Marian Spychalski

Marian Spychalski
Marian Spychalski in 1965
Nickname	Marek
Born	6 December 1906 (1906-12-06) Łódź, Congress Poland, Russian Empire
Died	7 June 1980 (1980-06-08) (aged 73) Warsaw, Poland
Buried at	Warsaw, Poland
Allegiance	Poland
Rank	Marshal of Poland
Commands held	Gwardia Ludowa Defence Minister
Battles/wars	World War II
Awards
Other work	architect, politician

Marian "Marek" Spychalski (Polish pronunciation: [ˈmarjan spɨˈxalskʲi]; 6 December 1906 – 7 June 1980) was a Polish architect, military commander, and communist politician.

Born to a working-class family in Łódź, he graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology in 1931. Member of Communist Party of Poland since 1931, Polish Workers' Party since 1942, and Polish United Workers' Party since 1948.

Spychalski (centre) in 1945
with Świerczewski (right) and Rola-Żymierski (left)

During World War II he was active in the Soviet-created forces operating within Poland and was one of the leaders of the communist resistance movement Gwardia Ludowa (People's Guard), then Armia Ludowa (People's Army). In 1943 as part of Soviet effort to destroy Polish independence and resistance movement he denounced to the Gestapo various members of Polish resistance organizations.

After the war he held a number of offices in the communist government of Poland, one of his first being that of mayor of Warsaw (18 September 1944 – March 1945), technically still while the war was in progress. Among other posts, he was a long-time member of the Sejm (parliament) and, between 1968 and 1970, the chairman of the Council of State (the de iure head of state in the People's Republic of Poland).

He was imprisoned during the purges in 49–53 and was only released from prison in 1956 to become Polish Minister of Defense, replacing the Soviet marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky.

Honours and awards

This article incorporates information from the equivalent article on the Polish Wikipedia.

• Knight's Cross of the Virtuti Militari
• Order of the Builders of People's Poland (1961)
• Commander's Cross with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta, also the Commander's Cross
• Cross of Grunwald, 2nd and 3rd Classes
• Order of the Banner of Labour, 1st Class
• Partisan Cross (12 June 1946)
• Medal for Warsaw 1939-1945
• Medal for Odra, Nysa, the Baltic
• Medal of Victory and Freedom 1945
• Gold Medal "in the Service of the Armed Forces of the Homeland"
• Gold Medal "for his contribution to national defense"
• Medal "For participation in the battle for Berlin"
• Badge "Meritorious activist ORMO"
• Order of Lenin (USSR) (1968)
• Medal For the Victory Over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945 (USSR)
• Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown (Belgium)
• Grand Cross of the Order of the White Rose (Finland)
• Order of the Banner of Combat (Yugoslavia)

Political offices
Preceded by Edward Ochab	Chairman of the Polish Council of State 1968–1970	Succeeded by Józef Cyrankiewicz