Background
Bierut was born in Rury, now a part of Lublin, to Wojciech Bierut, a village teacher, and his wife Maria (née Biernacka). In 1918 he took courses at the Warsaw School of Economics.
Bierut was born in Rury, now a part of Lublin, to Wojciech Bierut, a village teacher, and his wife Maria (née Biernacka). In 1918 he took courses at the Warsaw School of Economics.
From 1924–30, he was in Moscow for training at the school of the Communist International.
In 1930–31, he was sent by the Comintern to Austria, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria. In 1933, he became an agent of Soviet military intelligence, the GRU, and was subsequently sentenced in Poland to 10 years in prison for "anti-state activities" (incarcerated between 1933–1938). The pro-Soviet Communist Party of Poland was dissolved by Joseph Stalin in 1938. Bierut avoided being caught in the Great Purge, which led to the execution of many leaders of the Communist Party of Poland in the USSR. After an amnesty from the Polish government in 1938, Bierut settled in Warsaw and worked as a bookkeeper in a cooperative.
After the outbreak of World War II, Bierut left Warsaw and via Lublin went to eastern Poland, which was soon occupied by the Red Army. Bierut spent part of the war in the Soviet Union, but was sent to Poland to join the leadership of the new Polish Workers' Party (PPR) in 1943. He headed the State National Council (Krajowa Rada Narodowa), a communist quasi-parliament established by Władysław Gomułka and the PPR, from 1944 to 1947. With Gomułka and others, Bierut played a leading role in the establishment of communist Poland.
From 1947 to 1952, he served as President and then (after the abolition of the Presidency with the creation of the People's Republic of Poland) Prime Minister. He was also the first Secretary General of the ruling Polish United Workers Party from 1948 to 1956.