Polish government-in-exile
Government of the Republic of Poland in exile Rząd Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na uchodźstwie (Polish) | |||||||||||
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1939–1990 | |||||||||||
Anthem: Government in exile | |||||||||||
Capital | Warsaw (de jure) Capital in Exile Paris (1939–1940) Angers (1940) London (1940–1990) | ||||||||||
Common languages | Polish | ||||||||||
President | |||||||||||
• 1939–1947 (first) | Władysław Raczkiewicz | ||||||||||
• 1989–1990 (last) | Ryszard Kaczorowski | ||||||||||
Prime Minister | |||||||||||
• 1939–1943 (first) | Władysław Sikorski | ||||||||||
• 1986–1990 (last) | Edward Szczepanik | ||||||||||
Historical era | Handover of national insignia to Warsaw government | 22 December 1990 | |||||||||
• Liquidation of apparatus accomplished | 31 December 1991 | ||||||||||
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Part of a series on the |
Polish Underground State |
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The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile (
Despite the occupation of Poland by hostile powers, the government-in-exile exerted considerable influence in Poland during
After the war, as the Polish territory came under the control of the communist
The government-in-exile was based in France during 1939 and 1940, first in Paris and then in Angers. From 1940, following the Fall of France, the government moved to London, and remained in the United Kingdom until its dissolution in 1990.
History
Establishment
On 17 September 1939, the President of the
Article 24 provided as follows:In event of war, the term of the President's office shall be prolonged until three months after the conclusion of peace; the President of the Republic shall then, by a special act promulgated in the Official Gazette, appoint his successor, in case the office falls vacant before the conclusion of peace. Should the President's successor assume office, the term of his office shall expire at the end of three months after the conclusion of peace.[3]
It was not until 29[5] or 30[4][3][6] September 1939 that Mościcki resigned. Raczkiewicz, who was already in Paris, immediately took his constitutional oath at the Polish Embassy and became President of the Republic of Poland. Raczkiewicz then appointed General Władysław Sikorski to be Prime Minister.[6][7] After Edward Rydz-Śmigły stepped down, Raczkiewicz also made Sikorski Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Armed Forces.[7][8]
Most of the Polish Navy escaped to Britain,
Under the
Wartime history
The Polish government in exile, based first in Paris, then in
although these parties maintained only a vestigial existence in the circumstances of war.When Germany launched a
During the war, especially from 1942 on, the Polish government in exile provided the Allies with some of the earliest and most accurate accounts of the ongoing Holocaust of European Jews[19][20][21] and, through its representatives, like the Foreign Minister Count Edward Raczyński and the courier of the Polish Underground movement, Jan Karski, called for action, without success, to stop it. The note the Foreign Minister, Count Edward Raczynski, sent on 10 December 1942 to the Governments of the United Nations was the first official denunciation by any Government of the mass extermination and of the Nazi aim of total extermination of the Jewish population. It was also the first official document singling out the sufferings of European Jews as Jews and not only as citizens of their respective countries of origin.[19][22] The note of 10 December 1942 and the Polish Government efforts triggered the Declaration of the Allied Nations of 17 December 1942.[19]
In April 1943, the Germans announced that they had discovered at
Stalin then severed relations with the Polish government in exile. Since it was clear that it would be the Soviet Union, not the western Allies, who would liberate Poland from the Germans, this breach had fateful consequences for Poland. In an unfortunate coincidence, Sikorski, widely regarded as the most capable of the Polish exile leaders, was
During 1943 and 1944, the Allied leaders, particularly
Provisional Government of National Unity
On 28 June 1945, Mikołajczyk took office in the
Many Polish exiles opposed this action, believing that this government was a façade for the establishment of Communist rule in Poland. This view was later proven correct in 1947 when the Communist-dominated Democratic Bloc won
Later postwar history
Meanwhile, the Polish government in exile had maintained its existence. The London Poles had to vacate the Polish embassy on Portland Place and were left only with the president's private residence at 43 Eaton Place. The government in exile became largely symbolic of continued resistance to foreign occupation of Poland while retaining some important archives from prewar Poland.[5][30][31]
In 1954, political differences led to a split in the ranks of the government in exile. One group, claiming to represent 80% of 500,000 anti-Communist Poles exiled since the war, was opposed to President August Zaleski's continuation in office when his seven-year term expired. It formed a Council of National Unity in July 1954, and set up a Council of Three to exercise the functions of head of state, comprising Tomasz Arciszewski, General Władysław Anders, and Edward Raczyński. Only after Zaleski's death in 1972 did the two factions reunite. Some supporters of the government in exile eventually returned to Poland, such as Prime Minister Hugon Hanke in 1955 and his predecessor Stanisław Mackiewicz in 1956. The Soviet-installed government in Warsaw campaigned for the return of the exiles, promising decent and dignified employment in communist Polish administration and forgiveness of past transgressions. The Republic of Ireland, Francoist Spain and finally (on 19 October 1972) the Holy See (Vatican City) were the last countries to withdraw recognition of the government-in-exile, though diplomatic privileges had already been withdrawn by Vatican Secretary of State Domenico Tardini in 1959.[31]
Despite these setbacks, the government in exile continued in existence. When Soviet influence over Poland came to an end in 1989, there was still a president and a cabinet of eight, meeting every two weeks in London, commanding the loyalty of about 150,000 Polish veterans and their descendants living in Britain, including 35,000 in London alone.
Dissolution and recognition in the Third Polish Republic
Only after the end of
Government and politics
Presidents
No. | Portrait | President | Took office | Left office | Time in office | Party |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ||||||
2 | ||||||
3 | Stanisław Ostrowski (1892–1982) | 9 April 1972 | 24 March 1979 | 6 years, 349 days | PPS | |
4 | ||||||
5 | ||||||
6 |
Prime ministers
No. | Portrait | Name (born–died) |
Term of office | Political party | Ref. | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Took office | Left office | Time in office | ||||||
1 | Władysław Sikorski (1881–1943) |
30 September 1939 | 19 July 1940 | 293 days | Independent | |||
2 | August Zaleski (1883–1972) |
19 July 1940 | 25 July 1940 | 6 days | Independent | [33] | ||
1 | Władysław Sikorski (1881–1943) |
25 July 1940 | 4 July 1943 † | 2 years, 344 days | Independent | [33] | ||
3 | Stanisław Mikołajczyk (1901–1966) |
14 July 1943 | 24 November 1944 | 1 year, 133 days | Polish People's Party | |||
4 | Tomasz Arciszewski (1877–1955) |
29 November 1944 | 2 July 1947 | 2 years, 215 days | Polish Socialist Party | |||
5 | Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski (1895–1966) |
2 July 1947 | 10 February 1949 | 1 year, 223 days | Independent | |||
6 | Tadeusz Tomaszewski (1881–1950) |
7 April 1949 | 25 September 1950 | 1 year, 171 days | Independent | |||
7 | Roman Odzierzyński (1892–1975) |
25 December 1950 | 8 December 1953 | 3 years, 74 days | Independent | |||
8 | Jerzy Hryniewski (1895–1978) |
18 January 1954 | 13 May 1954 | 115 days | Polish Independence League | |||
9 | Stanisław Mackiewicz (1896–1966) |
8 June 1954 | 21 June 1955 | 1 year, 13 days | Independent | |||
10 | Hugon Hanke (1904–1964) |
8 August 1955 | 10 September 1955 | 33 days | Labour Faction | |||
11 | Antoni Pająk (1893–1965) |
10 September 1955 | 14 June 1965 | 9 years, 277 days | Polish Socialist Party | |||
12 | Aleksander Zawisza (1896–1977) |
25 June 1965 | 9 June 1970 | 4 years, 349 days | Independent | |||
13 | Zygmunt Muchniewski (1896–1979) |
20 July 1970 | 13 July 1972 | 1 year, 359 days | Labour Faction | |||
14 | Alfred Urbański (1899–1983) |
18 July 1972 | 15 July 1976 | 3 years, 363 days | Polish Socialist Party | |||
15 | Kazimierz Sabbat (1913–1989) |
5 August 1976 | 8 April 1986 | 9 years, 246 days | Independent | |||
16 | Edward Szczepanik (1915–2005) |
8 April 1986 | 22 December 1990 | 4 years, 258 days | Independent |
Armed forces
- Związek Walki Zbrojnej, ZWZ)
- Home Army(Armia Krajowa)
- Grey Ranks(Szare Szeregi)
- Polish resistance movement in World War II
- Polish Armed Forces in the West
- Polish Armed Forces in the East
See also
- Tadeusz Chciuk-Celt, special envoy of the government
- Ignacy Schwarzbart
- Szmul Zygielbojm
- Henryk Leon Strasburger, Finance Minister and Minister in the Middle East for the Sikorski government; Ambassador to London for Mikolajczyk
- Juliusz Nowina-Sokolnicki, alternative President of the Republic of Poland (1972–1990)
- Polish Committee of National Liberation (Polish: Polski Komitet Wyzwolenia Narodowego; PKWN), 1944–1945
- "Western betrayal"
Notes
- 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash in Smolensk.
References
- ISBN 0-7185-1211-1Page 20
- ^ Count Edward Raczynski. In Allied London. Weidenfeld and Nicolson 1962 Page 39
- ^ a b c Jozef Pilsudski, Waclaw Jedrzejewicz (Editor). Poland in the British Parliament 1939–1945. Volume I, 1946. Pages 317–318
- ^ ISBN 0-333-39258-2Pages 48–49
- ^ ISBN 0-7146-8444-9Chapter 4, Page 33
- ^ a b Coutouvidis and Reynolds, Page 26
- ^ ISBN 0-901149-33-0
- ^ Garlinski, Page 49
- ^ Garlinski, Pages 17–18
- ^ Garlinski, Pages 55–56
- ^ Bogusław Brodecki; Zbigniew Wawer; Tadeusz Kondracki; Janusz Błaszczyk. Polacy na frontach II wojny światowej (The Poles on the Battlefronts of the Second World War) Warsaw: Bellona. 2005. Page 29
- ^ Brodecki et al, Page 37
- ISBN 0-333-39258-2Page 81
- ^ "Pignerolle dans la Seconde Guerre mondiale".
- ^ Stanislaw Mikolajczyk The Pattern of Soviet Domination Sampson Low, Marston & Co 1948 Page 17
- ISBN 83-60142-00-9Page 27
- ISBN 978-0786455362– via Google Books.
- ^ OCLC 247048466.
- ^ a b c Engel (2014)
- ^ Note of the Foreign Minister Edward Raczynski "The mass extermination of Jews in German occupied Poland, Note addressed to the Governments of the United Nations on December 10th 1942", also published (30 December 1942) by the Polish Foreign Ministry as a public document with the aim to reach the public opinions of the Free World. See: http://www.projectinposterum.org/docs/mass_extermination.htm
- ^ Martin Gilbert, Auschwitz and the Allies, 1981 (Pimlico edition, p.101) "On december 10, the Polish Ambassador in London, Edward Raczynski sent Eden an extremely detailed twenty-one point summary of all the most recent information regarding the killing of Jews in Poland; confirmation, he wrote, "that the German authorities aim with systematic deliberation at the total extermination of the Jewish population of Poland" as well as of the "many thousands of Jews" whom the Germans had deported to Poland from western and Central Europe, and from the German Reich itself."
- ^ Krzysztof Kania, Edward Raczynski, 1891–1993, Dyplomata i Polityk (Edward Raczynski, 1891–1993, Diplomat and Politician), Wydawnictwo Neriton, Warszawa, 2014, p. 232
- ISBN 0-87052-563-8Page 15
- ISBN 0-552-10455-8Page 126
- ISBN 0-87052-563-8Page 24
- ISBN 0-7185-1211-1Page 88
- ) Also in: Wrocławskie Studia Wschodnie, Wrocław, 1997.
- ISBN 0-7185-1211-1Pages 103–104
- ISBN 0-7185-1211-1Page 107
- ^ ISBN 0-7146-8444-9, Paperback First Edition, p. 8.
- ^ a b "Phantoms in Rome". Time. 19 January 1959. Archived from the original on 19 September 2009. Retrieved 9 September 2023.
- ISBN 0-7146-8444-9, Paperback First Edition, p. 45.
- ^ a b Roman Wapiński, Władysław Sikorski, Polski Słownik Biograficzny, zeszyt 154 (T. XXXVII/3, 1997, p. 474
Bibliography
- Engel, David (2014). In the Shadow of Auschwitz: The Polish Government-in-exile and the Jews, 1939–1942. UNC Press Books. ISBN 9781469619576.
- Cienciala, Anna M. "The Foreign Policy of the Polish Government-in-Exile, 1939–1945: Political and Military Realities versus Polish Psychological Reality" in: John S. Micgiel and Piotr S. Wandycz eds., Reflections on Polish Foreign Policy, New York: 2005. online
- Davies, Norman. God's Playground: A History of Poland, Vol. 2: 1795 to the Present (2005)
- Kochanski, Halik. The Eagle Unbowed: Poland and the Poles in the Second World War (2012) excerpt and text search
External links
- Statement of the Polish government in exile following the death of General Sikorski (1943)
- Publications on the Polish government (in exile) 1939–1990
- Stamp Issues by the Polish government in exile
- Polish Chancellery website: Prime Ministers IInd Republic of Poland in exile[permanent dead link]
- Polish World War II website on the Polish government in exile
Multimedia
Republic in Exile tells the story of the Polish government-in-exile in the form of five short episodes available on the YouTube channel: Polish Embassy UK