Roman Woźniak (born February 23, 1903 in the Majdan Steelworks, died March 12, 1963) was a Polish communist politician, steelworker who served as the

starosta Starosta or starost (Cyrillic: ''старост/а'', Latin: ''capitaneus'', ) is a community elder in some Slavic lands. The Slavic root of "starost" translates as "senior". Since the Middle Ages, it has designated an official in a leadersh ...

Bielsk County Bielsk County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Podlaskie Voivodeship, north-eastern Poland. It came into being on 1 January 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its a ...

, and

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

Białystok Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the List of cities and towns in Poland, tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area. Biał ...

from 1953 to 1956.

Biography

He was born in Majdan. He completed primary school. At the age of 10, he took a job at a local glassworks due to family circumstances. In 1921, he participated in the , and in 1924–1925, he did his military service in the of the

Polish Army The Land Forces () are the Army, land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 110,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military histor ...

Radom Radom is a city in east-central Poland, located approximately south of the capital, Warsaw. It is situated on the Mleczna River in the Masovian Voivodeship. Radom is the fifteenth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in its province w ...

. He continued his work as a steelworker, working at a glassworks in Białystok from 1934, and chaired the local works council from 1939 to 1941. He was active in the Glass Industry Workers' Trade Union. Due to his communist activities during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he hid from the Germans. In July or August 1944, he joined 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 ...

in Białystok, later joining the

Polish United Workers' Party The Polish United Workers' Party (, ), commonly abbreviated to PZPR, was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other legally permitted subordinate minor parti ...

. From 1944, he organized the

Office and held the position of

. At the end of 1948, he moved to work as head of the Socio-Political Department of the Voivodeship Office in Białystok. In 1950, he became chairman of the regional office of the

Association of Trade Unions The Association of Trade Unions (, ZZZ) was a nominal national trade union federation in Poland. The federation was founded in 1945. It claimed 4,000,000 members by 1956, and 12,000,000 in 1980. It was closely linked with the Polish United Worke ...

in that city and a member of the executive committee of the Voivodeship Committee of the

. The following year, he became head of the Economic Department of the Voivodeship Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party in Białystok, and in September 1953, he assumed the position of chairman of the Presidium of the Municipal National Council (mayor) there. In September 1956, he resigned from this position due to health reasons and retired. Towards the end of his life, he was active in the Municipal Party Control Commission of the Polish United Workers' Party. He was buried in the

Municipal Cemetery in Białystok Municipal Cemetery in Białystok () is a municipal cemetery located in Jaroszówka District in the city of Białystok, north-east Poland. History It was established in 1939 as a multi-religious military cemetery and later on it became an urban ce ...

References

{{Reflist 1903 births 1963 deaths Mayors of Białystok Polish United Workers' Party members Starostas