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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Poland
Index
Under Poland's communist regimes, the Politburo of the
PZPR
was ultimately responsible for major military policy
decisions,
with nominal responsibility lodged with the Council of
Ministers.
The Administration Department of the PZPR's Central
Committee
closely supervised military affairs, monitoring such items
as
promotions and budgets. The minister of national defense,
who was
always a general officer and usually a full member of the
Politburo, was supreme commander of the army and chief of
operations. Beginning in 1982, however, Jaruzelski
delegated this
responsibility (which he nominally retained after becoming
head
of state) to General Siwicki. The Polish People's Army
included
all branches--ground forces, navy, air force, and air
defense--
but lines of command differed among the services.
Commanders of
the naval and air forces reported directly to the minister
of
national defense. The ground forces, on the other hand,
reported
to the minister of national defense through the General
Staff. In
practice, the minister of national defense often commanded
all
aspects of a military exercise, and the General Staff,
which
nominally commanded only the ground forces, made policy
binding
on all branches.
The armed forces were divided into the operational army
and
the National Territorial Defense Forces (Obrona Terytorium
Kraju-
-OTK). The former was organized as an integral part of
Warsaw
Pact forces, whereas the latter was limited to service in
Poland
and had no role in Warsaw Pact activities. The operational
army
forces were administered in three military
districts--Wroclaw,
Bydgoszcz, and Warsaw--each of which had a two-division
corps and
a rapid-reaction corps.
Data as of October 1992
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