Mieczysław Rakowski (b. 1926) is a Polish historian and journalist. He served as an officer in the Polish People's Army from 1945 to 1949. He began his political career in 1946 as a member of the Polish Workers' Party, and from 1948 to 1990 he was a member of the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR), serving on its Central Committee from 1975 to 1990. He received a doctorate in history from Warsaw's Institute for Social Sciences in 1956. Rakowski served as the second-to-last communist Prime Minister of Poland from September 1988 to August 1989.