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Edward Osóbka-Morawski
Osóbka-Morawski in 1944
1st Prime Minister of Polish People's Republic
In office 31 December 1944 – 5 February 1947
President	Bolesław Bierut
Deputy	Stanisław Janusz Władysław Gomułka Stanisław Mikołajczyk
Preceded by	Felicjan Sławoj Składkowski (As Prime Minister of the Second Polish Republic) Tomasz Arciszewski (As Prime Minister in exile)
Succeeded by	Józef Cyrankiewicz
Personal details
Born	5 October 1909 Bliżyn, Congress Poland, Russian Empire
Died	9 January 1997 (aged 87) Warsaw, Poland
Political party	Polish Socialist Party (before 1948) Polish United Workers Party (1948–1949, 1956–1990)

Edward Bolesław Osóbka-Morawski (5 October 1909 – 9 January 1997) was a Polish activist and politician in the Polish Socialist Party (PPS) before World War II, and after the Soviet takeover of Poland, Chairman of the Communist-dominated interim government, the Polish Committee of National Liberation (Polski Komitet Wyzwolenia Narodowego) formed in Lublin with Stalin's approval.

In October 1944, Osóbka-Morawski was given the role of Minister of Foreign Affairs and Agriculture. Several months later, in June 1945, he was appointed Prime Minister of the Provisional Government of National Unity (Tymczasowy Rząd Jedności Narodowej), in office until February 1947. Osóbka-Morawski believed the PPS should join with the other non-communist party in Poland, the Polish Peasant Party, to form a united front against the Communist Polish Workers' Party. However, another prominent socialist, Józef Cyrankiewicz argued that the PPS should support the communists while opposing the creation of a one-party state. The Communists, with Soviet support, played on this division and forced Osóbka-Morawski to resign in favour of Cyrankiewicz.

Osóbka-Morawski would make his peace with the Communists, and gradually became a Stalinist. Nonetheless, in 1949 he was dismissed from his new post as the Minister of Public Administration, for "deviationist" tendencies. He was readmitted to the Communist Party, now called the Polish United Workers' Party, during the Polish October revolution of 1956. He then worked as a party official throughout most of his life in the People's Republic of Poland prior to the Revolutions of 1989, and in 1990 failed in his attempt to recreate the old Polish Socialist Party. He died in Warsaw in 1997.

Awards and decorations

• Grand Cross of Order of Polonia Restituta (19 July 1946)
• Cross of Grunwald, 3rd Class (30 April 1944)
• Partisan Cross (12 June 1946)
• Medal for Warsaw 1939–1945
• Medal of Victory and Freedom 1945
• Grand Cross of Order of the White Lion (Czechoslovakia, 1947)
• Order of People's Liberation (Yugoslavia, 1946)

See also

• Stalinism in Poland
• Socialist realism in Poland

Notes and references

1. Edward Osóbka-Morawski. The Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland. Warsaw, 2011.
2. "Paid Notice: Deaths OSOBKA-MORAWSKI, EDWARD". The New York Times. January 12, 1997. Retrieved July 25, 2014.
3. "M.P. z 1947 r. nr 74, poz. 490 „w II rocznicę P.K.W.N. w wyróżnieniu zasług na polu pracy nad odrodzeniem państwowości polskiej, nad utrwaleniem jej podstaw demokratycznych i w odbudowie kraju"". Sejm (in Polish).
4. "M.P. z 1946 r. nr 65, poz. 125 - odznaczeni zostali członkowie delegacji Krajowej Rady Narodowej, którzy w marcu 1944 r. przeszli linię frontu". Sejm (in Polish).
5. "M.P. z 1946 r. nr 116, poz. 216 „w uznaniu dla wielkich zasług, położonych w czasie najazdu niemieckiego lat 1939–1945 przy organizowaniu oddziałów partyzanckich i prowadzeniu walki z najeźdźcą"". Sejm (in Polish).
6. "M.P. z 1946 r. nr 26, poz. 43 „w pierwszą rocznicę wyzwolenia Warszawy zasłużonym w walce o wyzwolenie i odbudowę Stolicy (...)"". Sejm (in Polish).

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