poland. After the war held several ambassadorial and ministerial posts; . is now Chairman of the State Committee for Economic Planning. He is at present one of the Vice-Premiers. He specialises in problems of industrial organization, DECLASSIFIED - PUBLIC DISCLOSURE / DÉCLASSIFIÉ - MISE EN LECTURE PUBLIQUE LECTURE EN - MISE / DÉCLASSIFIÉ DISCLOSURE - PUBLIC DECLASSIFIED 8. RAPACKIt Adam - Foreign Minister Born 1909, son of a prominent figure in' Polish co- operative movement. Joined Socialist Youth Organizations, graduated from commercial college and until 1939 worked chiefly in the co-operative movement. From 1939-45 was held in Germany as a prisoner-of-war. After the war he rejoined the Polish Socialist Party and when the latter was merged with the Communist Party he was elected Member of the Central Committee of the PZPR (December 1948). Held several ministerial offices and is at present the Foreign Minister. -U- GOMULKA Wladyslaw, 1st Party Secretary Was "born on the 6th February, 1905, in Krosno (Southern Poland). His father was a locksmith. After graduating from an elementary school he worked as a locksmith's apprentice in the local oil industry (1919-23). In that period he organised, branches of the workers' youth .organization and a few years later he joined the Polish Communist Party, then outlawed, still posing as a trade union official and a Social Democrat (a member of the PPS, the Polish Socialist Party). Under the assumed name of "Duniak" he conducted communist activities in the coal-mining district of Dabrowa Gornicza and then in the textile district of Lodz where (in 1932) he organized a strike and was wounded during disturbances. He was arrested and sentenced to five years' imprisonment but owing to ill-health was released in 1934; • he was re-arrested the following year in Silesia. At the outbreak of the Second Yiforld War he was released from prison and lived in the Soviet- occupied part of the country. Later, under German occupation, he-was active in the organization of the "Polish Workers' Party" which was to replace the Polish Communist Party (disbanded before' the war under the charge of deviation). In November, 1943, he became Secretary-General of the Central Committee. In December, 1944, he was appointed Vice-Prime Minister of the Lublin Provisional Government, the nucleus of the present regime in Poland. When the Government proper was formed he retained this post in addition to that of the Minister of Regained Territories. Already, at the initial stage of his leadership of the Party, hé was in conflict with the so-called Muscovite Group, i.e. the group of communists who were Soviet-trained and spent a part of the war in the Soviet Union. The differences concerned both the relationship with the Soviet Union and the social and economic structure and programme. Gromulka advocated a greater measure of independence from the Soviet Union. He contended that the stage of the dictatorship of the proletariat could be avoided in Poland and that there was no need for Poland to imitate the Soviet Union in her pace of industrial growth and in.collectivisation of agriculture. Writing in the.official . party journal "Nowe Drogi" (April, 1947) he stated his views in the following way: "We have chosen our own Polish road of development which we have, named that of People's Democracy. Along this road and -under such conditions the dictatorship of a single party is neither essential nor purposeful." In July, 1948, he-was attacked ^at the Plenum of the Central Committee and accused of: DECLASSIFIED - PUBLIC DISCLOSURE / DÉCLASSIFIÉ - MISE EN LECTURE PUBLIQUE LECTURE EN - MISE / DÉCLASSIFIÉ DISCLOSURE - PUBLIC DECLASSIFIED (i) a tendency towards bourgeois nationalism and incapacity of appreciating the part played by the Bolshevik Party in the struggle, against imperialism; (ii) inability to understand the necessity of a hard struggle against capitalistic rural elements ; (iii) harbouring a conciliatory attitude•towards the Yugoslav Communist Party in spite of its deviation.