He was born into a family of gentry, Ślepowron coat of arms. His father (Władysław Mieczysław Jaruzelski) fought in the Polish-Soviet war of 1920, his grandfather (Wojciech Jaruzelski senior) participated in the January Uprising. He was born in Kurków estate, where his father was an administrator. On October 7th 1923 he was baptized in the local Roman Catholic Church.
Before the war, he attended a middle school conducted by the Congregation of Marian Fathers in the Warsaw district - Bielany. In 1939, he moved with his entire family to Lithuania, after its annexation to the USSR, he was exiled to Siberia in 1940. He worked in taiga, where he participated in forest clearings. There, he developed snow blindness, which permanently damaged his eyesight. During the exile, his father, Władysław, died and was buried in Biysk.
After a failed attempt to enroll the Anders Army, Jaruzelski graduated from a military academy in Ryazan and was sent to the 2nd Infantry Division of Henryk Dąbrowski as a commander of the reconnaissance platoon. As an assistant of the chief of staff of the 5th reconnaissance Infantry Regiment, he followed the battle trail of the First Polish Army. He participated in battles at the Vistula, on the Magnuszewski bridgehead, battles for Warsaw, in breaking through the Pomeranian Wall, as well as battles at the Baltic, the Oder and Łaba.
He graduated with honors from the Polish Higher Infantry School and the General Staff Academy. During 1947-1957 he lectured tactics and staff service in the Higher Infantry School, he was the chief of the Board of Military Academies, Military Schools and Courses, and the deputy chief of the Main Board of Combat Training (in 1956, he was the youngest member of the cadre to be promoted to the rank of a general); during 1957-1960 he commanded the 12th Division of the Mechanized Troops in Szczecin.
In 1960, he was appointed chief of the Main Political Board of the Polish Army, and in 1962, he was made the vice minister of defense. From 1965, he held the position of the chief of the General Staff of the Polish Army.
He joined the Polish Labor Party in 1947. From 1964 he was a member of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers Party (KC PZPR). During 1970-1971 he was a deputy member, and from 1971- a member of the Political Bureau of KC PZPR. On the 4th Plenum of KC PZPR (18 October 1981) he was elected the first secretary of KC PZPR.
From 11 April 1968 to 21 November 1983, he was the minister of national defense. During the service, the units of the People's Army of Poland subjected to Jaruzelski, participated in suppressing the Prague Spring by the forces of the Warsaw Pact within the Danube operation.
Wojciech Jaruzelski also supervised the suppression of workers' speeches, which occurred on the Coast, during the events of December 1970. Jaruzelski held the post of the Minister of National Defense at the time.
On 13 December 1981, he introduced martial law in Poland and took the lead of the Military Council of National Salvation (WRON).
During 1961-1989 he was a member of the Parliament of the Polish People's Republic in the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth tenure. In 1981 he became the Prime Minister. He participated in forming the Patriotic Movement for National Rebirth (PRON). In 1983 he was appointed head of the Committee of National Defense - head of the Armed Forces by the Parliament, and the Chief of the Armed Forces in case of war by the State Council.
During the 1980s, he initiated economic and institutional reforms (e.g. appointing the State Tribunal, the Polish Ombudsman, or the Supreme Administrative Court). He was the creator of the Advisory Council of the Chairman of the State Council, which gathered several of the system's critics, e.g. Maciej Giertych, Ryszard Bender, Władysław Siła-Nowicki or Krzysztof Skubiszewski. The attempts of economic changes were a failure in the referendum.
On 6 November 1985 he was appointed Chairman of the State Council by the Parliament. He held the post until the State Council was replaced by the office of the President of the People's Republic of Poland on July 19th 1989.
He was the main organizer of the Round Table, although he did not participate in the proceedings. He did not candidate for the Parliament in the election of June 1989, lost by the communists either.
From 19 July 1989 he was the President of the People's Republic of Poland and from 31 December 1989, the President of the Republic of Poland, elected by the National Assembly with the advantage of 1 point. He supported the reforms of Mazowiecki Government.
As a result of social pressure, on September 19th 1990 he sent a draft of a constitutional bill to the speaker of the parliament - Mikołaj Kozakiewicz. The bill assumed shortening Jaruzelski's tenure and introducing general election into the constitutional order.
When on 22 December 1990, president- elect Lech Wałęsa took the office by right of art. 2 of the act of 27 September 1990 on the Alteration of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, the tenure of Wojciech Jaruzelski ended.