Bolesław Wieniawa-Długoszowski

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Generał
Bolesław
Wieniawa-Długoszowski
Photograph by Narcyz Witczak-Witaczyński
Successor as President of Poland
In office
25 September 1939 – 26 September 1939
Personal details
Born(1881-07-22)22 July 1881
United States of America
NationalityPolish
Spouse(s)Stephania Calvas, Bronisława Wieniawa-Długoszowska
ChildrenSusanna Vernon

Bolesław Ignacy Florian Wieniawa-Długoszowski (22 July 1881 – 1 July 1942) was a Polish

President of the Republic of Poland
.

He was one of the generation that fought for and saw the rebirth of an independent Poland on 11 November 1918 (National Independence Day), only to see that independence lost again after the 1939 division of Poland between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union pursuant to the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.

Before World War I

Bolesław Wieniawa-Długoszowski was born 22 July 1881 on his family's estate in

née Struszkiewicz. He had an elder brother Kazimierz and two sisters; Teofila (Michalewska) the grandmother of Inka Bokiewicz, the girl who first adopted Wojtek the bear
and Zofia (Kubicka).

In 1877, his family bought the manor house

Lwów, graduating with high distinction in 1906. In 1906 he married his first wife, the singer Stephania Calvas.[5]

After his studies, he moved to Berlin, where he spent a year studying at the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts.[6] After completing his degree there in 1907, he moved to Paris, where he worked as a private physician.

Between 1907 and 1914, he lived in

Waclaw Sieroszewski [pl], Andrzej Strug and others. The next year this group joined the main Riflemen's Association (Związek Strzelecki "Strzelec"), where he met Józef Piłsudski in December 1913.[8]

1914–42

Wieniawa-Długoszowski, 1934

In 1914, he moved to

Taganka prison. He was freed thanks to the intervention of his future wife, Bronisława Wieniawa-Długoszowska, with the much-feared Cheka operative Yakovleva, then in charge of the prison. Bronisława, née Kliatchkin, was at that time married to the lawyer Leon Berenson [pl], the lawyer of Felix Dzerzhinsky, the head of the Cheka. She was a Lutheran, her family having converted from the Jewish faith when she was eight. He married her in a Lutheran ceremony[11] on 2 October 1919 at Lutheran [pl] zbór [pl] in Nowy Gawłów
. The marriage register records the details from her false French passport, including "Lalande" as her maiden name.

As aide-de-camp of

Cross of Valor and Cross of Independence
).

Throughout the interwar years, he was a key figure in Warsaw literary and social life.

crypto-communist magazine Miesięcznik Literacki [pl]), he received, in prison, a hamper of vodka and caviar from Wieniawa. The purpose of that story, in Wat's memoirs "My century", is to contrast his treatment at the hands of the Second Polish Republic with the vicious and barbaric treatment he was to receive in Soviet prisons during the war.[14]

In November 1921, Wieniawa became the Polish military attaché in Bucharest, Romania. He was associated with making the Polish-Romanian convention which was signed in 1922. In 1926 he passed his exams in High War School. He soon became a commander of 1 Pułk Szwoleżerów Józefa Piłsudskiego [pl], the most prestigious and representative Polish cavalry division, which he commanded until 1930.

During the May Coup of 1926, he was one of Piłsudski's officers who helped him to organise the coup.

In 1930–32, he was commander of I Cavalry Division and, for some time, of II Cavalry Division. In 1932, he was promoted by President

Generał dywizji [pl]. From 1938 to 13 June 1940, he was the Polish Ambassador in Rome
.

One-day presidency

On 17 September 1939, he was nominated president of Poland by the retiring President

invaded by the Soviet Union, and he took the train from Rome to Paris to take on his new role. His appointment was published in the Official Journal, Monitor Polski, on 25 September 1939.[15] His appointment was blackballed [why?]by the French Third Republic[16] and also opposed by Władysław Sikorski. After the capitulation of France, he emigrated to New York City by travelling via Lisbon
.

Many sources do not list Wieniawa as president but merely as "designated successor". However, according to the

then constitution, when the President cannot execute his powers (as when Mościcki was interned in Romania
and it was clear that he would not be released unless he resigned), the designated successor automatically became president.

After receiving appointment or becoming president, Wieniawa-Długoszowski asked Cardinal August Hlond to become Prime Minister. Hlond refused and referred to Wieniawa as "Mr. President".

Also, in a press statement from President Lech Wałęsa's press secretary on 21 September 1994 to Dziennik Polski, Wieniawa-Długoszowski was referred to as one of the legitimate presidents-in-exile.[17]

According to some opinions, Mościcki had meant to pass his office to Wieniawa-Długoszowski as caretaker until the office could be assumed by a candidate acceptable to both

Sanacja and opposition circles, General Kazimierz Sosnkowski, whose whereabouts were unknown in September 1939. Finally, after Wieniawa's resignation, a compromise candidate, Władysław Raczkiewicz, was chosen.[18]

Death

Once in the

minister plenipotentiary to the governments of Cuba, Dominican Republic, and Haiti, based in Havana. On 20 June 1942 the National Committee of Americans of Polish Extraction (KNAPP) was founded in New York,[19] with Wieniawa listed as a founder. KNAPP was strongly for retaining Poland's eastern territories, was critical of Sikorski, and was entirely distrustful of Stalin.[20] Wieniawa, after moving back to New York, caught between these two opposing forces, committed suicide on 1 July 1942.[21] Some sources[22] say he committed suicide by leaping from an upper story of his New York city residence (3 Riverside Drive), but the exact details of his death are debated among historians. He left a suicide note.[23] One month later, on 14 August 1942, the Jewish ghetto in his home village of Bobowa was liquidated; about 700 inhabitants were killed in a mass execution in the Garbacz Forest.[24][25]

Wieniawa's remains were brought back to Kraków for reburial in the Rakowicki Cemetery, on 27 September 1990, where he now lies with his fallen comrades from the World War I Polish Legions.[26]

Honours and awards

Polish

Foreign

Political offices
Preceded by
President of the Polish Republic

1939 		Succeeded by

References

  1. ^ "BOBOWA - DWOR WIENIAWA DŁUGOSZOWSKIEGO". Archived from the original on 23 April 2020. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
  2. ^ "BOBOWA: Gorlice". International Jewish Cemetery Project. Archived from the original on 1 March 2019. Retrieved 28 February 2019.
  3. ISBN 9781846143380
    .
  4. ISBN 978-83-61060-76-5
    .
  5. ^ "Stefania Skotnicka (1886-1934), de domo Calvas, primo voto Długoszowska". Facebook. Archived from the original on 26 February 2022. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
  6. ^ "Universität der Künste Berlin". Archived from the original on 27 February 2019. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
  7. ^ Statut Towarzystwa Artystów Polskich w Paryżu. Paris: A. Reiffa. 1911. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
  8. ISBN 978-2-87900-319-1
    .
  9. ^ Wołos, M. "Wieniawa-Długoszowski był uosobieniem tego, co polskie". niepodlegla.dzieje.pl. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
  10. doi:10.3917/bipr1.047.0061
    . Retrieved 28 February 2019.
  11. ^ "sygn. 175". Archived from the original on 14 August 2021. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
  12. ISBN 978-1-56279-030-1
    .
  13. ISBN 978-83-7021-139-4
    .
  14. ISBN 978-1-59017-065-6
    .
  15. ^ "Zarządzenie Prezydenta Rzeczypospolitej". Monitor Polski, Paryż (213). 25 September 1939. Archived from the original on 14 May 2021. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
  16. ISBN 978-2-85939-646-6
    .
  17. ^ Heydel-Mankoo, Rafal. THE POLISH ARISTOCRACY: THE TITLED FAMILIES OF POLAND.
  18. ^ Olgierd Terlecki, Generał Sikorski, Kraków, Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1983.
  19. ISBN 0821415271
    .
  20. ISBN 0805784381
    .
  21. ISBN 978-0-313-26007-0
    . Retrieved 8 July 2009.
  22. ^ Pinkowski Files. Poles.org.
  23. ISBN 978-1-4825-6684-0
    .
  24. ISBN 978-0-943376-28-8
    .
  25. ^ "The mass grave in the Garbacz Forest". Virtual Shtetl. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
  26. ^ Gajewski, Grzegorz. "Powrót Wieniawy (1990)". YouTube. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
  27. ^ Acović, Dragomir (2012). Slava i čast: Odlikovanja među Srbima, Srbi među odlikovanjima. Belgrade: Službeni Glasnik. p. 613.

Bibliography

By Wieniawa

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bolesław Wieniawa-Długoszowski.

Wieniawa's songs

About Wieniawa

Books about his period in France 1907-1914

Books about the period as ambassador in Rome and the "President for a day" episode

Books about his period in America

Books mainly of photographs

Films Wieniawa helped to make

Films about Wieniawa

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