Portal:Poland/Selected biography
These are excerpts from biographical articles about people from Poland that appear on the Poland Portal. See talk page for instructions about adding new articles.
Selected biography 1
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Józef Piłsudski
chief of state in 1918 and marshal of Poland in 1920. In 1919–1921, he led Polish forces to victory in the Polish–Soviet War. He withdrew from political life in 1923, but came back three years later in the coup d'état of May 1926, becoming a virtual dictator of Poland with a firm grip on military and foreign affairs until his death. Though a number of his political acts remain controversial, Piłsudski is held in high esteem by his compatriots. (Full article...
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Selected biography 2
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Władysław Sikorski
International Red Cross investigate the Katyn massacre. In July 1943, Sikorski was killed in a plane crash into the sea immediately on takeoff from Gibraltar. The exact circumstances of his death remain in dispute, which has given rise to ongoing conspiracy theories. (Full article...
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Selected biography 3
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Selected biography 4
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Witold Pilecki in a colorized photograph
Auschwitz Concentration Camp. While there, he organized inmate resistance, and as early as 1940, informed the Western Allies of Nazi Germany's Auschwitz atrocities. He escaped from the camp in 1943 and took part in the Warsaw Uprising. Pilecki was executed in 1948 by communist authorities. Until 1989, information on his exploits and fate was suppressed by the Polish the communist regime. (Full article...
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Selected biography 5
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Marian Rejewski
intelligence so gained contributed to the defeat of Nazi Germany. (Full article...
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Stanisław Koniecpolski
Gustavus Adolphus to a stalemate in Prussia during a Polish–Swedish war. He defeated a major Turkish invasion at Kamieniec Podolski in the Ukraine in 1634, and during his life, led many other successful campaigns against rebellious Cossacks and invading Tatars. He is remembered as one of the most skilled military commanders in the history of Poland and Lithuania. (Full article...
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Selected biography 7
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Witold Lutosławski
aleatory techniques. His works include four symphonies and a Concerto for Orchestra. He composed concertos and song cycles for renowned musicians including Mstislav Rostropovich, Peter Pears and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Lutosławski was also a notable conductor of his own music. (Full article...
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Selected biography 8
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Bolesław Prus
historical novel, is a study of political power and statecraft, set in ancient Egypt at the fall of its 20th Dynasty. (Full article...
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Selected biography 9
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Mieczysław Jagielski as painted on a commemorative mural
deputy prime minister, and the next year, a member of the party's politburo. In August 1980, Jagielski represented the government during talks with striking workers in Gdańsk. He negotiated the agreement which recognized the Solidarity trade union as the first independent trade union within the Eastern Bloc. In late July 1981, Jagielski was fired from the deputy premiership, reportedly because he failed to produce a recovery program for the economic crisis Poland was experiencing at that time. The same year, he renounced his membership in the politburo and in the Central Committee. (Full article...
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Stanisław Lem
Selected biography 11
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Pope John Paul II
in all of Eastern Europe. The pope also mended the Catholic Church's relations with other denominations and religions. As part of his emphasis on the universal call to holiness, he beatified or canonized a record number of people, and was himself canonized in 2014. (Full article...
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Selected biography 12
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Witold Kiełtyka (Vitek)
Wojciech Wąsowicz (Sauron). The members' average age was 14 when they formed the band. One year later, they were joined by 13-year-old bassist Marcin Rygiel (Martin). In 2000, they released their debut album, Winds of Creation. Decapitated soon became one of Europe's finest technical death metal bands. In 2002 and 2004 the band released the albums Nihility and The Negation, respectively. In 2005, Sauron was replaced by Adrian Kowanek (Covan), and the band's fourth album, Organic Hallucinosis, was released in 2006. In 2007, their tour bus was involved in a road accident that killed Vitek and left Covan in a coma. In 2009, Vogg announced Austrian drummer Kerim Lechner (Krimh) as a new member. (Full article...
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Selected biography 14
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George Chapman, born Seweryn Antonowicz Kłosowski, one of many Jack the Ripper suspects
ripperologist, speculated that the crimes may have been committed by Nathan Kaminsky, a Polish Jew who went by a generic Jewish name, David Cohen. The civil parish of Whitechapel around the time of the murders was experiencing an influx of immigrants from Ireland and Eastern Europe; its population was transient, impoverished and often used aliases. The Ripper's true identity will almost certainly never be known. (Full article...
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Selected biography 15
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Juliusz Słowacki as portrayed by James Hopwood
Slavic mythology, Polish history, mysticism and Orientalism, and rely on neologisms and irony for style. Among Słowacki's most popular works are the dramas Kordian and Balladyna, and the poem Beniowski. Słowacki spent his youth in what are now Ukraine and Lithuania, but emigrated to Western Europe after the failed November Uprising of 1830. He then traveled to Switzerland, Italy, Greece and the Middle East to finally settle back in Paris for the last decade of his life, but briefly returned to Poland during the Greater Poland Uprising of 1848. (Full article...
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Selected biography 16
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communist censorship, and as a notable dissident, he was persecuted by the government. He was subject to invigilation by security services, and his second wife was in fact a communist secret police agent. Jasienica's books were banned during a brief period prior to his death. (Full article...)
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Józef Światło
Radio Free Europe. Światło's written and broadcast incriminations shook the Polish United Workers' Party and contributed to the reform of the Polish security apparatus as one of the factors leading to the Polish October revolution. (Full article...
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Selected biography 18
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King Vladislaus IV as painted by Peter Paul Rubens
Anna of Habsburg. The teen-aged Vladislaus was elected tsar by the Seven Boyars in 1610, but did not assume the Russian throne because of his father's opposition and a popular uprising in Russia. Following his father's death in 1632, he was elected king of Poland, with no serious contenders. Vladislaus was fairly successful in defending the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth against invasion, notably through his personal participation in the Smolensk War. He supported religious toleration, carried out military reforms, and was a renowned patron of the arts. The king failed, however, to realize his dreams of regaining the Swedish crown, conquering the Ottoman Empire, strengthening royal power, and reforming Polish internal politics. He died without a legitimate male heir and was succeeded by his half-brother, John Casimir. Vladislaus's death marked the end of relative stability in Poland. (Full article...
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Selected biography 19
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Hugo Steinhaus
Wrocław University. Author of around 170 scientific articles and books, Steinhaus left a legacy in several branches of mathematics, including functional analysis, mathematical logic, geometry, and trigonometry. He is also considered a pioneer in game theory and probability theory. (Full article...
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Selected biography 20
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Megitza with her double bass
Americana. Born in Zakopane at the foot of the Tatra Mountains, she was introduced to the traditional music of Polish Highlanders (górale) by her father, and began performing in a children folk dance ensemble. She moved to Chicago in 2003 and started her professional career in 2008, when she formed the Megitza Quartet and released her debut album, Boleritza. The Sound Culture Center for Global Arts described Megitza as "a true concert revelation – an unusual voice, charisma and beauty", describing her music as "dynamic, vibrant, full of energy, uniting listeners of all ages." She performs mostly in the United States and in her native Poland. (Full article...
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Selected biography 21
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Elizabeth of Bosnia as imagined by Sándor Liezen-Mayer
regent. When Louis died in 1382, their elder surviving daughter, Mary, ascended the throne of Hungary, with Elizabeth as a regent. Unable to retain control over Poland, Elizabeth secured the Polish throne for her youngest daughter, Hedwig. During her regency in Hungary, the queen mother was faced with several rebellions led by Croatian noblemen who wished to take advantage of Mary's insecure reign, before being murdered in the turmoil. (Full article...
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Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski
Russian intervention, leading to the Second and Third Partitions of Poland. Poniatowski abdicated in 1795 and spent the final years of his life under house arrest in Saint Petersburg. (Full article...
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Marie Curie
in Warsaw, which remain major centres of medical research today. During World War I, she established the first military field radiological centres. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize (in Physics, shared with her husband, Pierre Curie, and with her doctoral advisor, Henri Becquerel, in 1903), the only woman to win it in two fields (the other being Chemistry, in 1911), and the only person to win in multiple sciences. Curie died in 1934 of aplastic anemia brought on by years of her exposure to radiation. (Full article...
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Selected biography 24
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Stanisław Żółkiewski
Kiev, Ukraine), grand chancellor of the Crown, and grand hetman of the Crown. His best-known victory was against combined Russian and Swedish forces in the battle of Klushino in 1610, following which the Poles seized and occupied Moscow. He died in the battle of Ţuţora against the Ottomans, after refusing to retreat, his heroic death further boosting his fame. He is seen as one of the most accomplished commanders in the military history of early modern Poland. (Full article...
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Stefan Czarniecki
Russo-Polish War of 1654–67, and the Second Northern War. His use of guerrilla warfare against the Swedes is considered one of the main reasons for the eventual Polish victory in the latter conflict. Czarniecki is regarded as a national hero, his status in Polish history best illustrated by a mention in the national anthem. (Full article...
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Stanisław Staszic
Constitution of 1791. He continued his political career as a member of the State Council of the Duchy of Warsaw and as minister of trade and industry in the "Congress" Kingdom of Poland. Staszic is also noted as the father of Polish geology, statistics and sociology, and a promoter of exploration, mining and industry. In 1800, he co-founded the Warsaw Society of Friends of Learning, one of Poland's earliest scientific societies. (Full article...
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Tadeusz Kościuszko
Selected biography 28
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Casimir Pulaski
honorary citizenship of the United States. Pulaski Day is observed on October 11 as a U.S. federal holiday and on the first Monday of March as a state holiday in Illinois. (Full article...
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Emilia Plater
captain in the Polish-Lithuanian insurgent forces. Near the end of the uprising, she fell ill and died. Although she did not participate in any major engagements, her story became widely publicized. She is considered a national heroine in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus, venerated by a number of Polish artists as a representative of women fighting for the Polish cause. (Full article...
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Stanisław Ulam
Fermi–Pasta–Ulam problem, which became the inspiration for the vast field of nonlinear science. Ulam is perhaps best known for realising that electronic computers made it practical to apply statistical methods to functions without known solutions, and as computers have developed, the Monte Carlo method he invented has become a standard approach to many physical and mathematical problems. (Full article...
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Jan Karol Chodkiewicz
Polish–Ottoman War of 1620–21. His most famous victory was the Battle of Kircholm (now Salaspils, Latvia) in 1605, in which he dealt a major defeat to a Swedish army three times the size of his own. He died on the front lines during the siege of the Khotyn Fortress, a few days before the Ottomans lifted the siege and agreed to negotiate. (Full article...
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Ignacy Potocki
an alliance with Prussia in 1790. In the same year, King Stanislaus Augustus and Potocki, until then in anti-royal opposition, began drifting closer together, working on a draft document that would eventually become the Constitution of 3 May 1791. (Full article...
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Adam Mickiewicz
Russian territories of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania, he was sentenced to a five-year exile to central Russia for his political activism. He left Russia in 1829 and, like many of his compatriots, lived out the rest of his life abroad. He settled first in Rome, then in Paris, where for a little over three years he lectured on Slavic literature at Collège de France. Mickiewicz died, probably of cholera, in Istanbul, where he had gone to help organize Polish and Jewish forces to fight Russia in the Crimean War. He is known chiefly for the poetic drama Dziady ("Forefathers' Eve") and the national epic poem Pan Tadeusz. His other influential works include Konrad Wallenrod and Grażyna. (Full article...
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Henryk Sienkiewicz
Sir Michael — set in the 17th-century Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, while he is mostly remembered abroad for Quo Vadis, a novel set in Nero's Rome. Several of his works have been filmed, some more than once, with the 1951 Hollywood adaptation of Quo Vadis receiving most international recognition. (Full article...
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Stephen Báthory
Selected biography 38
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Jan Henryk Dąbrowski
Polish–Austrian War and the French invasion of Russia. After Napoleon's defeat, he accepted a senatorial position in the Russian-controlled "Congress" Kingdom of Poland, and helped organize the new kingdom's army. In 1797, Józef Wybicki wrote Poland Is Not Yet Lost, a mazurka to be sung by Polish legionnaires in Italy, with the chorus "March, march, Dąbrowski, from Italy to Poland!" The song later became Poland's national anthem. (Full article...
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Selected biography 39
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Frédéric Chopin as portrayed by Eugène Delacroix
piano concertos, a few chamber pieces, and some songs to Polish lyrics. His keyboard style, which is highly individual, is often technically demanding; his own performances were noted for their nuance and sensitivity. Chopin invented the concept of instrumental ballade; his major piano works also include sonatas, mazurkas, waltzes, nocturnes, polonaises, études, impromptus, scherzos, and preludes. His innovations in style, musical form, and harmony, as well as association of his music, often blending Polish folk tunes and classical tradition, with nationalism, were influential throughout and after the late Romantic period. (Full article...
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Jan Zamoyski
Zamojski Academy, Poland's third oldest university. Despite his wealth and power, in politics Zamoyski led the faction of lesser and middle nobility in support of the "enforcement of laws" movement, which earned him the moniker "Polish Gracchus". He also supported the idea of royal elections open to all Polish nobles and advised the first elective kings, Henry and Stephen, but fell out with Sigismund III. In war – against Muscovy, the Ottomans and Sweden – he employed tactics based on sieges, flanking maneuvers, fortification, artillery, and the principle of conserving his forces. (Full article...
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Selected biography 41
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Jan Matejko's self-portrait
Constitution of 3 May. His other works include imaginary portraits of Polish monarchs and mural paintings in Kraków's St. Mary's Basilica. With his style described as "colourful, detailed and imaginative", he reminded Poles of their nation's former glory at a time when it lacked political independence. His vision of national history has been propagated in Polish textbooks to this day. In 1872, Matejko became a rector of the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts, which now bears his name. Among his students were such artists as Maurycy Gottlieb, Jacek Malczewski, Józef Mehoffer and Stanisław Wyspiański. (Full article...
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Roman Dmowski in a colorized photograph
anti-Semitic. Dmowski was the chief political opponent of Józef Piłsudski, who sided with the Central Powers against Russia, and of his vision of Poland as a multinational federation. (Full article...
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Maximilian Kolbe
Holocaust. He was arrested by the Gestapo in February 1941 and imprisoned at Auschwitz. At the end of July, he volunteered to be starved to death instead of one of ten inmates selected for punishment. He was killed by a lethal injection after spending two weeks in a starvation cell. Kolbe was declared a martyr and canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1982. (Full article...
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Florian Znaniecki
William I. Thomas, of the study, The Polish Peasant in Europe and America, which is considered the foundation of modern empirical sociology. He also made major contributions to sociological theory, introducing such terms as "humanistic coefficient" and "culturalism". (Full article...
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Przemysł II as imagined by Jan Matejko
Vladislaus the Elbow-high and Casimir II of Łęczyca. With much of Poland's territory under his rule, he decided to take the Polish throne; he was crowned by Świnka in Gniezno, in 1295. His reign was cut short nine months later, as he was murdered during a failed kidnapping attempt orchestrated by the margraves of Brandenburg. (Full article...
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