Education
Born to a working-class family in Łódź, Spychalski graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the Politechnika Warszawska Warsaw University of Technology in 1931.
architect politician List of mayors of Warsaw
Born to a working-class family in Łódź, Spychalski graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the Politechnika Warszawska Warsaw University of Technology in 1931.
During World World War II he belonged to the communist underground forces operating within Poland and was one of the leaders of the resistance movement Gwardia Ludowa (People"s Guard), then Armia Ludowa (People"s Army). That same year he joined the Communist Party of Poland and continued his membership when in 1942 it became the Polish Workers" Party, and in 1948 the Polish United Workers" Party. After the war he held a number of offices in the government of Poland, one of his first being mayor of Warsaw (18 September 1944 – March 1945), with the war still in progress.
In 1951 he appeared in a show trial where he was instructed to deliver official (and false) testimony against Gomułka.
He was only released in the mass release of political prisoners in April 1956, and subsequently reinstated in the Polish United Workers" Party. With Gomułka"s rehabilitation and return to power that year, Spychalski became the Polish Minister of Defence.
In 1968 at Gomułka"s request he left the Polish Army and his job as Minister of Defense to assume civilian posts as President of the Front of National Unity and from 10 April 1968 to 23 December 1970 as the Chairman of the Council of State, the de facto head of state of Poland, the council being the de jure head of state in the People"s Republic of Poland, although some considered the post to be mostly symbolic. Spychalski retired and wrote a four volume memoir which is now in the archives of the Hoover Institution in California.
Knight"s Cross of the Virtuti Militari Order of the Builders of People"s Poland (1961) Commander"s Cross with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta, also the Commander"s Cross Cross of Grunwald, 2nd and 3rd Classes Order of the Banner of Labour, 1st Class Partisan Cross (12 June 1946) Medal for Warsaw 1939-1945 Medal for Odra, Nysa, the Baltic Medal of Victory and Freedom 1945 Gold Medal "in the Service of the Armed Forces of the Homeland" Gold Medal "for his contribution to national defense" Medal "Foreign the Capture of Berlin" Badge "Meritorious activist ORMO" Order of Lenin (Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics) (1968) Medal "Foreign the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" (Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics) Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown (Belgium) Grand Cross of the Order of the White Rose (Finland).
He was removed from his remaining political posts in 1949 and then in 1950 imprisoned as part of the Stalinist purges of social-democrats in 1949–1953, where he was accused of anti-Soviet tendencies akin to Titoism.
Among other posts, he was a long-time member of the Sejm (parliament), a close friend of Władysław Gomułka, and from 1945 to 1948 was both Deputy Minister of Defense and a member of the Political Bureau of the Polish United Workers" Party. In 1959 he again became a member of the Political Bureau, and in 1963 he was promoted to Field Marshal.
