# Ministry of National Defence (Poland)

The Ministry of National Defence (Polish: Ministerstwo Obrony Narodowej, MON ) is a 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). Ministry budget for 2022 was 140 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 1793-94, 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

| Name (Birth–Death) | Party | Term of Office | Term of Office | Prime Minister | (Cabinet) |
| Army GeneralFlorian Siwicki (1925–2013) | Independent | 12 September 1989 | 6 July 1990 | Tadeusz Mazowiecki | Mazowiecki |
| Vice AdmiralPiotr Kołodziejczyk (1939–2019) | Independent | 6 July 1990 | 4 January 1991 | Tadeusz Mazowiecki | Mazowiecki |
| Vice AdmiralPiotr Kołodziejczyk (1939–2019) | Independent | 4 January 1991 | 23 December 1991 | Jan Krzysztof Bielecki | Bielecki |
| Jan Parys (born 1950) | Independent | 23 December 1991 | 23 May 1992 | Jan Olszewski | Olszewski |
| Romuald Szeremietiew (born 1945)acting | Independent | 23 May 1992 | 5 June 1992 | Jan Olszewski | Olszewski |
| Janusz Onyszkiewicz (born 1937) | UD | 11 July 1992 | 25 October 1993 | Hanna Suchocka | Suchocka |
| Piotr Kołodziejczyk (1939–2019) | Independent | 26 October 1993 | 10 November 1994 | Waldemar Pawlak | Pawlak II |
| Jerzy Milewski (1935–1997)acting | Independent | 10 November 1994 | 7 March 1995 | Waldemar Pawlak | Pawlak II |
| Zbigniew Okoński (born 1949) | Independent | 7 March 1995 | 22 December 1995 | Józef Oleksy | Oleksy |
| Andrzej Karkoszka (born 1945)acting | Independent | 22 December 1995 | 5 January 1996 | Józef Oleksy | Oleksy |
| Stanisław Dobrzański (born 1949) | PSL | 5 January 1996 | 7 February 1996 | Józef Oleksy | Oleksy |
| Stanisław Dobrzański (born 1949) | PSL | 7 February 1996 | 31 October 1997 | Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz | Cimoszewicz |
| Janusz Onyszkiewicz (born 1937) | UW | 31 October 1997 | 16 June 2000 | Jerzy Buzek | Buzek |
| Bronisław Komorowski (born 1952) | SKL | 16 June 2000 | 19 October 2001 | Jerzy Buzek | Buzek |
| Jerzy Szmajdziński (1952–2010) | SLD | 19 October 2001 | 2 May 2004 | Leszek Miller | Miller |
| Jerzy Szmajdziński (1952–2010) | SLD | 2 May 2004 | 11 June 2004 | Marek Belka | Belka I |
| Jerzy Szmajdziński (1952–2010) | SLD | 11 June 2004 | 31 October 2005 | Marek Belka | Belka II |
| Radosław Sikorski (born 1963) | PiS | 31 October 2005 | 14 July 2006 | Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz | Marcinkiewicz |
| Radosław Sikorski (born 1963) | PiS | 14 July 2006 | 7 February 2007 | Jarosław Kaczyński | Kaczyński |
| Aleksander Szczygło (1963–2010) | PiS | 7 February 2007 | 16 November 2007 | Jarosław Kaczyński | Kaczyński |
| Bogdan Klich (born 1960) | PO | 16 November 2007 | 2 August 2011 | Donald Tusk | Tusk I |
| Tomasz Siemoniak (born 1967) | PO | 2 August 2011 | 18 November 2011 | Donald Tusk | Tusk I |
| Tomasz Siemoniak (born 1967) | PO | 18 November 2011 | 22 September 2014 | Donald Tusk | Tusk II |
| Tomasz Siemoniak (born 1967) | PO | 22 September 2014 | 16 November 2015 | Ewa Kopacz | Kopacz |
| Antoni Macierewicz (born 1948) | PiS | 16 November 2015 | 11 December 2017 | Beata Szydło | Szydło |
| Antoni Macierewicz (born 1948) | PiS | 11 December 2017 | 9 January 2018 | Mateusz Morawiecki | Morawiecki I |
| Mariusz Błaszczak (born 1969) | PiS | 9 January 2018 | 15 November 2019 | Mateusz Morawiecki | Morawiecki I |
| Mariusz Błaszczak (born 1969) | PiS | 15 November 2019 | 27 November 2023 | Mateusz Morawiecki | Morawiecki II |
| Mariusz Błaszczak (born 1969) | PiS | 27 November 2023 | 13 December 2023 | Mateusz Morawiecki | Morawiecki III |
| Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz (born 1981) | PSL | 13 December 2023 | Incumbent | Donald Tusk | Tusk III |