Bolesław Wieniawa-Długoszowski


Bolesław Ignacy Florian Wieniawa-Długoszowski was a Polish general, adjutant to Chief of State Józef Piłsudski, politician, freemason, diplomat, poet, artist, and formally, for one day, President of the Republic of Poland. He was one of the generation that fought for, and saw, the rebirth of an independent Poland on 11/11/1918 only to see that independence lost again, following the 1939 division of Poland between Germany and the Soviet Union pursuant to the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.

To World War I

Bolesław Wieniawa-Długoszowski was born 22 July 1881 on his family's estate in Maksymówka near Stanisławów in Galicia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the son of Bolesław Długoszowski and Józefina, née Struszkiewicz. He had an elder brother Kazimierz and two sisters; Teofila the grandmother of Inka Bokiewicz, the girl who first adopted Wojtek the bear and Zofia.
In 1877 his family bought the manor house in Bobowa. Bobowa,, was a centre of Hassidic life in Poland. There were good relations between the Jews of Bobowa and the Długoszowski family. There Bolesław spent his early life. He attended secondary school in Lwów, then he moved to a school in Nowy Sącz, graduating in 1900. Subsequently he studied medicine at Jan Kazimierz University in Lwów, graduating with high distinction in 1906. In 1906 he married his first wife, the singer Stephania Calvas.
After these studies he moved to Berlin, where he spent a year studying at the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts . After completing his degree there in 1907, he moved to Paris, where he worked as a private physician.
Between 1907 and 1914, he lived in Montparnasse sharing to the full in the bohemian life of Paris, mixing with the Polish artist living there, many of whom were members of the Young Poland movement. In 1911 he was a founder, with the sculptor of the Association of Polish Artists. In 1912 he formed the "cercle parisien des sciences militaires" with, Andrzej Strug and others. The next year this group joined the main Riflemen's Association, where he met Józef Piłsudski in December 1913.

1914–42

In 1914 he moved to Kraków and joined the First Cadre Company which fought on the Austro-Hungarian side against Russia. In October 1914 he became a commander of a platoon of a squadron in. During the fighting in 1914–1915 he was promoted to lieutenant, and after the war he was awarded the V-Class Virtuti Militari. In August 1915 he moved to the special group in Warsaw. Soon he became an aide-de-camp to Józef Piłsudski. In 1918, he was sent on a mission to Russia. He was given three tasks; to persuade General Józef Haller's army, then in the Ukraine, to back Piłsudski , to reach the French military mission in Moscow under General Lavergne and to return from Moscow to Paris to liaise with the government there. Unfortunately he was arrested by the Soviet Cheka as a member of the Polish Military Organisation while on a French diplomatic train on its way from Moscow to Murmansk. He was imprisoned in the Taganka prison. He was freed thanks to the intervention of his future wife Bronisława Wieniawa-Długoszowska with the much feared Cheka operative Yakovleva, then in charge of the prison. Bronisława was at that time married to the lawyer, the lawyer of Felix Dzerzhinsky, the head of the Cheka. She was a Lutheran, her family having converted from the Jewish faith when she was eight.
As aide-de-camp of Józef Piłsudski during the Polish-Soviet War he helped him organize the Vilna Operation and Battle of Warsaw. He was also a commander of 1st Cavalry Division. After the war, Wieniawa was awarded many medals.
Throughout the inter-war years, he was a key figure in Warsaw literary and social life. He had a table reserved for him with leading Warsaw literary figures, such as Julian Tuwim and Jan Lechoń, at the mezzanine of the café. In a famous anecdote, Aleksander Wat recounts how, when Wat was imprisoned, by the government of the Second Polish Republic for his literary activities, he received, in prison, a hamper of vodka and caviar from Wieniawa. The purpose of this story, in Wat's memoirs "My century", is to contrast his treatment at the hands of the Second Polish Republic with the vicious and barbaric treatment he was to receive in Soviet prisons during the war.
In November 1921 Wieniawa became the Polish military attaché in Bucharest, Romania. He was associated with making the Polish-Romanian convention which was signed in 1922. In 1926 he passed his exams in High War School. He soon became a commander of – the most prestigious and representative Polish cavalry division, which he commanded it until 1930.
During the May Coup of 1926 he was one of Piłsudski's officers who helped him to organize the coup.
In 1930–32 he was commander of I Cavalry Division and, for some time, of II Cavalry Division. In 1932 he was promoted by President Ignacy Mościcki to the rank of. He was commander of the, from 1932 to 14 May 1938. In 1938 he was promoted to Major-General,. From 1938 to 13 June 1940, he was the Polish Ambassador in Rome.

One-day presidency

On 17 September 1939, he was nominated president of Poland by retiring President Ignacy Mościcki. On the same day, Poland was invaded by the Soviet Union and he took the train from Rome to Paris to take on his new role. His appointment was published in the Official Journal, Monitor Polski, on 25 September 1939. His appointment was blackballed by the French Third Republic and also opposed by Władysław Sikorski. After the capitulation of France, he emigrated to New York travelling via Lisbon.
Many sources do not list Wieniawa as President, merely "designated successor". However, according to the then constitution, when the President cannot execute his powers, the designated successor automatically became President.
After receiving appointment or becoming President, Wieniawa asked Cardinal August Hlond to become Prime Minister. Hlond refused, referring to Wieniawa as "Mr. President".
Also, in a press statement from President Lech Wałęsa's press secretary on 21 September 1994, to Dziennik Polski Wieniawa-Długoszowski was referred to as one of the legitimate Presidents in Exile.
According to some opinions, Mościcki had meant to pass his office to Wieniawa-Długoszowski as caretaker, until the office could be assumed by a candidate acceptable to both Sanacja and opposition circles, General Kazimierz Sosnkowski, whose whereabouts were unknown in September 1939. Finally, after Wieniawa's resignation, a compromise candidate, Władysław Raczkiewicz, was chosen.

Death

Once in the USA, Wieniawa settled in New York. Unable to get any position in the Polish army from Sikorski, he moved to Detroit, where he was appointed editor-in-chief of Frank Januszewski's Dziennik Polski . Finally, on 18 April 1942, Sikorski appointed Wieniawa minister plenipotentiary to the governments of Cuba, San Domingo, and Haiti, based in Havana. On 20 June 1942 the National Committee of Americans of Polish Extraction was founded in New York, with Wieniawa listed as a founder. KNAPP was strongly in favor of retaining Poland's Eastern territories, was critical of Sikorski, and was entirely distrustful of Stalin. Wieniawa, after moving back to New York, caught between these two opposing forces, committed suicide on 1 July 1942. Some sources say he committed suicide by leaping from an upper story of his New York city residence, but the exact details of his death are debated among historians. He left a suicide note. One month later, on 14 August 1942, the Jewish ghetto in his home village of Bobowa was liquidated; about 700 inhabitants were killed in a mass execution in the Garbacz Forest.
Wieniawa's remains were brought back to Kraków for reburial in the Rakowicki Cemetery, on 27 September 1990, where he now lies with his fallen comrades from the World War I Polish Legions.

Honours and awards

Polish