Bolesław Mołojec (pronounced ; born 9 February 1909, Henryków, Tomaszów Mazowiecki County – died 29 or 31 December 1942,

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

), known under '' noms de guerre'' "Edward" and "Długi", was a Polish

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

activist and commander of

International Brigades The International Brigades () were soldiers recruited and organized by the Communist International to assist the Popular Front (Spain), Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. The International Bri ...

during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

. He served in the leadership of the

Communist Party of Poland The interwar Communist Party of Poland (, KPP) was a communist party active in Poland during the Second Polish Republic. It resulted from a December 1918 merger of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SDKPiL) and the ...

's (KPP) youth organization in 1935-1936; disciplined by the Soviet leadership in 1936, a fact that later counted in his favour after Stalinist authorities had purged KPP. Mołojec put himself in charge of the

Polish Workers' Party The Polish Workers' Party (, PPR) was a communist party in Poland from 1942 to 1948. It was founded as a reconstitution of the Communist Party of Poland (KPP) and merged with the Polish Socialist Party (PPS) in 1948 to form the Polish United W ...

after the 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union. He was assassinated by his own peers.

Biography

In his youth he studied and worked in

Tomaszów Mazowiecki Tomaszów Mazowiecki (, or ''Tomashuv'') is a city in central Poland with 60,529 inhabitants (2021). It is the fourth most populous city in the Łódź Voivodeship and the second with free public transport. It is the seat of Tomaszów County, Ł ...

, he was also the organizer of

anti-capitalist Anti-capitalism is a political ideology and Political movement, movement encompassing a variety of attitudes and ideas that oppose capitalism. Anti-capitalists seek to combat the worst effects of capitalism and to eventually replace capitalism ...

lectures and protests. Before World War II, Mołojec volunteered for the Polish units of the

. He took the ''nom de guerre'' "Major Edward", became prominent in the Dabrowski Battalion, and ended up commanding

XIII International Brigade The 13th International Brigade – often known as the XIII Dąbrowski Brigade – fought for the Spanish Second Republic during the Spanish Civil War, in the International Brigades. The brigade was dissolved and then reformed on four occasions. ...

. In 1939 the

Comintern The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internatio ...

put him in charge of the provisional leadership centre in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

responsible for re-grouping the purged Polish communist movement. However, little was achieved in the atmosphere of suspicion surrounding the decimated KPP. In 1940 Mołojec was ordered to

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

and attempts to re-form the KPP were abandoned by the Soviets. Mołojec was attached to the ''Initiative Group'' parachuted into Nazi-occupied Poland in December 1941, to establish the

(PPR). With Marceli Nowotko and Paweł Finder, he formed the leadership troika. He was in charge of the generally unsuccessful efforts to establish a military underground, the Gwardia Ludowa, and launch

guerrilla warfare Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include recruited children, use ambushes, sabotage, terrori ...

against the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

occupation forces. In November 1942, when Nowotko was killed in mysterious circumstances, Mołojec put himself in charge of the PPR. Some weeks later, Mołojec was executed on the orders of Finder, Fornalska,

Władysław Gomułka Władysław Gomułka (; 6 February 1905 – 1 September 1982) was a Polish Communist politician. He was the ''de facto'' leader of Polish People's Republic, post-war Poland from 1947 until 1948, and again from 1956 to 1970. Born in 1905 in ...

and Franciszek Jóźwiak, held responsible for arranging Nowotko's murder, a charge that has never been entirely convincingly proven (''see also Marceli Nowotko''). In the

Polish People's Republic The Polish People's Republic (1952–1989), formerly the Republic of Poland (1947–1952), and also often simply known as Poland, was a country in Central Europe that existed as the predecessor of the modern-day democratic Republic of Poland. ...

, Mołojec was for many years a nonperson whose role in the Spanish Civil War and the formation of the PPR and its military wing were concealed or glossed over.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Molojec, Boleslaw 1909 births 1942 deaths People from Tomaszów Mazowiecki County People from Piotrków Governorate Communist Party of Poland politicians Polish Workers' Party politicians Polish Comintern people Executed communists Executed politicians Polish resistance members of World War II Polish people of the Spanish Civil War Executed people from Łódź Voivodeship International Brigades personnel 20th-century executions by Poland