Editing Bolesław Bierut (section)

===In occupied Poland from 1943===

Upon his arrival in Warsaw, Bierut became a member of the Central Committee of the PPR, which comprised several individuals. The Secretariat had three members: General Secretary [[Paweł Finder]], Franciszek Jóźwiak and [[Władysław Gomułka]], whom Bierut did not know, but who quickly became his principal rival. Bierut lost his first confrontation over the management of ''Trybuna Wolności'' ('The Tribune of Freedom'), the party's press organ.<ref name="Eisler siedmiu 56–59">Jerzy Eisler, ''Siedmiu wspaniałych. Poczet pierwszych sekretarzy KC PZPR'' [The Magnificent Seven: first secretaries of the PZPR], pp. 56–59.</ref>

In a major blow to the re-emergent Polish communist party, Finder and Fornalska were arrested by the [[Gestapo]] on 14 November 1943. They were executed in July 1944. They were the only people with the knowledge of radio codes needed to communicate with Moscow and such communications were indeed interrupted for several months. On 23 November 1943, the PPR chose Gomułka as its general secretary.<ref name="Eisler siedmiu 56–59"/>

On 31 December 1943, Bierut assumed an important office: chairmanship of the [[State National Council]] (''Krajowa Rada Narodowa'', KRN), a communist-led body established by Gomułka and the PPR. The KRN was declared to be a wartime parliament of Poland and some splinter [[Polish Socialist Party|socialist]] and [[People's Party (Poland)|agrarian]] activists were co-opted.<ref name="Eisler siedmiu 56–59"/> Starting with the KRN post, with Gomułka and others, Bierut would play a leading role in the [[History of Poland (1945–1989)|establishment of communist Poland]].<ref name="Eisler siedmiu 17, 48–82">[[Jerzy Eisler]], ''Siedmiu wspaniałych. Poczet pierwszych sekretarzy KC PZPR'' [The Magnificent Seven: first secretaries of the PZPR], pp. 17, 48–82.</ref>

In May 1944, the KRN delegation flew into Moscow. They were officially received at the [[Moscow Kremlin|Kremlin]] by [[Joseph Stalin]]; supremacy of the KRN was recognized by the [[Union of Polish Patriots]], which operated in the Soviet Union under communist leadership.<ref name="Eisler siedmiu 56–59"/>

In June 1944 Bierut wrote a letter, meant for the Soviet leadership and addressed to [[Georgi Dimitrov]] in Moscow. He accused his Polish communist rival Gomułka of dictatorial tendencies and numerous offenses contrary to [[Marxist–Leninist]] orthodoxy; if taken seriously, the accusations could have cost Gomułka his life but they were not, and Gomułka did not find out about the letter until 1948, when it was used against him in Poland.<ref name="Eisler siedmiu 56–59"/>

In July 1944, the [[Polish Committee of National Liberation]] (PKWN) was established in liberated Lublin province. Just before the outbreak of the [[Warsaw Uprising]], on 31 July 1944, Bierut came to [[Świder, Lublin Voivodeship|Świder]]. The next day he crossed the front line and arrived in Lublin, the seat of the PKWN.<ref name="Eisler siedmiu 56–59"/>