Miroslaw HERMASZEWSKI, Polish air force officer and astronaut. Gold Cross of Merit 1976; Order of Lenin 1978; Champion Pilot 1978. Space Research Committee of Polish Academy, of Sciences 1978-: associate, Military Technological Academy, and Military Institute of Aviation Medicine; Military Council of National Salvation 1981-1983; Polish Youth Union and Socialist Youth Union; Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR) since 1963.
Background
Mirosław Hermaszewski was born into a Polish family in Lipniki, formerly in the Wołyń Voivodeship of Poland, but at the time part of Reichskommissariat Ukraine, and since the end of the Second World War in Ukraine. He is a survivor of the Volhynian massacres during which Ukrainian nationalists murdered 19 members of his family, including his father.
Education
After the incorporation of former Polish territory into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic at the end of the war, what was left of Hermaszewski"s family were deported to Wołów near Wrocław, where he completed elementary and high school. In 1965, he graduated from the military pilot school in Dęblin.
Career
He became the first (and to this day remains the only) Polish national in space, when he flew aboard the Soviet Soyuz 30 spacecraft in 1978. Hermaszewski narrowly escaped death himself when the Ukrainian Insurgent Army attacked Lipniki on the night of 26–27 March 1943. In 1978, he was chosen from almost 500 Polish pilots to take part in the Intercosmos space program
Together with Pyotr Klimuk, he spent almost eight days on board the Salyut 6 space station (from 17:27 on 27 June to 16:31 on 5 July 1978).
During their time in orbit, they carried out various geoscience experiments and photographed the Earth. They landed 300 km west of Tselinograd.
He later became President of the Polish Astronautical Society (1983-1989). He was studying in Moscow at the time and although he was ordered to return to Warsaw when martial law was declared in December 1981, after two weeks he was released to continue his studies.
He was subsequently appointed as commander of the Fighter Pilots School in Dęblin.
In 1988, he was promoted to general. Between 1991 and 1992, Hermaszewski served as second-in-command of the Polish Air Force and Air Defence. He is currently retired.
Politics
Gold Medal of the Armed Forces in the Service of the Fatherland
Silver Medal of the Armed Forces in the Service of the Fatherland
Bronze Medal of the Armed Forces in the Service of the Fatherland.
Membership
Space Research Committee of Polish Academy, of Sciences 1978-: associate, Military Technological Academy, and Military Institute of Aviation Medicine.
Military
Council of National Salvation 1981-1983. Polish Youth Union and Socialist Youth Union. Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR) since 1963.