Stanislav Gilyarovich Poplavsky (Russian: Станислав Гилярович Поплавский, Polish: Stanisław Popławski) (22 April 1902 – 10 August 1973) was a general in the Soviet and Polish armies.
Early life
Poplavsky was born in Imperial Russia, in Podolia. His family (his father's name was Hilary) was ethnically Polish, and in his younger years he considered himself a Pole.
Poplavsky served for the first three years (until 1923) as a private, then for four years (until 1927) as an NCO, company commander in the 297th Rifle Regiment. Over the next few years he attended an officer school, and afterwards received his own commands: first of a platoon in the 137th Rifle Regiment (1930–1931), then a platoon (1931–1933) and later a company in the School for Infantry Officers in Kharkov (1933–1935).[2]
Poplavsky served as the commander of 720th Rifle Regiment (July–September 1941), and then Chief of Staff of 363rd Rifle Division (October 1941 – January 1942). During this time, he participated in the Białystok–Minsk and Smolensk battles. At the beginning of the Battle for Moscow, during the Vyazma and Bryansk defensive operation, his regiment was surrounded. But a few days later, on 6 October, he broke through the encirclement with a battle and withdrew his regiment along with several other units of the 19th Army. For distinctions in the battles of summer and autumn of 1941, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.[3]
Poplavsky, who distinguished himself in a difficult situation, was immediately appointed with a promotion as chief of staff of the 363rd Rifle Division, which was hastily formed in the Ural Military District, and already in December entered the battle as part of the 30th Army of the Kalinin Front, and took part in the Klin-Solnechnogorsk offensive operation. In January 1942, he was appointed as the commander of the 185th Rifle Division. During the Rzhev-Vyazma operation, his unit was assigned to 29th Army, Kalinin Front. During the battle, his unit pulled ahead and was surrounded by enemy forces. A month later, his unit was in a complete encirclement. But with air supply, the unit managed to organize an active defense using the terrain conditions, prevented the destruction of the division and at the end of February 1942, it successfully broke through the front line to join the main army forces.
In May 1942, he was appointed as the commander of the 256th Rifle Division, which was assigned to the 39th Army, Kalinin Front. From 16 to 29 June, he was the chief of staff of the unit, and then was appointed commander of the 220th Rifle Division on the Kalinin and Western Fronts. During the Rzhev-Vyazma Offensive in March 1943, his division fought over 170 kilometers and crossed six rivers on the move, preventing German troops from gaining a foothold along their lines.[3]
Poplavsky (left) with Soviet General Sergey Shatilov, at the Reich Chancellery building in Berlin (May 1945)
In September 1944 he was transferred to the Ludowe Wojsko Polskie (Polish People's Army) as one of the many Soviet officers who were to ensure that this allied formation remained loyal to communist ideals. As major general he commanded the Polish Second Army (26 September – 19 December 1944) and later the Polish First Army (until 10 September 1945). His units took parts in the breakthrough of the Pommernstellung (Pomerania Wall) fortification line, securing the Baltic Sea coast, crossing the Odra and Elbe rivers and the Battle of Berlin. He was wounded eight times in the war and showed high organizational skills in planning combat operations, and commanding troops. For his successful operations, he was noted 15 times in the orders of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Joseph Stalin.
For skillful command and control of troops in breaking through enemy defenses on the Oder River and in the battles for Berlin on 29 May 1945, Poplavsky was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Post war
Poplavsky as Deputy Defense Minister of Poland (1950)
After the war he remained in the Polish army, along with thousands of other ethnically-Polish Soviet officers, including Konstantin Rokossovsky, who were put in charge of almost all Polish military units, either as commanding officers or as their advisors.[4] Poplavsky served as commander of the Polish forces occupying Germany, later being commander of the Silesian Military District (until 22 November 1947), Chief Commander of the Polish Land Forces (until 21 March 1950), and General Inspector of Military Training (until 2 April 1949). He also held political positions: on 2 April 1949 he became the 2nd Deputy Minister of National Defence and later was Deputy Minister himself. He was also a deputy to the Polish Sejm (1947–1956), and from 1949 to 1956 he was a member of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers Party (PZPR). On 12 August 1955 he was appointed General of the Soviet Army. In 1950, he was seconded as president of the Legia Warsaw sports club. He replaced General Eugeniusz Luśniak in this position, who was forced to resign in a wave of purges in the army of pre-war officers. Luśniak was arrested shortly thereafter and charged with espionage. Sentenced to 15 years in prison, he died in 1954 in a prison in Wronki.[5]
From 1947 to 1956, he was a member of the Legislative Sejm on behalf of the People's Party, later the Polish United Workers' Party, and then a member of the Sejm of the Polish People's Republic of the first term. On 1949, he became a member of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party. From 1953 to 1956, he was the president of the Supreme Hunting Council of the Polish Hunting Association. Poplavsky served as the president of the sports club Legia Warsaw, from 1950 to 1957.
In 1956 he was commander of the military forces responsible for the suppression of the Poznań 1956 protests. Afterwards, with the beginning of the era of destalinization, he (together with a significant number of other Soviet officers) left the Polish Army, which was granted slightly increased independence, and returned to the Soviet Union, where he became the 1st Deputy of the Chief Inspector of Military Training of the Soviet Army, and from 1958 an advisor to the inspectors-general of the Soviet Ministry of Defense.
The Polish Army Officers' Training Center in Rembertów was named after Poplavsky from 1974 to 1989.
In 1973, a Primary School No. 3 in Żory was named in honor of him. On 12 October 1983, the Primary School No. 42 in Sosnowiec was also named after Poplavsky. The name remained until the 1990s.
From 1946 to 1950, a children's home in Woskowice Małe was named after Poplavsky. It was opened by the Namysłów branch of the Workers' Society of Friends of Children. The facility operated from 23 June 1946 to 1 September 1950.
On 28 June 1974, a B-438 semi-container ship was launched from the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk. The ship was named after MS "General Stanisław Popławski". In March 1998, the ship was retired and scrapped.[6]
In 1976, a medal commemorating Poplavsky was issued by the Polish Mint.
Works
Author of memoirs Comrades of the front roads (or Comrades of the struggle; Polish title: Towarzysze frontowych dróg, Warszawa 1964, 1966, 1970, 1973, 1983; Russian title: Товарищи в борьбе, Moskwa 1963, 1974; German title: Kampfgefährten, Berlin 1980). The original title was to be On the land of forefathers (Na ziemi przodków, За землю предков), but it was changed by the censors.
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