Tomasz Arciszewski

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Tomasz Arciszewski
Arciszewski in 1944
31st Prime Minister of Poland
3rd Prime Minister of Polish government in exile
In office
29 November 1944 – 2 July 1947
PresidentWładysław Raczkiewicz
August Zaleski
DeputyJan Kwapiński
Jan Stanisław Jankowski
Preceded byStanisław Mikołajczyk
Succeeded byTadeusz Bór-Komorowski
Personal details
Born4 November 1877
Sierzchowy, Piotrków Governorate, Congress Poland
Died20 November 1955(1955-11-20) (aged 78)
London, United Kingdom
Political partyPolish Socialist Party

Tomasz Stefan Arciszewski (Polish pronunciation: [ˈtɔmaʂ art͡ɕiˈʂɛfskʲi]; 4 November 1877 – 20 November 1955) was a Polish socialist politician, a member of the Polish Socialist Party and the 31st Prime Minister of Poland, 3rd Prime Minister of the Polish government-in-exile in London from 1944 to 1947 during which the government lost the recognition of the Western powers.

Early life

Tomasz Stefan Arciszewski was born in Sierzchowy, a tiny town halfway between Warsaw and Łódź, to Mikołaj Arciszewski, a veteran of the January Uprising, and Helena Młynarska.

After graduating from trade schools in Lubań and

Zagłębie. There in 1894, at the age of 17, he started working as a factory worker in a steel foundry, and first met social justice activists. In 1896 he joined the Polish Socialist Party (PPS) and soon afterwards took part in strike action, for which he was fired.[1]

Career

Initially active in

Bremen
, where he was one of the leaders of the Association of Polish Socialists in Exile. Despite being endangered with arrest by the tsarist police, Arciszewski returned to Poland in August 1900 and was arrested soon afterwards.

Released in 1903, Arciszewski returned to active service in the ranks of the socialists. He became one of the PPS' members used to develop the organization and structures of illegal party in poorly developed areas of Poland. He spent some time in

Podlaskie
.

In 1904 he joined the

Vilna
(Vilnius, Lithuania), where his unit expropriated circa 200,000 roubles.

In 1906 Arciszewski, along with Piłsudski, joined the newly found

Association of Active Struggle, a secret para-military organization. Shortly before the outbreak of the Great War
he left the Revolutionary Faction and became a member of the internal opposition within the socialist movement.

In August 1914 he joined the

Kingdom of Poland as part of the Central Powers' plan of Mitteleuropa
, Tomasz Arciszewski entered the city council of Warsaw. There he became the founder of trade unions and the editor of various socialist newspapers.

After the collapse of Germany and Austria-Hungary at the end of World War I, on 7 November 1918 Arciszewski was appointed the minister of labour and social affairs in the Provisional Government of the Polish Republic led by Ignacy Daszyński. After Daszyński's government passed its responsibilities to Piłsudski and the consolidation of power in all parts of Poland occurred, Arciszewski was appointed the minister of postal services and telegraphic communication in the government of Jędrzej Moraczewski. He served at that post until 16 January 1919. Soon afterwards he was elected a member of the Sejm.

During the

Polish-Bolshevik War
he organized various workers' voluntary units and supported the sabotage beneath Russian lines. After the war, in 1922 he was again elected member of the Sejm from the Socialist lists and held his post until 1935.

One of the most prominent leaders of the socialists (between 1919 and 1939 he was the member of the Main Council of the PPS), Arciszewski gradually broke up with his former colleague Piłsudski, who abandoned the socialist ideas after Poland regained her independence. This made him one of the prominent leaders of the Centrolew coalition of centrist and leftist parties. Apart from his seat in the Sejm, between 1919 and 1934, and then from 1938 until the outbreak of World War II, Arciszewski was a member of the Warsaw's city council. Among other duties, he was also the founder of the Workers' Society of Friends of Children.

After the outbreak of the

Polish Secret State headed by Jan Stanisław Jankowski
.

Shortly before the outbreak of the

April Constitution of 1935, on 7 August 1944 he was named by Władysław Raczkiewicz
as his successor.

Critical towards the pressure of the Soviet Union and Stanisław Mikołajczyk's attempts at compromise with Joseph Stalin, Arciszewski focused on trying to convince the Allied leaders (notably Winston Churchill) to help fighting Warsaw – to little avail. After Mikołajczyk's resignation, on 29 November 1944, Arciszewski became the Prime Minister of Poland and at the same time he became the minister of labour and welfare in his government.

He died on 20 November 1955 at aged 78, and is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London.

References

  1. ^ Aleksy Rżewski (1931). "Wódz bojowców (Tomasz Arciszewski)". W walce z trójzaborcami o Polskę Niepodległą. Wspomnienia (in Polish). Wydawnictwo Księgarni Łódzkiej "Czytaj", Łódź 1931 (made available by Lewicowo.pl). Retrieved 28 December 2012.

External links

Political offices
Preceded by
Stanislaw Mikolajczyk
Prime Minister of the Polish Republic in Exile
1944–1947
Succeeded by
Edward Osóbka-Morawski
(Prime Minister of the Communist Government in Poland)
or
Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski
(Prime Minister of the Polish Republic in Exile)