The Great Soviet Encyclopedia on Bolesław Bierut

Born Apr. 18, 1892, near Lublin; died Mar. 12, 1956, in Moscow. Polish politician and statesman.

Beginning in 1912, Bierut took part in the revolutionary movement as a member of the left wing of the Polish Socialist Party. From December 1918 he was a member of the Communist Party of Poland (CPP); from 1915 to 1923 he was engaged in instructional guidance work in Polish workers’ cooperatives, and subsequently he held responsible posts in the CPP. Because of his revolutionary activity, Bierut underwent persecution and arrest in bourgeois Poland. During the years when the German Nazis occupied Poland, he was one of the organizers of the struggle for the national and social liberation of the Polish people. He joined the leadership of the Polish Workers’ Party, which had come into being in 1942. On Jan. 1, 1944, Bierut was elected chairman of the Krajowa Rada Narodowa (People’s National Council) and remained in this post until Feb. 4, 1947. From 1947 to 1952 he served as president of the Polish Republic and chairman of the State Council; from 1952 to 1954 he was chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Polish People’s Republic. From September 1948, Bierut was general secretary of the central committee of the Polish Worker’s Party, and from December 1948, a member of the Politburo of the central committee and chairman of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party. From March 1954 he was first secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party.