Wojciech Jaruzelski after the Polish Round Table Agreement in 1989, which led to democratic elections in Poland. Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski was born on 6 July 1923 in Kurów, into a family of Polish gentry. He was the son of Wanda (née Zaremba) and Władysław Mieczysław Jaruzelski, a Czech-educated agronomist and volunteered soldier who fought in the war against Soviet Russia in 1920 and was raised on the family estate near Wysokie (in the vicinity of Białystok). From 1933 until September 1939, He was educated in a Catholic school in Warsaw where Jaruzelski received strict religious education. World War II commenced on 1
Wojciech Jaruzelski Soviet leadership. Jaruzelski was elected his successor, becoming the only professional soldier to become leader of a ruling European Communist party. A fortnight after taking power, Jaruzelski met with Solidarity head Lech Wałęsa and Catholic bishop Józef Glemp, and hinted that he wanted to bring the church and the union into a sort of coalition government. However, his intention was to crush Solidarity. As early as September, while he was still merely prime minister, he met with his aides to find an excuse to impose martial law. On 13 December, citing purported recordings of Solidarity leaders planning a coup, Jaruzelski