Jóźwiak was active in the communist movement of the Second Polish Republic and was often imprisoned for his ties to the Soviet Union.

Franciszek Jóźwiak was born on 20 October 1895 in Huta, Congress Poland into a Polish peasant family.

[2] Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Jóźwiak was drafted into the Imperial Russian Army, but soon defected to Austria-Hungary and joined the Polish Legions.

Jóźwiak joined the Polish Army of the newly independent Second Republic of Poland and fought in the Polish-Soviet War of 1920, but was later demobilized as a non-commissioned officer.

In December 1926, he was released from prison and managed the work of district committees of the KPP in Lublin, Radom-Kielce and Poznan-Pomerania.

In 1931, he became the head of the Military Department of the Central Committee of the KPP, dealing with intelligence for the Soviets and communist propaganda in the Polish Army.

[5] Jóźwiak's position at the end of the war allowed him to hold a number of prominent offices in the early Polish People's Republic.

From 1944 to 1949, Jóźwiak was the first chief commander of the Citizens' Militia (MO), the communist civilian police force, and from March 1945 also served as the deputy Minister of Public Security.

Mass protests against Stalinism and Soviet influence in Poland had threatened communist rule and pressured the PZPR for anti-Stalinist reforms.

[8] His brother, Józef Jóźwiak, was a soldier of the 2nd Polish Corps who fought at the Battle of Monte Cassino.