Janusz Gmitruk (born 17 February 1948 in Świniarów) is a Polish historian, museum curator, academic teacher, and Doctor of Humanities.

Janusz Gmitruk was born on 17 February 1948 in the village of Świniarów in Łosice County into a peasant family of Paweł Gmitriuk and Genowefa, née Oleksiuk.

During these excursions, students gathered information from local residents, including former peasant partisans, about the activities of political parties in the interwar period and the resistance movement during World War II.

[4] His thesis, titled The Underground Peasant Movement in Siedlce County in 1939–1945, was supervised by Professor Stanisław Herbst, with Szaflik serving as the reviewer.

[4] At the institute, he managed the Iconographic Archive, collecting photographs from veterans of the peasant movement and their families, documenting them, recording testimonies, and encouraging his interviewees to write memoirs.

[6] His research and archival work culminated in his doctoral dissertation, The Underground Resistance Movement in the Kielce Land 1939–1945, which he defended in 1979 at the University of Warsaw under the supervision of Professor Józef Szaflik.

He collaborated on shaping the institution with Józef Fajkowski [pl], the special representative of United People's Party President Roman Malinowski for the organization of the museum, who later became its first director.

[5][12] On 3 September 1997, the Minister of Culture and Art, Zdzisław Podkański, appointed Gmitruk as the director of the Museum of the Polish Peasant Movement for a five-year contract, which was later renewed multiple times.

[13] Thanks to these changes, the museum, as a research institution, allowed employees to pursue their academic ambitions, preparing doctoral dissertations and earning habilitation degrees.

[15] He was also a long-time member of the Workers' Council in the National Committee of the United People's Party, and, on its behalf, he chaired the Loan and Welfare Fund for 13 years (until the political transformation in 1989).

He is passionate about photography (in March 1968, he was beaten by the Motorized Reserves of the Citizens' Militia officers while trying to document events at the university) and skiing in the Polish Tatra Mountains.

[22] Gmitruk is the author of articles published in journals such as Jutro Polski, Mówią Wieki, Polityka, Roczniki Dziejów Ruchu Ludowego, Rocznik Historyczny Muzeum Historii Polskiego Ruchu Ludowego, Strażak, Tygodnik Kulturalny, Wieści, Zielony Sztandar,[5] as well as in book publications, including:[23] For his academic and professional work, he has been awarded, decorated, and distinguished with, among others: