Mirosław Różański

Mirosław Różański was born on 1 December 1962 in Głogów, in south-western Poland, to Bogusław and Helena Różański, and his family came from the village of Kwielice. From 1977 to 1982 he attended the technical school of electronics at the Electrical and Mechanical School Complex in Legnica.

He then trained as an officer at the Higher Officers' School of Mechanized Forces in Wrocław, graduating with distinction in 1986. In 1989 he completed the battalion commanders' course at the Centre for Officer Improvement in Warsaw, and in 1992 and 1993 he took second-degree studies at the National Defence University in Warsaw. He returned there for a tactical and operational course in 1998 and the Postgraduate Study of Defence Policy in 2000. In 2011 the university's Faculty of Management and Command awarded him a doctorate in defence sciences for a dissertation on the effectiveness of Polish military contingents formed from regular units in expeditionary operations.

Różański began his service as a platoon commander in the 42nd Mechanized Regiment in Żary. He went on to command a training company and a mechanized company, with which he took part in the Przyjaźń 1989 exercises, the first in Poland observed by NATO representatives. He was later chief of staff of a training battalion, commander of the regiment's 2nd mechanized battalion and a senior operations officer. From 1995 he served in the 34th Armoured Cavalry Brigade in Żagań, first as chief of training and then as chief of staff.

In 1999 he took command of the 17th Wielkopolska Mechanized Brigade in Międzyrzecz, and after a spell as chief of staff of the 11th Armoured Cavalry Division he returned to lead the brigade in 2005, the year he was promoted to brigadier general. He introduced a new model of sniper training, brought the KTO Rosomak armoured personnel carrier into service and formed the first fully professional motorized battalion. In 2007 he commanded a brigade combat group in the 8th rotation of the Polish Military Contingent in Iraq, based at Kut in Wasit Governorate, which took part in operations against insurgents and in humanitarian work.

After serving as deputy head of the Strategic Planning Department of the General Staff, he became commander of the 11th Armoured Cavalry Division in August 2009 and was promoted to major general. He formed a European Union battlegroup which in 2010 became the first combat unit Poland declared for EU forces, and the division prepared the 8th and 9th rotations of the Polish contingent in Afghanistan. From 2012 to 2013 he was director of the defence ministry's Department of Defence Strategy and Planning, where the Strategy for the Development of the National Security System was prepared, and he then led the organisational group that created the General Command of the Branches of the Armed Forces.

On 9 June 2015 President Bronisław Komorowski appointed him Commander General of the Branches of the Armed Forces with effect from 30 June, and in August 2015 he was promoted to lieutenant general. He requested release from service on 12 December 2016 and retired on 31 January 2017, leaving the army amid a conflict with the defence minister Antoni Macierewicz. In 2022 he was charged in connection with the organisation of the 2015 Radom Air Show; he denied the charges and described them as politically motivated.

In 2017 he founded the Stratpoints Foundation for Security and Development and became its president. In 2018 he published Dlaczego przegramy wojnę z Rosją (Why We Will Lose the War with Russia), co-written with Juliusz Ćwieluch. He joined Szymon Hołownia's presidential campaign as its chief expert on security and the armed forces and later sat on the expert board of the Strategie 2050 think tank. In the 2023 parliamentary election he stood for the Senate for Third Way, backed by Poland 2050, in constituency no. 20 around Zielona Góra, and won with 104,047 votes, or 59.15 per cent. In the Senate he chaired the National Defence Committee. In February 2026 he stopped representing Poland 2050, and in March 2026 he co-founded the Senate group New Poland, Centre.

Różański was married and had three children. In his youth, from 1982 to 1990, he was a member of the Polish United Workers' Party. In a June 2026 interview with the portal NewsMed he said that he was living with myeloma, a blood cancer, and recalled that he had always thought of himself as almost immortal until the diagnosis.

Mirosław Różański died during the night of Sunday 23 to Monday 24 August 2026, at the age of 63, after a serious illness with myeloma. His death was confirmed by Senator Grzegorz Fedorowicz, head of the New Poland, Centre Senate group, and announced by Senate Marshal Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska, who described him as a brave and honest man who served Poland.

Deputy Prime Minister and defence minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said he had devoted his whole professional life to Poland and its security, and Szymon Hołownia recalled that he had fought his illness bravely. A state funeral was held on 28 August 2026 in Międzyrzecz, attended by senators, the defence minister, military representatives and many local residents, and he was buried in the municipal cemetery in Międzyrzecz.

Różański is remembered as one of the generals who shaped Poland's professional army after it joined NATO, from bringing the Rosomak into service and leading troops in Iraq to forming Poland's first EU battlegroup and building the General Command. After retiring he became an outspoken voice on Polish defence readiness, through his foundation, his book and his work as chairman of the Senate National Defence Committee. His decorations included the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, the Military Cross of Merit with Swords, the Star of Iraq and the Bundeswehr Badge of Honour, and in 2026 he was posthumously awarded the honorary title of Distinguished Soldier of the Republic of Poland.