Author: Jaroslaw Piekalkiewicz

Jaroslaw (Andrzej) Piekalkiewicz is professor emeritus of Political Science and Russian and East European Studioes at the University of Kansas. At age 18, he fought the Germans for sixty-three days in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. For his bravery, he was promoted to the rank of Platoon Sargeant and awarded Krzyz Walecznych (Cross of the Brave). Obviously, in the chaos of fighting, he did not get the actual metal cross. Neither was he decorated during the communist rule of Poland. He chose asylum in the United States. Now, after so many years, his nomination was found in the archives of the Polish Ministry of Defense. The Polish Minister of Defense, delegated the Counsel General of the Polish Consulate in Houston to perform the decoration. It will take place in the Piekalkiewicz residence, in Lawrence, Kansas, on July 24th, Jaroslaw’s 95th birthday.