After escaping from there, he found himself in Upper Silesia, where he worked in a coal mine in Bytom and in the steelworks in Siemianowice Śląskie.

After the outbreak of the revolution in November 1918 in Germany, he crossed the German-Polish border and settled in Dąbrowa Górnicza, where in December 1918 he volunteered for the Polish Army.

After returning from the war, he was initially unemployed, and then he worked at the coal mine "Paris" in Dąbrowa Górnicza.

He stayed there until September 1939, when after the Soviet invasion of Poland, the city was occupied by the Red Army.

He was also a political organiser of the Polish Army in the Soviet Union and was promoted to the rank of brigadier general.

From December 1948 he became a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party.

[2] Zawadzki was elected to the Sejm in 1947, and on 20 November 1952, he was appointed chairman of the Polish Council of State, to replace Bolesław Bierut.

Zawadzki died on 7 August 1964 of cancer at the age of 64 and was buried at the Powązki Military Cemetery in Warsaw.