Janusz Krupski

Janusz Krupski (9 May 1951 – 10 April 2010) was a Polish historian, member of the democratic opposition to communist rule in Poland during the People's Republic of Poland and a government official.

Studies and democratic opposition

Krupski acquired his degree in history at the Lublin Catholic University in 1975. While there he became friends with other future opposition leaders, such as Piotr Jegliński and Bogdan Borusewicz (who in 2010 briefly served as President of Poland, after the death of Lech Kaczynski in the same plane crash in which Krupski died).

In 1983, with the end of martial law he was released. However, soon after he was seized by the communist secret police, the Służba Bezpieczeństwa (Security Services), taken to the Kampinos Forest and burned with a mixture of phenol and lysol. After the fall of communism, in 1991, an investigation was launched into the kidnapping and some of those responsible were identified. Along with Piotrowski, the political crime was ordered by Bohdan Kuliński. Documents also showed that at the time Piotrowski wrote to the chief of the secret police, Czesław Kiszczak, informing him that "Krupski is still alive".

He died on 10 April 2010 in the 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash near Smolensk, Russia. On 16 April 2010 Krupski was decorated posthumously with the Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. Ten days after the crash, he was buried in the Military Cemetery in Warsaw.

At the time of his death, Krupski was the director of the Department of Combatants and Victims of Repression (Polish:Urzad do Spraw Kombatantów i Osób Represjonowanych). He resided with his wife and seven children in Grodzisk Mazowiecki.