
Boleslaw Molojec (9 February 1909-31 December 1942) was a Polish communist activist, an International Brigades commander during the Spanish Civil War, and a co-founder of the Polish Workers' Party.
Biography[]
Boleslaw Molojec was born in Henrykow, Congress Poland, Russian Empire on 9 February 1909, and he became a communist activist. From 1935 to 1936, he was involved with the leadership of the Communist Party of Poland's youth wing, and he was disciplined by the Soviet leadership in 1936. As "Major Edward", he became prominent in the Dabrowski Battalion of the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War, and he came to command the XIII International Brigade. In 1941, the Comintern parachuted him into Poland to assist with creating the Polish Workers' Party, a successor to the purged Communist Party. With Marceli Nowotko and Pawel Finder, he formed the leadership troika, and he had Nowotko killed in 1942 so that he could take over control of the party. Finder, Wladyslaw Gomulka, and the other communist leaders decided to have Molojec executed in retribution for his act of treason.