WŁADYSŁAW SIKORSKI
THE SUCCESSFUL SOLDIER WHO BECAME POLAND’S TENTH PRIME MINISTER 1881-1943 POLAND
The son of a school teacher and born in an area of southeast Poland that was then part of Austria-hungary, Sikorski was involved in the underground Polish independence movement before WWI. He received an Austro-hungarian military education, and upon the outbreak of war in 1914 he was mobilised into the Polish Legions. These units were created to liberate Poland from Russia through service in the Austro-hungarian Army, but by 1917 Sikorski refused to swear allegiance to the Habsburgs.
When Poland became independent in 1918, Sikorski organised the new Polish Army as a high-ranking officer. When the Polish-soviet War broke out he commanded the 9th Infantry Division and participated in the Kiev Offensive of April 1920. He was soon promoted to the rank of brigade general, and took command of 5th Army. This force fought with distinction during the Battle of Warsaw, where Sikorski’s forces launched a
counterattack against the advancing
Soviets north of the Polish capital. The
5th Army’s successful action gave Józef Piłsudski’s main force time to launch the main counteroffensive for the battle, which ended with a decisive Polish victory.
After Warsaw, Sikorski commanded the 3rd Army and took the Belarussian city of Pinsk. His forces then participated in later battles of the war such as Lwów, Zamosc and the Niemen. At the war’s conclusion he was promoted to divisional general and awarded Poland’s highest decoration – the Order of Virtuti Militari – in 1921.
The war made Sikorski a Polish national hero, and he soon entered politics serving as Poland’s prime minister during 1922-23 and subsequently the Minister of Military Affairs. Although his time as prime minister was brief, he was able to secure foreign recognition of Poland’s new eastern borders from Britain, France and the United States. He also enhanced the standing of the Second Polish Republic within the League of Nations.