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Concept
Stanisław Mikołajczyk
Summary
Stanisław Mikołajczyk (18 July 1901 – 13 December 1966; staˈɲiswav mikɔˈwajt͡ʂɨk) was a Polish politician. He was a Prime Minister of the Polish government in exile during World War II, and later Deputy Prime Minister in post-war Poland until 1947.
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 sugar beet refinery and was active in Polish patriotic organisations. He was 18 when Poland recovered its independence, and in 1920 he joined the 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.
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.
When Nazi Germany invaded Poland in September of 1939, Mikołajczyk was a private in the Polish army, and served in the defence of Warsaw. After the fall of Warsaw he escaped to Hungary, where he was interned. He soon escaped and made his way to Paris via Yugoslavia and Italy. By the end of November, Mikołajczyk had reached France where he was immediately asked to join the Polish government in exile as deputy Chairman of the Polish National Council. In 1941 he was appointed Minister of the Interior and became Prime Minister Władysław Sikorski's Deputy Prime Minister.
Official source
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