Karol Świerczewski

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Karol Świerczewski, Marian Spychalski and Michał Rola-Żymierski

Gen. Karol Świerczewski (second from the left) among the military commanders of the 1st Polish Army leading their troops at the ceremonial Victory Parade on Red Square, Moscow on June 24, 1945.

Karol Świerczewski, (callsign Walter) (22 February 1897 in Warsaw – 28 March 1947 at Jabłonki near Baligród) was a military officer and a general in service of Bolshevist Russia, Soviet Union, Republican Spain and Polish post-War government.

Karol Świerczewski grew up in a poor working class family. In his youth he worked at the factory in Warsaw until 1915 when during the First World War he was evacuated to Moscow. In 1918 he joined the Bolshevik party, fought in the Russian Civil War as a soldier of the Red Army, and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. During Polish Soviet War he applied for transfer to the western front in order to fight against Poland^{[citation needed]} where he was wounded.

From 1921 he taught in the Polish School of Red Communars.In 1928 Świerczewski graduated from Frunze Military Academy in Moscow and worked in the Red Army General Staff. In 1936 under the name General Walter he came to Spain. General Walter won a reputation of a very competent military commander as he led the 14th International Brigade and later the 35th International Division during the Spanish Civil War. Following the outbreak of Second World War he was first a general of the Soviet army, but in 1943 became one of the generals charged with the creation of Soviet controlled part of the Polish Armed Forces in the East, the 1st Polish Army. In 1944 Karol Świerczewski became one of the leaders of Polish Workers' Party and the government of People's Republic of Poland. In the winter 1944 and the spring of 1945 he led the Polish Second Army during the fighting for western Poland and the Battle of Berlin. In February of 1946 Karol Świerczewski became the deputy defence minister of Poland. He was involved in persecution of anti-Communist opposition movement in Poland and signed [2] many death sentences while establishing a Communist regime in Poland.

His controversial death in an ambush organized by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army near Baligród was used as the direct pretext for the planned in advance forcible transfer of Ukrainian population ("Wisła" Action, from their historic territories in the eastern part of the post-war Poland to the "Recovered territories", the areas Poland gained from Germany after the war.

After 1989, with the end of the Warsaw pact and the coming to power of Solidarity, many of his monuments were removed and streets renamed because of his role in implementing the Communist regime in Poland.

On 21st May 2003, the Polish organization of former veterans and independence fighters applied to the Institute of National Remembrance to investigate crimes against the Polish nation committed by Karol Świerczewski. In a letter they recall that he was "one of the people who consciously worked towards enslavement of Polish nation, through enforced communist regime that was vassal towards Moscow". Among crimes that aren't subject to expiry and should be investigated by IPN are 29 death sentences on Polish soldiers and officers, which were signed by Świerczewski during his command of the Soviet controlled 2nd Polish Army^[1]