Establishment On 17 September 1939, the President of the
Polish Republic,
Ignacy Mościcki, who was then in the small town of
Kuty (now
Ukraine) near the southern Polish border, issued a proclamation about his plan to transfer power and appointing
Władysław Raczkiewicz, the
Marshal of the Senate, as his successor. This was done in accordance with Article 24 of the
Constitution of the Republic of Poland, adopted in April 1935. Article 24 provided as follows: It was not until 29 September 1939 that Mościcki resigned. Raczkiewicz, who was already in Paris, immediately took his constitutional oath at the Polish Embassy and became President of the Republic of Poland. Raczkiewicz then appointed General
Władysław Sikorski to be prime minister. After
Edward Rydz-Śmigły stepped down, Raczkiewicz also made Sikorski Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Armed Forces. Most of the Polish Navy escaped to Britain, and tens of thousands of Polish soldiers and airmen escaped through
Hungary and
Romania or across the
Baltic Sea to continue the fight in France. Many Poles subsequently took part in Allied operations: in
Norway (
Narvik), in France
in 1940 and
in 1944, in the
Battle of Britain, in the
Battle of the Atlantic, in North Africa (notably
Tobruk), Italy (notably at
Monte Cassino and
Ancona), at
Arnhem,
Wilhelmshaven, and elsewhere. Under the
Sikorski–Mayski agreement of July 1941 Polish soldiers taken prisoner by the
Soviet Union in 1939, were released to form
Anders' Army, intended to fight Nazi Germany in the USSR, but instead transferred via
Iran to fight with US and British forces.
Berling's Army, formed in the USSR in 1944, remained there and fought under Soviet command.
Wartime history , first Prime Minister of the Polish government in exile. The Polish government in exile, based first in Paris, then in
Angers, France, where
Władysław Raczkiewicz lived at the
Château de Pignerolle near Angers from 2 December 1939 until June 1940. Escaping from France, the government relocated to
London, where it was recognized by all the Allied governments. Politically, it was a coalition of the
Polish Peasant Party, the
Polish Socialist Party, the Labour Party and the
National Party, On 12 August 1941
the Kremlin signed a one-time amnesty, extending to thousands of Polish soldiers who had been taken prisoner in 1939 by the Red Army in eastern Poland, including many Polish civilian prisoners and deportees entrapped in Siberia. The amnesty allowed the Poles to create eight military divisions known as the
Anders Army. and, through its representatives, like the Foreign Minister Count
Edward Raczyński and the courier of the Polish Underground movement,
Jan Karski, called for action, without success, to stop it. The note the Foreign Minister, Count Edward Raczynski, sent on 10 December 1942 to the Governments of the United Nations was the first official denunciation by any Government of the mass extermination and of the Nazi aim of total extermination of the Jewish population. It was also the first official document singling out the sufferings of European Jews as Jews and not only as citizens of their respective countries of origin. The note of 10 December 1942 and the Polish Government efforts triggered the Declaration of the Allied Nations of 17 December 1942. (the German investigation later found 4,443 bodies) who had been taken prisoner in 1939 and murdered by the Soviets. The Soviet government said that the Germans had fabricated the discovery. The other Allied governments, for diplomatic reasons, formally accepted this; the Polish government in exile refused to do so. Stalin then severed relations with the Polish government in exile. Since it was clear that it would be the Soviet Union, not the western Allies, who would liberate Poland from the Germans, this breach had fateful consequences for Poland. In an unfortunate coincidence, Sikorski, widely regarded as the most capable of the Polish exile leaders, was
killed in an air crash at
Gibraltar in July 1943. He was succeeded as head of the Polish government in exile by
Stanisław Mikołajczyk. During 1943 and 1944, the Allied leaders, particularly
Winston Churchill, tried to bring about a resumption of talks between Stalin and the Polish government in exile. But these efforts broke down over several matters. One was the
Katyń massacre (and others at
Kalinin and
Kharkiv). Another was Poland's postwar borders. Stalin insisted that the territories annexed by the Soviets in 1939, which had millions of
Poles in addition to mostly
Ukrainian and
Belarusian populations, should remain in Soviet hands, and that Poland should be compensated with lands to be annexed from Germany. Mikołajczyk, however, refused to compromise on the question of Poland's sovereignty over her prewar eastern territories. A third matter was Mikołajczyk's insistence that Stalin would not set up a Communist government in postwar Poland. Mikołajczyk and his colleagues in the Polish government-in-exile insisted on making a stand in the defense of Poland's pre-1939 eastern border (retaining its
Kresy region) as a basis for the future Polish-Soviet border. However, this was a position that could not be defended in practiceStalin was in occupation of the territory in question. The government-in-exile's refusal to accept the proposed new Polish borders infuriated the Allies, particularly Churchill, making them less inclined to oppose Stalin on issues of how Poland's postwar government would be structured. In the end, the exiles lost on both issues: Stalin re-annexed the eastern territories, as well as proceeded to impose the communist
Polish Committee of National Liberation established on 22 July 1944 by renaming it into the
Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland on 31 December 1944. However, Poland preserved its status as an independent state, despite the arguments of some influential Communists, such as
Wanda Wasilewska, in favor of Poland becoming a republic of the Soviet Union. In November 1944, despite his mistrust of the Soviets, Mikołajczyk resigned to return to Poland.
Provisional Government of National Unity On 28 June 1945, Mikołajczyk took office in the
Provisional Government of National Unity, a new government established as a result of reshuffling the existing Provisional Government, established under the auspices of the Soviet occupation authorities, through inclusion of his fraction. This provided an excuse for the Western allies to approve tacitly the
fait accompli of Poland becoming part of the Soviet sphere of influence, and to legitimise the Warsaw government while withdrawing their recognition of the government-in-exile; France did so on 29 June 1945, Many Polish exiles opposed this action, believing that this government was a façade for the establishment of Communist rule in Poland. This view was later proven correct in 1947 when the Communist-dominated Democratic Bloc won
a rigged election. The Communist-dominated bloc was credited with over 80 percent of the vote, a result that was only obtained through large-scale fraud. The opposition claimed it would have won in a landslide (as much as 80 percent, by some estimates) had the election been genuine and Mikołajczyk would have likely become prime minister. In November, at a meeting with the Silesian society, Mikołajczyk was informed that he was to be arrested along with his advisor Paweł Zaleski. The arrest order was already signed. They immediately took the effort to escape. Mikołajczyk headed north, while Zaleski escaped through the southern channel. From the danger zone, Zaleski was taken away in a straw cart. His brother Jan Zaleski from Boyko helped in the escape. Paweł waited a few days with Mikołaj and his father-in-law, Aries of Kamionka in Korfantów near Głuchołazy, before a transfer was arranged. Then through the Czech Republic, Zaleski got to the west, and Mikołajczyk was taken by ship from Szczecin. This was their last stay in Poland.
Later postwar history Meanwhile, the Polish government in exile had maintained its existence. The London Poles had to vacate the Polish embassy on Portland Place and were left only with the president's private residence at 43 Eaton Place. The government in exile became largely symbolic of continued resistance to foreign occupation of Poland while retaining some important archives from prewar Poland. In 1954, political differences led to a split in the ranks of the government in exile. One group, claiming to represent 80% of 500,000 anti-Communist Poles exiled since the war, was opposed to President
August Zaleski's continuation in office when his seven-year term expired. It formed a
Council of National Unity in July 1954, and set up a
Council of Three to exercise the functions of head of state, comprising
Tomasz Arciszewski, General
Władysław Anders, and
Edward Raczyński. Only after Zaleski's death in 1972 did the two factions reunite. Some supporters of the government in exile eventually returned to Poland, such as Prime Minister
Hugon Hanke in 1955 and his predecessor
Stanisław Mackiewicz in 1956. The Soviet-installed government in Warsaw campaigned for the return of the exiles, promising decent and dignified employment in communist Polish administration and forgiveness of past transgressions. The
Republic of Ireland,
Francoist Spain and finally (on 19 October 1972) the
Holy See (
Vatican City) were the last countries to withdraw recognition of the government-in-exile, though diplomatic privileges had already been withdrawn by Vatican Secretary of State
Domenico Tardini in 1959. The liquidation of the London-based government apparatus was declared accomplished on 31 December 1991. In 1992, military medals and other decorations awarded by the government in exile were officially recognized in Poland. The Act on Emoluments of a Former President of the Republic of Poland adopted in 1996 which establishes the rights, privileges, remuneration and other benefits of a former president, awarded them explicitly also to the last President-in-exile. This clause was exhausted upon the death of Kaczorowski in the 2010
Smolensk plane crash near Smolensk. == Government and politics ==