Adam Pragier

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Adam Pragier – sketch published in the paper "Rozwój", 4 November 1931 during the Brest trials.

Adam Szymon Pragier (12 December 1886 - 24 July 1976) was a Polish economist,

Doctor of Jurisprudence professor at the Free Polish University, socialist activist, politician, member of the Polish Legions and writer. A minister of information and documentation in the Polish government-in-exile in London, he upheld for the rest of his life its legal continuity in the struggle for the restoration of Poland as a sovereign state
.

Early life

Pragier was born into a well-to-do family of Jewish descent. His father, Stanisław, was a medical practitioner, and his mother, Józefa, was a member of the Szancer family. After home education in Warsaw, he was sent as a boarder to the prestigious

Jozef Retinger
would have been a younger contemporary and where he joined the left leaning youth organisation, "Promień".

He graduated from high school in 1904 and went on to the

Polish Socialist Party-Left faction.[1]

Prewar career

Brest Fortress, scene of the political Brest trials 1931

In 1907–1908, he was editor of the review, "Myśl Socjalistyczna" ("Socialist Thought"). Having obtained a basic medical degree to satisfy his parents, he switched to his abiding interest, political economy, and obtained his

PhD at Zurich University in 1910, with a thesis in German, Die Produktivgenossenschaften der schweizerischen Arbeiter (Manufacturing Cooperatives run by Swiss Workers). In 1914, he gave the first critique in the Polish language of Rosa Luxemburg's The Accumulation of Capital, published in the periodical Ekonomista.[1]

When the

Great War broke out, he volunteered for the Polish Legions but was discharged from service because of a heart complaint. After his convalescence, he was called up by the Austro-Hungarian Army to serve at a garrison in Ostrawa. In 1918, he became a member of the Polish Military Organisation in Kraków.[citation needed
]

In April 1919, he rejoined the PPS and he became a professor at the Free Polish University. From 1922 to 1930, he was elected to the Sejm during the first term (1922–1927), followed by re-election to the second term (1928–1930). From 1921 to 1937, he was a member of the Executive Council of the PPS. In 1930, he was arrested along with a dozen other socialist leaders and held at the Brest Fortress, as part of the Sanation government's manoeuvre to clamp down on the opposition under accusations of an attempted coup. At the Brest trials, he was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison. However, he was given the option of going into exile. From 1933 to 1935, he was exiled in Paris and later returned to Poland and gave himself up for incarceration, which was commuted to several months during 1935.[2]

Invasion of Poland and exile

Stefania Zahorska Pragier's partner and literary collaborator in London

Following the

Tadeusz Komorowski
.

On the termination of President August Zaleski's term of office, he sided with him in opposition to the Rada Trzech (Council of Three) and remained loyal to him to the end, in spite of their fundamental political differences. From 1941 to 1947, he was a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the PPS. He was dismissed from the PPS in exile in 1946. From 1947 he was leader of the Union of Polish Socialists Abroad. From 1949 to 1951, he was recalled to the Polish National Council. From 1954 to 1970, he was on the Council of the Government in exile, serving as its chairman between 1963 and 1968.

He was a regular contributor to

Kultura.[3]

Pragier was unwavering in his support of the legal continuity of the Polish government-in-exile, attributing to it an inalienable right for the continued struggle for the recovery of Poland's independence as a state. A 2019 Polish evaluation of his life dubbed him "the eternal dissident".[4]

He was a founding member of the

Polish Society of Arts and Sciences Abroad. He belonged to the Feemasons' Lodge Kopernik.[5] In his late eighties, Pragier retired to the Polish hospital in Penley, near Wrexham, where he died in 1976. He was buried in Hampstead Cemetery, London.[6]

Awards

Personal life

In 1912 he married

WwII
the couple were in separation. They had no children.

Selected works

References

  1. ^ a b Kochański, Aleksander. "Adam Szymon Pragier". ipsb.nina.gov.pl. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
  2. ISBN 978-0-271-02308-3
    .
  3. ^ Chojnacki, Paweł. "The Making of Polish London through Everyday Life, 1956-1976" (PDF). discovery.ucl.ac.uk. p. 26. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
  4. ^ Mirowski, Mikołaj (29 October 2019). "Adam Pragier, wieczny dysydent" (in Polish). polityka.pl. Retrieved 11 April 2020.(subscription required)
  5. ^ Wieczorkiewicz, Paweł. Historia polityczna Polski 1935–1945, (The Political history of Poland), Warsaw 2005, p. 455. (in Polish)
  6. ^ "Polish burials". Polish heritage society. Retrieved 12 April 2020., item no. 201.
  7. ^ 11 listopada 1965 „za wybitne zasługi położone dla Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej" "Dz.U.R.P. z 1966 r. Nr 2" [for outstanding services to the Republic] (PDF). p. 8. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 March 2014. Retrieved 11 April 2020.

Bibliography

  • Leksykon historii Polski z 1995
  • Grzegorz Szturo, Kraj i emigracja w publicystyce Adama Pragiera: lata 1945–1956
  • Emigracja polska wobec problemów przebudowy i sowietyzacji kraju po drugiej wojnie światowej: studia / pod redakcją Ryszarda Sudzińskiego. Toruń, 2007.
  • Profile on the Sejm Library site

External links

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