President of Poland from 1926 to 1939
Ignacy Mo?cicki
(
Polish pronunciation:
[i??nats?
m???t?itsk?i]
ⓘ
; 1 December 1867 – 2 October 1946) was a Polish
chemist
and politician who was the
country's president
from 1926 to 1939. He was the longest serving president in Polish history.
[2]
Mo?cicki was the President of Poland when
Germany
invaded the country
on
1 September 1939
and started
World War II
.
Early life and career
[
edit
]
Mo?cicki was born on 1 December 1867 in
Mierzanowo
, a small village near
Ciechanow
,
Congress Poland
. After completing school in
Warsaw
, he studied
chemistry
at the
Riga Polytechnicum
, where he joined the Polish underground leftist organization,
Proletariat
.
[3]
Upon graduating, he returned to
Warsaw
but was threatened by the
Tsarist secret police
with life imprisonment in
Siberia
and was forced to emigrate in 1892 to London. In 1896, he was offered an assistantship at the
University of Fribourg
in Switzerland. There, he patented a method for cheap industrial production of
nitric acid
.
In 1912, Mo?cicki moved to
Lviv
(
Polish
:
Lwow
), in the
Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria
, in
Austria-Hungary
, where he accepted a chair in
physical chemistry
and technical
electrochemistry
at the
Lviv Polytechnic
.
[4]
In 1925, he was elected
rector
of the
Lwow Polytechnic
(as it was then called), but soon moved to
Warsaw
to continue his research at the
Warsaw Polytechnic
. In 1926, he became an Honorary Member of the
Polish Chemical Society
.
[5]
Presidency
[
edit
]
After
Jozef Piłsudski
's
May 1926 coup d'etat
on 1 June 1926, Mo?cicki, once an associate of Piłsudski in the
Polish Socialist Party
, was elected
President of Poland
by the
National Assembly
on the recommendation of Piłsudski, who had refused the post for himself.
[6]
As president, Mo?cicki was subservient to Piłsudski and never openly showed dissent from any aspect of the
Marshal
's leadership. After Piłsudski's death in 1935, his followers divided into three main factions: those supporting Mo?cicki as Piłsudski's successor, those supporting General
Edward Rydz-?migły
and those supporting Prime Minister
Walery Sławek
.
With a view to eliminating Sławek from the game, Mo?cicki concluded a power-sharing agreement with Rydz-?migły, which had caused Sławek to be marginalised as a serious political player by the end of the year. As a result of the agreement, Rydz-?migły would become the
de facto
leader of Poland until the outbreak of the war, and Mo?cicki remained influential by continuing in office as president.
Mo?cicki was the leading moderate figure in the regime, which was referred to as the "
colonels' government
" because of the major presence of military officers in the Polish government. Mo?cicki opposed many of the nationalist excesses of the more right-wing Rydz-?migły, but their pact remained more or less intact.
Mo?cicki remained president until September 1939, when he was interned in
Romania
[7]
after the German invasion of Poland and was forced by France to resign his office. He transferred the office to General
Bolesław Wieniawa-Długoszowski
, who held it for only one day before General
Władysław Sikorski
and the French government ousted him in favour of
Władysław Raczkiewicz
.
Later life
[
edit
]
Mo?cicki was planning to leave for
Switzerland
after leaving office as president. From 1908 to 1920, he was a citizen of Switzerland; he was also an honorary citizen of
Fribourg
. The Romanian authorities gave their provisional consent to his departure, but
Germany
opposed it. Mo?cicki was offered to
United States
President
Franklin Roosevelt
, who was determined to have Mo?cicki go to Switzerland. The intervention of the US government forced the Romanian authorities to agree. General Sikorski also ordered the Polish embassy in
Bucharest
to provide all assistance to Mo?cicki. The president stayed in
Romania
until December 1939.
[8]
Mo?cicki came to Switzerland through
Milan
, where he met with Wieniawa-Długoszowski. Initially, he lived in
Fribourg
, where he was allowed to continue his scientific work. During this period, among others, he wrote down his memories, which were published by the
New York City
magazine
Independence
. Mo?cicki donated money to soldiers of the
Polish Army
in
France
, Warsaw residents in
prisoner-of-war camps
,
concentration camps
and
labour camps
. For five months, he taught at the
University of Fribourg
. Later, he was forced to take up paid work. In 1940, he moved to
Geneva
, where he worked in the Hydro-Nitro Chemical Laboratory.
Mo?cicki's health deteriorated rapidly after 1943. He died on 2 October 1946, in
Versoix
, near
Geneva
.
Legacy
[
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]
In 1984, his descendants requested for the remains of Mo?cicki and his wife to be moved from
Switzerland
to
Poland
. The relevant Polish authorities agreed that a funeral was to be held in
Warsaw
and be completely private, without any state ceremonies. However, the authorities of the Canton of Geneva in Switzerland withdrew their agreement for political reasons after protests related to
Solidarity
from emigrants. In 1993, Mo?cicki's remains were transported, on behalf of incumbent President
Lech Wał?sa
, to Poland and deposited in the
crypt
of
St. John's Archcathedral, Warsaw
. Mo?cicki's symbolic grave is located in the Avenue of Merit at the
Pow?zki Cemetery
in
Warsaw
, where his second wife is buried next to him.
[9]
Gallery
[
edit
]
-
President of Poland in around 1928
-
Polish president
on presidential yacht in
Augustow
, 1932
-
President Mo?cicki in his office, 1934
-
April's Constitution
-
Session of the Polish Academy of Literature in 1933
-
Plaque commemorating Mo?cicki's stay as a refugee in the
Mihail Constantine Palace
in Romania.
See also
[
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]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
"Last Prewar President Buried in Poland"
.
Los Angeles Times
. 14 September 1993.
- ^
August Zaleski
was president of the
Polish Government in Exile
for 25 years, from 1947 to his death.
- ^
"Ignacy Mo?cicki - prezydent Piłsudskiego"
. Retrieved
23 February
2020
.
- ^
Norman Davies
,
God's Playground
, vol. II, Oxford University Press, 1986,
ISBN
0-19-821944-X
, p. 422.
- ^
"President of honour and honorary members of PTChem"
. Retrieved
23 February
2020
.
- ^
"Ignacy Mo?cicki (1867-1946)"
. Retrieved
23 February
2020
.
- ^
Stanislaw Mikolajczyk
,
The Pattern of Soviet Domination
, Sampson Low, Marston & Co., 1948, p. 6.
- ^
"Ignacy Mo?cicki - prezydent Piłsudskiego"
. Retrieved
23 February
2020
.
- ^
"Ignacy Mo?cicki - prezydent Piłsudskiego"
. Retrieved
23 February
2020
.
External links
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