Lucjan Żeligowski was born on 17 October 1865 in the Przechody (Belarusian: Пераходы) folwark by the village of Sikūnė [a] in Oshmyansky Uyezd, in the Russian Empire (modern Ashmyany District in Belarus) (other sources give Oszmiana as his birthplace) to Polish parents Gustaw Żeligowski and Władysława Żeligowska née Traczewska. Żeligowski in his youth lived in poverty and only spoke in the tutejszy language, which is a Belarusianvernacular, and identified himself as a Litvin , not a Belarusian (see the article "Litvinism" for his views in this resect), but was very positive towards the Belarusian movements.[3] Before the Partitions of Poland in the late 18th century the town was part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. After graduating from military officers' school located in Riga (1885), Żeligowski joined the Imperial Russian Army, where he served at various staff and command posts.[3] He then married Tatiana Pietrova and had two children.[3]
Żeligowski fought in the
First World War he served as a lieutenant colonel and commanding officer of an Imperial Russian rifle regiment.[3]
. In October of the same year he became the Commander in Chief of all the Polish units fighting in Russia.
After the outbreak of the
Polish 10th Infantry Division
.
During the
Polesie and the Pinsk Marshes.[3] During the Battle of Warsaw in 1920 his unit was attached to the 3rd Polish Army and took part in the pursuit of fleeing Bolshevik and Soviet forces at the Battle of the Niemen. Following the Battle of Warsaw, Żeligowski wrote:
"There was a paradoxical situation .. when Warsaw was defended and the war was won, we, the citizens of our homeland - Lithuania, could not even return to the house where the Zhmudin people settled, protégé of the Germans ... Having lost Lithuania - Poland lost much of its statehood. Polish politicians didn't understand that, only every soldier, even a Lithuanian citizen, understood that."[4]
Republic of Central Lithuania
Lucjan Żeligowski, 1932Żeligowski's family coat-of-arms, Łabędź ("Swan").
In October 1920, Żeligowski, a native of
PMO members, volunteers and partisans from the territory of modern Belarus and Lithuania. On October 8, 1920, after a staged mutiny, he "defected" with his unit and took control over the city of Vilnius and its area. The mutiny, named after him, would be remembered as the defining moment of his life. On October 12, he proclaimed independence of the said area as Republic of Central Lithuania, with Wilno as its capital. Initially a de facto military dictator, after the parliamentary elections he passed his powers to the newly elected parliament, which in turn decided to submit the area to Poland
.
According to Lucjan Żeligowski's point of view:
"But not only geographically, Lithuania was the heart of the Slavs. It was morally. She, one of all the Slavic peoples, could easily talk with everyone. As with Poland, so with Russia, so with Ukraine. The mentality of the Lithuanian peoples was, as it were, created to reconcile everyone. He never had hostility, neither national, nor religious, nor cultural."[4]
Regarding his invasion of Lithuania in October 1920, Żeligowski wrote:
On 9 October 1920, with the army, made up of the sons of Lithuania and Belarus, Vilnius was occupied not by the Polish general Żeligowski, but by the Lithuanian Żeligowski, who came as a child from Žiupronys [lt] to Vilnius for school exams and spent the night on the benches of city parks.[5]
In the 14th-century Lithuanian Chronicles, there was written about mobilization in Ašmena, where it was mentioned that Jokūbas Želigovskis had a horse, weapon, axe, etc. In the history of a Russian uhlan regiment from 1863, it was mentioned that in the surroundings of Rūdninkai [lt] after a fierce fight, the fifteen-year-old Juozas Želigovskis was taken prisoner and letters were found by his side, where his mother encouraged him to fight.[5]
So I was not an accidental out-of-nowhere in Lithuania, but my family has a long tradition and served in the Fatherland's defence. My dream was to live with my countrymen in the
Vilnius region. I did not divide them into Poles, Belarusians and Samogitians. As a Lithuanian, I never stopped being Polish. These two concepts are intertwined. They complement each other. I am talking about all this in order to prove that it was all more than a Polish general's seizure of Vilnius.[5]
Żeligowski later in his memoir which was published in London in 1943 condemned the annexation of Republic by Poland, as well as the policy of closing Belarusian schools and general disregard of Marshal Józef Piłsudski's confederation plans by Polish ally.[6][page needed
]
Later life
After the annexation of Central Lithuania to Poland, Żeligowski continued his service in the Polish Army. Promoted to
Minister of Military Affairs. Ousted by Piłsudski's coup d'état (the May Coup), he was soon returned to the post. He retired the following year and settled in his family manor in Andrzejewo near Vilnius
.
In 1930 he published a book containing his memoirs of the Polish-Bolshevik War named War of 1920: Memories and thoughts (Wojna w roku 1920. Wspomnienia i rozważania). He also wrote numerous articles on the conflicts of early 20th century for a variety of Polish newspapers. In 1935 he was elected a member of parliament and remained in the Sejm until the outbreak of World War II in 1939.
World War II and death
During the
Polish Government in Exile headed by General Władysław Sikorski. An active member of the Polish National Council, an advisory body, he escaped to London after the French defeat in 1940.[3]
After the end of
Second World War Żeligowski declared he would return to Poland, but he suddenly died on 9 July 1947 in London. His body was brought back to Poland, and Żeligowski was buried in the Powązki Military Cemetery in Warsaw.[3]
Kicman, Wojciech (February 1988), "Wojskowy Przegląd Historyczny", Jeszcze w sprawie gen. broni L. Żeligowskiego, no. 124, Wojskowy Przegląd Historyczny, pp. 319–335
Sawczynski, Adam (1959), Polska w obronie swoich granic. Wojna z bolszewikami; w dziele zbiorowym Polska niepodlegla i druga wojna swiatowa (1918-1945), London: Orbis
