June 5, 1923 - Wojciech Jaruzelski

Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski ( VOY-chekh YAR-oo-ZEL-skee, Polish: [ˈvɔjt͡ɕɛɣ ˈvitɔlt jaruˈzɛlskʲi] ; 6 July 1923 – 25 May 2014) was a Polish military general, politician and de facto leader of the Polish People's Republic from 1981 until 1989, and a military dictator from 13 December 1981 until 22 July 1983. He was the First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party between 1981 and 1989, making him the last leader of the Polish People's Republic.

Born to Polish nobility in Kurów in eastern (then-central) Poland, Jaruzelski was deported with his family to Siberia by the NKVD after the invasion of Poland. Assigned to forced labour in the Siberian wilderness, he developed photokeratitis which forced him to wear protective sunglasses for the rest of his life. In 1943, Jaruzelski joined the newly created First Polish Army and fought alongside the Soviets against Nazi Germany in the Eastern Front, most notably in the liberation of Warsaw and in the Battle of Berlin. Following the Polish October and the expatriation of Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky back to the Soviet Union, Jaruzelski became the chief political officer of the Polish People's Army and eventually Polish Minister of Defence in 1968.

Content sourced from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wojciech Jaruzelski under CC BY-SA 4.0.