Stanisław Mikołajczyk

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Stanisław Mikołajczyk
Tadeusz Gede
Minister of Agriculture and Agricultural Reforms
In office
28 June 1945 – 6 February 1947
PresidentBolesław Bierut
Prime MinisterEdward Osóbka-Morawski
Preceded byEdward Bertold
Succeeded byJan Dąb-Kocioł
Leader of Polish People's Party
In office
31 October 1945 – 27 October 1947
Preceded byWincenty Witos
Succeeded byJózef Niećko
Personal details
Born18 July 1901
Dorsten, German Empire
Died13 December 1966 (aged 65)
Washington, D.C., United States
Political partyPeople's Party,
Polish People's Party

Stanisław Mikołajczyk (18 July 1901 – 13 December 1966;

Deputy Prime Minister
in post-war Poland until 1947.

Biography

Background and early life

Mikołajczyk's family came from Poznań in western Poland, which in the 19th century was part of the German Empire and known as the Province of Posen. He was born in Westphalia in western Germany, where his parents had gone to look for work in the wealthy mining regions, as many Poles—known as Ruhr Poles—did in the 19th century. He returned to Poznań as a boy of ten.

As a teenager, he worked in a

Polish Army and took part in the Polish–Soviet War. He was discharged after being wounded near Warsaw and returned to inherit his father's farm near Poznań
.

Early political career

In the 1920s Mikołajczyk became active in the

Polish People's Party "Piast" (PSL), and after holding a number of offices in the government of Poznań province, he was elected to the Sejm (the Polish Parliament) in 1929. In 1935 he became Vice-Chairman of the executive committee of the PSL, and in 1937 he became party President. He was an active opponent of the authoritarian regime established in Poland after the death of Józef Piłsudski
in 1935.

World War II

When

Stalin
then severed relations with the government in exile.

Prime Minister in exile

When Sikorski was killed in a plane crash in July 1943, Mikołajczyk was appointed as his successor.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke so finely. In any case, there is and will be no place in Poland for any kind of totalitarian
government in any shape or form."

However Mikołajczyk faced daunting challenges. It was obvious by this time that the Soviet armed forces, not those of the western Allies, would seize Poland from German occupation, and the Poles feared that Stalin intended both imposing

.

During 1944 the Allied leaders, particularly Winston Churchill, tried to bring about resumption talks between Mikołajczyk and Stalin, but these efforts broke down over several issues. One was the Katyń massacre. Another was Poland's postwar borders. Stalin insisted that the eastern territories should remain in Soviet hands. Mikołajczyk also opposed Stalin's plan to set up a Communist government in postwar Poland.

As a result, Stalin agreed that there would be a coalition government in the Soviet seized territories of Poland. A Socialist, Edward Osóbka-Morawski, became Prime Minister of the new Provisional Government of National Unity (Tymczasowy Rząd Jedności Narodowej – TRJN), and the Communist leader Władysław Gomułka became one of two Deputy Prime Ministers. Mikołajczyk resigned as Prime Minister of the government in exile to return to Poland and become the other Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Agriculture. Many of the Polish exiles opposed this action, believing that this government was a façade for the establishment of Communist rule in Poland. The government in exile maintained its existence, although it no longer had diplomatic recognition as the legal government of Poland.

Return to Poland

Following his return, Mikołajczyk immediately set about reviving the PSL, which soon became by far the largest party in Poland. Some have argued he was further aided by the radical land reform pushed through in accordance with the PPR's project, because it 'created a new class of small farmers who became a firm political base for the PSL'. Of course, Poland had been a largely rural society in any case and Mikołajczyk's programme was not a conservative smallholder programme. The Communists knew they would never win a free or fair election in Poland, and so they set about preventing one, despite the nominal pledges given by Stalin at the Yalta Conference.

In June 1946 the

January 1947 general elections
, the PSL was subjected to ruthless persecution, and hundreds of its candidates were prevented from campaigning.

From 1946 to 1948, military courts sentenced 32,477 people, most of them members of democratic parties for 'crimes against the state'. Only then the elections were held. In order to be sure that the elections would produce the 'correct' results, the Polish security apparatus recruited 47% of the members of electoral committees as agents.[5][6]

The elections produced a parliament with 394 seats for the Communist-controlled "

Democratic Bloc" and 28 for the PSL, a result which everyone knew could only be obtained through massive electoral fraud. Indeed, the opposition claimed that it would have won as much as 80 percent of the vote had the election been conducted in a fair manner.[7]

Later life

A monument to Stanisław Mikołajczyk in Poznań

Mikołajczyk, who would have likely become

Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University
.

A film, The Right to Vote (O Prawo Głosu, 2008, directed by Janusz Petelski), tells the story of Mikołajczyk's (played by Adam Ferency) struggle.

See also

Literature

  • Stanisław Mikołajczyk: The Rape of Poland: The Pattern of Soviet Aggression. Sampson Low, Martson & Co., LTD., London 1948. Whittlesey House, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1948 [1]
  • Andrzej Paczkowski: Stanislaw Mikołajczyk, czyli kleska realisty. Agencja Omnipress, Warszawa 1991,
  • Roman Buczek: Stanislaw Mikołajczyk. Century Publ. Co., Toronto 1996
  • Janusz Gmitruk: Stanislaw Mikołajczyk: trudny powrót. Muzeum Historii Polskiego Ruchu Ludowego, Warszawa 2002,

Further reading

  • Ferenc Nagy: The Struggle Behind the Iron Curtain. Translated by S. K. Swift. Macmillan, New York, 1948.
  • Jan Karski: Story of a Secret State. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston 1944.

References

  1. ^ Stanislaw Mikolajczyk The Pattern of Soviet Domination Sampson Low, Marston & Co 1948 Page 5
  2. ^ a b Stanislaw Mikolajczyk The Pattern of Soviet Domination Sampson Low, Marston & Co 1948 Page 6
  3. ^ Stanislaw Mikolajczyk The Pattern of Soviet Domination Sampson Low, Marston & Co 1948 Page 7
  4. Page 33
  5. ^ Laar, M. (2009). "The Power of Freedom. Central and Eastern Europe after 1945." Centre for European Studies, p. 38. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 November 2013. Retrieved 5 April 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. ^ Dariusz Baliszewski. "Wprost 24 – Demokracja urn". Wprost.pl. Archived from the original on 8 February 2009. Retrieved 22 August 2009.

External links

Political offices
Preceded by Prime Minister of the Polish Republic in Exile
1943–1944
Succeeded by