HISTORY

The Politican of the hopeless position

Stanisław Mikołajczyk was a front-page politician, a worthy activist in the peasant movement, a colleague of the charismatic Wincenty Witos, and a man who twice in his life occupied the highest post in the land, yet on both occasions stood in a hopeless position.

He was the son of a Wielkopolanin working in Westphalia, from where the family returned to Wielkopolska to live in Strzyżewo. In 1919, Stanisław Mikołajczyk took part in the Wielkopolska Rising, and later ran farms in Wielkopolska, including a farm in Międzylesie, near Wągrowiec.

In the interwar period, Stanisław Mikołajczyk was one of the most dynamic activists of the Polish Peasants Party (PSL) "Piast", and a Member of Parliament with centrist views. He was a supporter of agricultural reform and a firm opponent of communism, yet shared no common language with politicians of the Piłsudski camp. For this reason, he kept in contact with the peasant leader Wincenty Witos, who was in exile abroad, and with the opposition Morges Front, led by Ignacy Jan Paderewski. It is interesting that Mikołajczyk, although a Wielkopolanin and anti-Piłsudski, did not identify with National Democracy.

These views opened the way to the highest posts in the Polish Govern- ment-in-exile, following the disastrous events of September 1939. He took up the functions of deputy leader, and then leader of the National Council of the Polish Republic. He became Vice-Secretary, then Secretary of State for Internal Affairs, and in November 1944 was appointed Prime Minister of the Polish Government-in-exile.

Thus began the first phase of an extremely difficult period, when Stanisław Mikołajczyk had to stand up to both internal government opposition and to the position of the British authorities, who, in executing their responsibilities as one of the Allies, rejected, in advance, any support for Polish independence and territorial aspirations. He immediately found himself in a hopeless position, trying to retain at least a minimum of sovereignty for the Polish Government in the taking of decisions which affected its own country. Nevertheless, his was a realistic assessment of the situation and, although he was forced to resign from his post, as a result of his support for the decisions arising from Tehran, he worked on the premise that it was essential to save whatever could be saved - but from inside the country.

In 1945, on the back of the Moscow Agreement, Stanisław Mikołajczyk returned to Poland, taking up the position of Deputy Prime Minister. At the head of the newly-formed PSL, he attempted to uphold democratic principles in the governing of the State - yet, here too, up against the Stalinist methods, he was doomed to failure before he even began. He was active throughout Poland (especially popular in his home region), his characteristic profile in the trademark poplin coat visible virtually everywhere. Unlike Witos, he did not stress his country roots - he was both a farmer and, at the same time, a politician. And then he lost: virtually at the very last minute before his arrest and judgement, he managed to flee the country. Only now, in the year 2000, is he returning, to lie in rest in the Cemetery of Worthy Citizens of Wielkopolska. Previously, in May 1997, a monument was erected to this activist and patriot, in front of the Provincial Administration building in Poznań, and his memory was also commemorated in Dobrzyca, in the south of Wielkopolska.

Today, one can say that Stanisław Mikołajczyk was probably the last contemporary politician with the soul of a romantic. He believed in law and order and in the workings of democracy, failing to foresee the crushing power of the influences of international politics. Now he is returning to his homeland, clearly with the deserved reputation of a patriot and a hero.

Marek Rezler