KAZIMIERZ PUŻAK Kotwica“Bazyli”, “Czwartek”, “Grzegorz”, “Kazimierz Bazylewski”, “Kazimierz Buczek”, “Popielec”, “Sekret”, “Siciński”, “Styczeń”, “Styczyński”
An activist of the Polish Socialist Party, chairman of the underground parliament - the Council of National Unity
He was born on 26 August 1883 in Ternopil into a Polish-Ukrainian family. In 1905 he started studying at the Law Faculty of the University of Lwów, but he did not graduate. Since 1904 he was associated with the Polish Socialist Party, since 1906 with the PPS - the Revolutionary Faction. In April 1911 he was arrested by the Russians for his independence activities and sentenced to 8 years in prison. He served his sentence in the Szlisselburg fortress until 1917. From 1919 he was a member of the Executive Committee of the Warsaw Council of Workers' Delegates, as well as the Supreme Council and the Central Executive Committee of the PPS. During the Polish-Bolshevik war, he was the deputy chairman of the Warsaw Workers' Defense Committee. In the period from 1921 to 1939, he remained the secretary general of the PPS. He was also a deputy to the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (in 1919-1935).
He was active in the underground conspiracy from October 1939 - as the secretary general of the PPS-WRN (Freedom - Equality - Independence), from November 1939 also as the chief commander of the PPS People's Guard. In the period from February 1940 to September 1941 and from March 1943 to March 1945, on behalf of the PPS, he was the chairman of the underground parliament - the Political Conciliation Committee, and then the National Political Representation and the Council of National Unity. He was arrested by the NKVD as a result of the Pruszków provocation on 27 March1945. He was taken to Moscow together with 16 other leaders of the Polish Underground State and unlawfully sentenced to 1.5 years in prison. He was released in November 1945, he returned to Poland, where he resumed independence activities as part of the underground National Center of PPS-WRN.
He was arrested by the UB on 16 May 1947 and sentenced on 19 November 1948 by the Military District Court in Warsaw to 10 years imprisonment. He was murdered by one of the prison guards in Rawicz on 30 April 1950.
