Jan Kowalewski

The cryptologist of the 1920 war

In its 2020 resolution the Sejm describes him as a native of Łódź, a young engineer and lieutenant with a gift for languages and mathematics. After Poland regained independence he organised and ran a section of the General Staff’s Cipher Bureau, where he set up a cryptanalysis unit.¹

According to the resolution, in 1919–1920 the radio intelligence service he led intercepted and decrypted several thousand cipher messages of foreign armies, mainly the Soviet one. As a result the command knew the enemy staff’s most secret decisions, which had a decisive influence on Józef Piłsudski’s plans.¹

A 2023 monograph published by the Józef Piłsudski Museum in Sulejówek and the Internal Security Agency (ABW) states that he broke the new ‘Revolution’ (Rewolucja) cipher, introduced by the Red Army in 1920, within a few hours, together with the mathematician Professor Stefan Mazurkiewicz. It also cites Mieczysław Wyżeł-Ścieżyński’s account of 410 Soviet messages read in August 1920 alone, noting that this was not the full number.²

For his results in 1919–1920 he received the Virtuti Militari cross, presented to him by General Władysław Sikorski.²

After the Polish–Soviet War

In the Third Silesian Uprising he was head of intelligence on the staff of the insurgent forces.¹

In 1923 he spent three months training Japanese intelligence officers in cryptography. The ABW monograph writes that in this way he helped to create the Japanese cipher bureau.^2,3

He was military attaché in Moscow in 1928–1933 – the authorities there declared him persona non grata – and then in Bucharest in 1933–1937. In 1938–1939 he ran the import company TISSA.^2,3

The Second World War and exile

In 1941–1944 he headed the Liaison Post with the Continent in Lisbon and ran intelligence work against the Axis powers as part of the so-called Continental Action.^1,3

After the war he remained in exile in Britain as a Sovietologist; in 1950–1953 he published the monthly ‘East Europe and Soviet Russia’ in London. He died in London on 31 October 1965.^2,3

Remembrance

On 14 August 2020, the centenary of the Battle of Warsaw, the Sejm adopted a resolution commemorating his achievements, and the Senate declared 2020 the Year of Jan Kowalewski. The resolution also mentions the posthumous Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.¹

Works devoted to his life include an IPN volume edited by Dariusz Rogut (2022) and a monograph edited by Grzegorz Nowik and Stefan Artymowski (2023).^2,3