Wojciech Jaruzelski dies
22:50
General Wojciech Jaruzelski, the last communist leader of Poland and the first president of post-communist Poland, died on Sunday at the age of 90. He had been fighting cancer for several years.
Jaruzelski, born in June 1923, was deported to Siberia during World War II and came back to Poland as part of a Polish army unit created by the Soviets. After a military career, he joined the top executive body of the Polish communist party in 1964.
In 1981 he became first secretary of the party, in fact the head of state. In 1989 he was elected the first president of a democratic post-communist Poland, a role he played for only one year.
The general is known for having introduced martial law in Poland, in 1981-1983, seen as a crackdown against the rising Solidarity movement. He always explained the move by stating the Soviet troops were at the time ready to intervene in the country.
