Karol Świerczewski
| Karol Świerczewski | |
|---|---|
Karol Świerczewski in 1946.
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| Born |
22 February 1897 Warsaw, Congress Poland |
| Died |
28 March 1947 (aged 50) Bieszczady, Poland |
| Rank | Colonel General |
| Commands held | Second Army (Poland) |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
| Awards |
Virtuti Militari Order of the Cross of Grunwald Cross of Merit (Poland) Medal of Victory and Freedom 1945 |
| Other work | politician |
Karol Wacław Świerczewski (pronounced [ˈkarɔl ɕfjɛrˈt͡ʂɛfskʲi]; callsign Walter; 22 February 1897 – 28 March 1947) was an ethnic Pole serving as the Red Army general. He was a Bolshevik party member and Soviet officer in the wars fought abroad by the Soviet Union including the one against Polish as well as Ukrainian Republics and in Republican Spain. In 1939 he participated in the Soviet invasion of Poland yet again. At the end of World War II in Europe he was installed as one of leaders of the Soviet-sponsored Polish Provisional Government of National Unity. Soon later, Świerczewski died in a country-road ambush shot by the Ukrainian partisans from OUN-UPA. He was an icon of communist propaganda for the following several decades.
Born in Warsaw in Congress Poland, Karol Świerczewski grew up in a poor family and began working at age 12 in a local Warsaw factory. During the First World War, at the age of 18 he was evacuated in 1915 to Moscow by the Tsarist army. In 1918 he joined the Bolshevik Party, and fought in the Russian Civil War as a soldier of the Red Army. In 1919 during the Polish-Soviet War he fought on the Soviet side against the Polish Second Republic and was wounded. He remained in Russia and in 1928 on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of establishment of the Red Army he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner (no. 146), his first military award.
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