Edward Ochab

First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party

16 August 1906 Kraków, Galicia, Austria-Hungary

1 May 1989(1989-05-01) (82) Warsaw, Polish People's Republic

20 March 1956 – 21 October 1956

Polish politician Edward Ochab (Polish:  ; 16 August 1906 – 1 May 1989) was a Polish communist politician and top leader of Poland between March and October 1956. As a member of the Communist Party of Poland from 1929, he was repeatedly imprisoned for his activities under the Polish government of the time. In 1939 Ochab participated in the Defense of Warsaw but afterwards moved to the Soviet Union, where he became an early organizer and manager in the Union of Polish Patriots. In 1943, he joined General Berling's Polish Army on the Eastern Front as a political commissar and quickly advanced in its ranks. From 1944 he was a member of the Central Committee of the Polish Workers' Party (PPR) and a deputy in the State National Council. In 1945, he became minister of public administration and held the successive positions of propaganda chief in the PPR (1945–46), chief of cooperative associations (1947–48), and chief of the Association of Trade Unions (ZZZ) (1948–49). From December 1948 he was a deputy member of the (communist) Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR) Politburo, and a full member from 1954. Between 1949 and 1950, General Ochab was deputy minister of defense and led the political branch of the Armed Forces. In Stalinist Poland he was responsible for enlisting the so-called enemies of the people to forced labour in the mines of southern Poland. These units were called "battalions of labour". After Bolesław Bierut's death, Ochab became First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party and served in that capacity between 20 March and 21 October 1956. During Ochab's rule the process of the post-Stalinist "thaw" was well under way, but the first secretary also played a role in authorizing the violent suppression of the worker revolt in Poznań in June. In October Ochab stood his ground against the Soviet leadership and is credited with helping to prevent a Soviet military intervention. He relinquished power during the VIII Plenum of the Party Central Committee, complying with the wishes of the majority of the Politburo members to promote Władysław Gomułka. Ochab remained a member of the Politburo until 1968 and also worked as minister of agriculture from 1957 to 1959, and later as the secretary of the Central Committee for agricultural affairs. Ochab was deputy chairman of the Polish Council of State (a collective head of state organ) in 1961–64. He served as chairman of the Council of State in 1964–68. In 1965–68 he also chaired the Front of National Unity. Edward Ochab resigned all of his party and state offices, and withdrew from politics in 1968, in protest of the anti-Semitic campaign conducted by factions within the communist party with First Secretary Gomułka as its head. In his retirement he remained a dedicated hardline communist, but also a vocal critic of the policies pursued by the regimes of his successors.