page_title: Bolesław Bierut
section_title: Death and funeral
hierarchical_section_title: Bolesław Bierut / Career / Death and funeral
context_page_description: Bolesław Bierut was a Polish politician, communist activist and leader of Poland between 1947 and 1956. He was President of the State National Council from 1944 to 1947, President of Poland from 1947 to 1952, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party from 1948 to 1956 and temporarily Prime Minister of Poland from 1952 to 1954. Bierut, a self-taught man, with full knowledge and iron resolve aimed to implement the oppressive Stalinist system in Poland. However, together with Władysław Gomułka, his main rival, Bierut is chiefly responsible for the historic changes that Poland underwent in the aftermath of World War II. Unlike any of his communist successors, Bierut ruled Poland until his death.
  Born in Congress Poland on the outskirts of Lublin, Bierut entered politics in 1912 by joining the Polish Socialist Party. Later he became a member of the Communist Party of Poland and spent some years in the Soviet Union, where he functioned as an agent of the Comintern, educated at the Soviet International Lenin School and similar institutions elsewhere in Europe.
context_section_description: The 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union deliberated on 14–25 February 1956. Afterwards, Bierut did not return to Poland with the rest of the Polish delegation, but remained in Moscow, hospitalized with bad influenza, which turned into pneumonia and heart complications.
  On 3 March, during a conference of PZPR activists in Warsaw, Stefan Staszewski and others severely criticized the current party leadership, including the absent Bierut.
  Bierut died of a heart attack on 12 March 1956, having read the text of Nikita Khrushchev's "Secret Speech", in which Khrushchev criticized Stalin's cult of personality.
  However, Bierut died sixteen days after the speech and four members of the delegation of Polish students who studied in Moscow, who met him on 25 February 1956, told Eisler that the first secretary showed signs of physical distress already at that time.
  The deceased leader was given a splendid funeral in Warsaw. A period of national mourning was declared. Catholic bishops conceded to the demand that church bells ring all-over the country on the day of the funeral.
  In a radio address on 14 March, Helena Jaworska, chairperson of the board of the Union of Polish Youth, eulogized Bierut on behalf of the Polish youth. She recalled Bierut's war and post-war activities and declared that "the beloved friend of the youth has departed". She spoke of the "great son of the Polish nation" and "a beautiful, loved person".
  The funeral, which took place on 16 March, was transmitted by the Polish Radio over many hours. Warsaw residents were given a day-off from work to be able to participate. Large crowds of people gathered and joined the funeral procession, which began at the Palace of Culture and Science and proceeded toward the Powązki Military Cemetery, where the burial took place and where, for logistic reasons, only invited guests and delegations could enter.
caption: Bierut's tomb at Powązki Military Cemetery
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