Ministry of National Defence (Poland)

The Ministry of National Defence (Polish: Ministerstwo Obrony Narodowej [mi.ɲisˈtɛr.stfɔ ɔˈbrɔ.nɘ na.rɔˈdɔ.vɛj], MON [ˈmɔn] ) is an office of government in Poland headed by the Minister of National Defence. It is responsible for the organisation and management of the Polish Armed Forces. During the Second Polish Republic and World War II it was called the Ministry of Military Affairs (Ministerstwo Spraw Wojskowych). Its budget for 2025 was 186,6 billion PLN. History The beginning of the Ministry of Defence's operations is connected with the 1775 establishment of the Military Department within the Permanent Council. In 1789, the Military Commission of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was established, and from the Constitution of 3 May 1791 was under the Guardians of the Laws. Between 1793 and 1794, the department was restored in the Supreme National Council. When Warsaw became part of the Kingdom of Prussia after the Third Partition of Poland in 1795, the Prussian Ministry of War headquarters was moved into the local Copper-Roof Palace. Another War Ministry was established in the Duchy of Warsaw. After the establishment of the Stanisław Małachowski government on 5 October 1807, the War Directorate became the Minister of War. From 1807 to 1810, the number of ministry officials increased from a dozen to over one hundred. The ministry's activities ceased on 4 May 1813. In 1814, the Military Organizing Committee was established in Paris to regulate the military affairs of the Kingdom of Poland in 1815. After the November Uprising and the introduction of the Organic Statute of the Kingdom of Poland in the early 1830s, the distinctiveness of the Polish defence establishment from the Ministry of War of the Russian Empire ceased to exist. On 30 January 1917, the Provisional Council of State created an acting military commission, which was to deal with Polish military matters until a war office was organised. On 2 November 1918, the commission was transformed into the Ministry of Military Affairs, based at the Copper-Roof Palace. During the London emigration of Polish power during World War II, on November 30, 1942, the name of the Ministry of Military Affairs was changed to the Ministry of National Defence. In 1944, under the Polish Committee of National Liberation under the communists controlled a National Defence Centre to manage the war front. After the war, the Provisional Government of National Unity (TRJN) reestablished the Military Affairs Ministry, which would be replaced by the Ministry of National Defence in 1979 and was under the Polish People's Army (LWP) in the People's Republic of Poland. The ministry would be transferred from the LWP to the Polish Army in 1990. Organizational structure The ministry includes political departments, Cabinet of the Minister and the following organizational units including units P1-P8 forming Polish General Staff: Operational Centre Administrative Department Budget Department Department of Education, Culture and Heritage Department of Infrastructure Personnel Department Department of Control Department of Cyber Security Department of Protection of Classified Information Department of International Security Policy Armaments Policy Department Law Department Department of Social Affairs Department of Strategy and Defence Planning Department of Military Education Department of Military Health Service Department of Military Foreign Affairs Office of the General Director Office of the Minister of National Defence Offset Contracts Office Management Board of the Organization and Additions (P1) Management of Intelligence and Reconnaissance Intelligence (P2) Armed Forces Planning and Training Management Board (P3/P7) Logistics Management (P4) Management Board of Armed Forces Development Planning and Programming (P5) Management and Command Board (P6) Material Planning Board (P8) Military Information Services Internal Military Service Military Intelligence Service Units subordinate to the MON: Armed Forces General Command Operational Command Support Command Military Gendarmerie Territorial Defence Force Warsaw Garrison Command National Centre for Kryptologii Provincial Military Headquarters Centre of Monitoring and Analysis Inspectorate of Armaments Innovative Defence Technology Inspectorate of Military Fires Military Centre for Standardization, Quality and Codification Military Centre of Metrology National Military Representative to NATO Internal Audit for the Energy Sector Military Technical Supervision Military Studies of Teaching Foreign Languages Central Military-Medical Commission Military Pension Offices House of the Retired Military Personnel (Warsaw) Registration Office of the Polish Army Ministers Second Polish Republic Brigadier general Edward Rydz-Śmigły (1918) (acting) Major general Jan Wroczyński (1918–1919) Major general Józef Leśniewski (1919–1920) Major general Kazimierz Sosnkowski (1921–1923) (acting) Major general Aleksander Osiński (1923) Major general Władysław Sikorski (1924–1925) Lieutenant general Lucjan Żeligowski (1925–1926) Major general Juliusz Tadeusz Tarnawa-Malczewski (1926) Marshal of Poland Józef Piłsudski (1926–1935) Major general Tadeusz Kasprzycki (1935–1939) Polish government-in-exile Lieutenant general Władysław Sikorski (1939–1942) Major general Marian Kukiel (1942–1944) Republic of Poland / People's Republic of Poland Marshal of Poland Michał Rola-Żymierski (1945–1949) Marshal of Poland/Marshal of the Soviet Union Konstantin Rokossovsky (1949–1956) Marshal of Poland Marian Spychalski (1956–1968) Army General Wojciech Jaruzelski (1968–1983) Army General Florian Siwicki (1983–1989) Third Polish Republic See also Polish Armed Forces Ministries of Poland Wydawnictwo MON References External links Official website