| Wladyslaw Eugeniusz Sikorski |
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| Gdy Sloneczko wyzej. When the sun is higher, Sikorski is nearer. These words exemplify the collective aspirations and dreams of the Polish people, in the man who championed the cause of Polish independence. Wladyslaw Eugenius Sikorski is remembered as one of the most respected and most successful Polish Prime Ministers in exile. His struggle for Poland's independence began in 1907 when Poland was still partitioned by the three great powers; Russia, Germany (Prussia), and Austria. Sikorski joined the underground Polish Socialist Party, and organized the " Combat Association ", one of many secret resistance movements aimed at launching an uprising against the Russian Empire. |
When World War II broke out Sikorski became Chief of the Military Department in the Polish Committee. Then later, as Commissioner of the Polish Legions in Krakow ( an army created by Jozef Pilsudski ), he officiated over recruitment. Pilsudski and Sikorski were eventually interned at Magdeburg, by the Austro-Hungarian army for their refusal to swear an oath of allegiance to the Austro-Hungarian emperor. Sikorski served with distinction in World War I, and in the new Polish army during the Polish-Soviet War (1919-1921), particularly in the Battle of Warsaw. In the Second Polish Republic, Sikorski held the position of Prime Minister (1922-1923), and Minister of Military Affairs (1923-1924). He was popular among the Polish people for the reforms he instituted, and for improving Poland's foreign policy initiatives. Sikorski was a democrat, and a staunch supporter of the Sejm (Parliament). During Pilsudski's coup d'etat in May 1926, Sikorski remained neutral but soon joined the ranks of those who were opposed to Pilsudski's harsh regime. In 1928, Pilsudski dismissed Sikorski from public service. Since then, and in the years leading up to World War II, Sikorski resided in Paris, and spent much of his time writing on the subject of the future of warfare. In his most prominent work, entitled " War in the Future: Its possibilities and charachter and associated questions of national defence ", Sikorski was the first to introduce the concept of the Blitzkreig theory. In 1938, as the political situation in Europe was rapidly deteriorating, Sikorski returned to Poland to serve his country. When Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, Sikorski escaped to France, travelling through Rumania and joined President Raczkiewicz, and Stanislaw Mikolajczyk in Paris, to form the Polish government-in-exile. Tens of thousands of Polish armed forces, and navy, also escaped to France. Many soldiers went by ship, train, or car and some even made the perilous journey on foot, or skied across the Carpathian mountains. They were not refugees, but combattants with one goal in mind - to remobilize and fight for Poland's freedom. The Polish armed forces regrouped in France and French-mandated Syria. More troops were arriving every day having escaped from occupied Roumania. At that time Poland was the third most powerful ally, showing a military strength of more than 80,000 troops in France alone. When Marshall Henri Petain capitulated, the armistice he signed stipulated that France was to prevent the evacuation of Polish troops. The French Commander-in-Chief General Maxine Weygard ordered to Poles to lay down their weapons. Prime Minister Sikorski refused to capitulate. Within days, he had flown to England and met with Prime Minister Churchill. On August 5, 1940, they signed a Military Agreement, by which Britain pledged to help Poland evacuate its' forces from France, and consolidate their armies under the command of the British Eighth Army. Churchill assured Sikorski, " Tell your army in France that we are their comrades in life and in death. We shall conquer together or we shall die together.". On Sikorski's command, the Polish military started heading for ports in southern France, and waited for British and Polish ships to arrive. Polish pilots headed for the airfields but French authorities had guards posted on the tarmac forbidding the Poles to board the planes. About 75% of the Polish Air Force was able to make it to England. Of the ground troops, approximately 20,000 troops were able to escape. The remainder, who had fought for France before she capitulated, were captured by the Nazis, and interned in concentration camps. England, already home to the exiled governments of five Nazi-occupied countries, now welcomed a sixth - Poland. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, it changed the balance of power. The Soviets were suddenly transformed from the enemy, to that of ally of the West. At the urgings of the British government, Sikorski began negotiations with Ivan Maisky to re-open diplomatic relations between Poland and Russia, and signed the Sikorski-Maisky agreement. (Russian subsequently nullified the Ribbentrop-Molotov agreement made with Germany in August 1939.) According to the Polish-Soviet agreement, Stalin promised to release tens of thousands of Polish prisoners from Soviet camps. Of the 1.5 mlllion Poles that were deported to the gulag by the Soviets in 1939, only about 100,000 were released. These men were to become the II Polish Corps, under the command of General Wladyslaw Anders. Despite Stalin' s agreement to release the Polish prisoners, he ordered his NKVD agents to prevent as many Polish refugees as possible from reaching the army checkpoints. Many Poles were ordered off transports in the middle of nowhere, and left stranded as their transports left without them. Thousands of Poles died in the bitter sub-zero temperatures. Thousands more walked the distance and died from starvation and exhaustion. Having reached the sanctuary of the army checkpoint the refugees faced more difficulties under the Soviets. Stalin agreed only to provide enough food rations for about 26,000 refugees - there were over 100,000 military and civilians. The situation was critical and promised to get worse. General Anders negotiated for an immediate evacuation of troops from Russian soil, and from there they recouped in the Middle East, to recover and commence training. |