Mieczysław Boruta-Spiechowicz, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetMieczysław Boruta-Spiechowicz
Polish general
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Rzeszów, Podkarpackie Voivodeship, Poland
About Mieczysław Boruta-Spiechowicz
- Mieczyslaw Ludwik Boruta-Spiechowicz (20 February 1894, Rzeszów – 13 October 1985, Zakopane) was a Polish military officer, a general of the Polish Army and a notable member of the post-war anti-communist opposition in Poland.
- He joined the army in 1914 and served at various posts within the Polish Legions.
- After Poland regained her independence in 1918 he remained in active service and took part in both the Polish-Ukrainian War and the Battle of Lwów, in which he commanded a separate defence line, and later a Lwów Infantry Regiment formed out of local volunteers.
- Dispatched to France, he became the commander of two regiments of the Blue Army, with which he returned to Poland in 1919.
- During the Polish-Bolshevik War he distinguished himself as a skilled commander of the Polish mountain infantry units, of which he formed a regiment and commanded it on various fronts of the conflict.
- After the war he was sent to the Higher War School in Warsaw and received professional military training.
- He served at various commanding posts in a number of Polish infantry units, both standard and mountain.
- He was also a notable military theorist and writer of several books on the history and practice of warfare.
- During the Invasion of Poland he served as the commanding officer of the Boruta Operational Group, a part of the Kraków Army.
- Taken prisoner by the USSR, he was held in various Gulags and NKVD prisons until set free by the Sikorski-Mayski Agreement of 1941.
- He then joined the Anders' Polish Army in the East and became the commanding officer of the newly formed Polish 5th Infantry Division.
- He spent the rest of World War II as the commander of the Polish 1st Armoured Corps, combining the Polish 1st Armoured Division and the Polish Independent Parachute Brigade.
- As one of the very few Polish pre-war generals to return to Communist-held Poland in 1945, he was initially accepted into the Polish Army.
- However, following a conflict with Karol Swierczewski he was demobilized and retired.
- He settled in Zakopane, where he became a farmer.
- He also remained an active member of the anti-communist opposition in Poland and in 1977 became one of the founding members of the ROPCiO movement.
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