Piotr Jaroszewicz

Piotr Jaroszewicz (; 8 October 1909 – 1 September 1992) was a Polish politician who served as Prime Minister of Poland between 1970 and 1980. After he was forced out of office, he lived quietly in a suburb of Warsaw until his assassination in 1992.

Early life and education

Jaroszewicz was born on 8 October 1909 in Nieśwież, in the Minsk Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Belarus). After finishing secondary school in Jasło, he started working as a teacher and headmaster in Garwolin. After the outbreak of World War II and the Nazi-Soviet alliance established by the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, 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, Krasnoborsky District, 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 of General Zygmunt Berling. The following year, he joined the Polish Workers Party and was promoted to deputy political commander of the 1st Army.

Political career 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 the mining industry. Jaroszewicz was a member of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party since its creation in 1948, and since 1964, 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.

Murder and aftermath After his departure from office and the party, Jaroszewicz and his second wife, Alicja Solska, settled in the Warsaw suburb of 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 dog, 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.

The killers appeared to have searched every room. 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.

Friends and family said that Jaroszewicz had been even more paranoid than usual in the days before the murders,

Promotions

Awards and decorations Polish:

Soviet:

70px Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"

From other countries: