Edward Bernard Raczyński

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Count Edward Bernard Raczyński
President of Poland
President-in-exile
In office
8 April 1979 – 8 April 1986
Prime MinisterKazimierz Sabbat
Preceded byStanisław Ostrowski
Succeeded byKazimierz Sabbat
Minister of the Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland
2nd Minister in Exile
In office
22 August 1941 – 14 July 1943
PresidentWładysław Raczkiewicz
Prime MinisterWładysław Sikorski, Stanisław Mikołajczyk
Preceded byAugust Zaleski
Succeeded byTadeusz Romer
Poland Ambassador to the United Kingdom
In office
1 November 1934 – 5 July 1945
Appointed byIgnacy Mościcki
MonarchGeorge V
Edward VIII
George VI
Preceded byKonstanty Skirmunt
Succeeded byHenryk Strasburger
Personal details
Born(1891-12-19)19 December 1891
Zakopane, Austro-Hungary (now Poland)
Died30 July 1993(1993-07-30) (aged 101)
London, United Kingdom [1]
Political partyIndependent
Spouse(s)Lady Joyous Markham (died)
Cecylia Jaroszyńska (died)
Aniela Lilpop
ProfessionPolitician, Diplomat, Writer

Count Edward Bernard Raczyński (19 December 1891 – 30 July 1993) was a Polish diplomat, writer, politician, President of Poland-in-exile (between 1979 and 1986).

He was the longest living (101), and oldest serving Polish President (from the age of 88 to 95).

Biography[edit]

Relief of the Raczyński family comital coat of arms
Nalecz coat of arms

Count Edward Bernard Maria Raczyński was born on 19 December 1891 in Zakopane to a Polish aristocratic family. His father was Count Edward Aleksander Raczyński of Nałęcz coat of arms, and his mother Róża née Countess Potocka. The Raczyńskis were related to the Austro-Hungarian house of Habsburgs. The full name was "Raczyński z Małyszyna", as they were a branch of the noble family Nałęcz-Małyski from Greater Poland (the area of the town of Wieluń) and about 1540 took their name from the estate of Raczyn near Wieluń. However, the Raczyńskis remained relatively unknown until the 18th century, when four of them became Senators of Poland under different reigns. One of the Raczyńskis became a Knight of the Order of the White Eagle during the reign of King August the Strong, six of them were awarded the Virtuti Militari order during the time of Duchy of Warsaw and three received the same distinction during the November Uprising of 1831. The title of Count was awarded to different branches of the family by Prussian Kings Friedrich Wilhelm III (in 1824) and Wilhelm II (in 1905). One of their kin was a Knight of the highest Prussian Order of the Black Eagle.

Raczyński spent most of his childhood in Kraków, in the family palace Pod Baranami and in the family palace in Rogalin in Greater Poland. He studied law in Leipzig, Kraków, and London (the London School of Economics) and was awarded with a doctorate of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków in 1915. In November 1918, Raczynski joined the army of the resuscitated Poland, from which he was called to the diplomatic service in May 1919. Until 1925, he worked in Polish embassies and missions in Bern, Copenhagen and London. Back in Warsaw, he became the head of the department of international agreements. In 1932, Raczyński was appointed Polish ambassador to the League of Nations and in 1934 he became the ambassador of the Republic of Poland in the United Kingdom.

The two British politicians whom Raczyński was most close to were Sir Samuel Hoare and Winston Churchill.[2] However, the reasons for the interest of Hoare and Churchill differed. Hoare was an ardent appeaser who favored a deal under which Poland would allow the Free City of Danzig to rejoin Germany while returning the Polish Corridor and Upper Silesia to the Reich. Churchill by contrast favored a "Grand Alliance" against Nazi Germany.

During the Sudetenland crisis of 1938, Raczyński reported to his superior, the Foreign Minister Colonel Józef Beck that Poland's stance in pressing its claim to the disputed Teschen region had made a negative impression both with the British government and the British public.[3] The Polish historian Anita Praźmowska wrote that despite the way that the government of Neville Chamberlain had favored the German claim to the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia that the Chamberlain cabinet regarded Poland's actions in pressing its claims to the Teschen region of Czechoslovakia as a treacherous and base action.[3] On 9 December 1938, the British Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax told Raczyński that he wanted to see the League of Nations end its role as the protector of the current status of the Free City of Danzig (modern Gdańsk) by 16 January 1939.[3] The United Kingdom was one of the veto-holding permanent members of the League Council (the executive arm of the League analogous to the Security Council of the United Nations) and thus had much say in the running of the League. The decision to have Carl Jacob Burckhardt, the League of Nations high commissioner for Danzig, pulled out created much alarm in Warsaw as the end of the League's role in protecting Danzig's status would end international involvement in the Danzig question and reduce the issue down to a bilateral German-Polish dispute.[3] Raczyński protested very strongly that Poland wanted the League to continue its role in Danzig and succeeded in the having the question postponed..[3]

In March 1939, the "Tilea Affair" led to increased Anglo-German tensions as the Romanian minister in London, Virgil Tilea, claimed that Romania was on the brink of a German invasion. Germany had no source of oil of its own (through German scientists were working on a project to build refineries for artificial oil) and Germany's need to import oil from abroad left the Reich very vulnerable to a British naval blockade.[4] From the British perspective if Germany were to occupy Romania, it would have its own source of oil that would immune to a British naval blockade, hence Tilea's claims of an imminent German invasion caused much alarm in London.[4] The defense policies of the Chamberlain government and the Baldwin government before it had been based on the "limited liability" doctrine on which the bulk of British defense spending was to go to the Royal Air Force, to be followed by the Royal Navy and the British Army to be placed last. Under the "limited liability" doctrine the British Army was to serve as a glorified colonial police force just strong to put down uprisings in the colonies of the British empire and would be too small to ever make the "continental commitment" (sending a large expeditionary force to the continent of Europe) again. As a result of the "limited liability" doctrine, the British Army was far too limited, small and underfunded to face the Wehrmacht, and as such Britain would need help to save Romania.[4] As such, the British government asked Poland to save Romania.[4] Romania and Poland had signed an defensive alliance in 1921 directed against the Soviet Union, but it remained unclear if Poland would go to war if German invaded Romania. France and Romania had signed a defensive alliance in 1926, but it was widely that the French Army would remain behind the Maginot Line in the event of war, which would not stop the Reich from overrunning Romania. At a cabinet meeting on 18 March 1939, Lord Halifax pressed for Britain to save Romania while the minister of the co-ordination of defense, Admiral Chatfield stated the British Army was too weak to do anything for Romania and that the two other nations that could save Romania were Poland and the Soviet Union.[5] The British government sent out appeals to the governments of Poland, the Soviet Union, Greece, Yugoslavia and Turkey asking to join some sort of an alliance to protect Romania.[5] In response, on 24 March 1939 Raczyński submitted to Lord Halifax a proposal asking for Anglo-Polish "consultation" in response to any threat to security of Poland, which was rejected by Lord Halifax who wanted a firm Polish commitment to save Romania.[6] On behalf of Poland, he signed the Polish-British alliance[7] (25 August 1939) which ultimately led the United Kingdom to declare war on Nazi Germany after the country's invasion.

World War II[edit]

Last page "Raczyński's Note" - official note of Polish government-in-exile to Anthony Eden 10 December 1942.

Following the 1 September 1939 German Invasion of Poland Raczyński remained in London where he continued to serve as the ambassador of the Polish Government in Exile and one of its prominent members. On 18 September 1939, Colonel Beck sent out a message to all Polish ambassadors around the world stating the Polish government had decided to leave Poland along with much as the Polish Army as possible via Romania with the intention of going to France to continue the war.[8] In response, Germany issued a threat stating that it regarded the droit de passage of the Polish government across Romania as a violation of Romanian neutrality and threatened to invade Romania.[9] Raczyński lobbied Lord Halifax to pressure King Carol II to assure the Poles the droit de passage, saying the continual existence of a Polish government in exile was crucial to the survival of his country.[10] To provide the Romanians with a face-saving excuse, Raczyński devised a plan under President Ignacy Mościcki would resign and name as a successor a Pole in France.[10]

When the Polish government-in-exile arrived in London, Raczyński's importance vastly increased as he was one of the few Polish officials fluent in English and as the long-time Polish ambassador to the court of St. James was the Polish official best known to British officials.[11] The German historian Julia Eichenberg described wartime London as "a sort of capital for free Europe" as London hosted the governments-in-exile for Poland, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Greece along with the French National Committee that represented Free France.[12] During the war, Raczyński often negotiated with Edvard Beneš, the president of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile along with Hubert Ripka and Jaromír Smutný about the future relations between Poland and Czechoslovakia.[13] Another leader whom Raczyński was in frequent contact was Paul-Henri Spaak, the foreign minister of the Belgian government-in-exile and an advocate of a federation to be called the United States of Europe to be created after the war.[14] Significantly Raczyński later entitled his 1962 memoirs In Allied London, which reflected that he negotiated just as much with the other governments-in-exile as he did with the British government.[14]

Between 22 July 1941 and 14 July 1943 he was also the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs in the cabinet of Władysław Sikorski. In this capacity, he provided the Allies with one of the earliest and most accurate accounts of the ongoing Holocaust ("The Mass Extermination of Jews in German Occupied Poland", Raczyński's Note addressed to the Governments of the United Nations on 10 December 1942")[15] and pleaded for action.[16][17]

In July 1944, Raczyński told the British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden that Warsaw was on the brink of a rebellion and stated that the Polish government-in-exile would soon start Operation Tempest, a plan for the AK (Armia Krajowa-Home Army) to rise up to seize Warsaw as it was reported that German forces were pulling out of Warsaw.[18] Raczyński also asked that the BBC's German language service should broadcast a message asking for the Germans to treat the AK as legitimate soldiers entitled to being treated as prisoners of war and not summarily execute captured members of the AK as they usually did as the Germans insist that the AK were guerrillas who were operating outside of the laws of war.[18]

Later life[edit]

After 1945, when the government of the United Kingdom broke the pacts with Poland and withdrew support for the Polish government, Raczyński remained in London, where he acted as one of the most notable members of Polish diaspora there. He was active in various political and social organisations in exile, including the Fundusz Pomocy Krajowi (Help for the Country Fund) which actively supported the democratic opposition in communist-controlled Poland. Between 1954 and 1972 he was one of the members of the Council of the Three, the collective presidential body of the Polish government in exile. He was also a member of the Committee for Polish Affairs and an advisor of various British governmental agencies and ministries.

Sarcophagus of President Edward Raczyński in Rogalin

In March 1979, Raczyński became president in exile, after being previously chosen by the outgoing President Stanisław Ostrowski. In turn, he chose as his successor Prime Minister Kazimierz Sabbat.

During the Raczyński presidency (1979–1986) the Solidarity movement was established in Poland. Raczyński played an important role in raising awareness about the events in Poland in Western countries and in establishing closer ties with the opposition movement in Poland.

President Raczyński at some point considered naming Władysław Bartoszewski as his successor, as he wanted to choose someone "from the country" and with strong ties to the Polish opposition movement. Bartoszewski, however, declined the offer.[19]

After serving a 7-year term he resigned from his post on 8 April 1986. He was the last Polish President-in-Exile who had held an important office during the era of the 2nd Republic: his successors, Kazimierz Sabbat and Ryszard Kaczorowski were in their twenties at the outset of the Second World War.[20] As he left office he received a praise for reuniting the Polish political emigration and reshaping the Government in exile.[21]

Death and legacy[edit]

Raczyński died on 30 July 1993 at his home in London, the last male descendant of his line. His coffin was placed in the mausoleum of his family located at the chapel in Rogalin. In his last will and testament, Count Raczyński bequeathed his family's palace in Rogalin, and his library to the Polish nation. He was the longest living head of state in Poland's history and one of the very few centenarians among European politicians of the 20th century.[22]

In 2004, a blue plaque was installed on the house where he lived and died, No. 8 Lennox Gardens in Brompton.[23]

Political offices
Preceded by President of the Polish Republic in exile
1979–1986
Succeeded by

Honours[edit]

Family[edit]

Funeral of Wanda Dembińska (née Raczyńska) in Rogalin on 27 Feb 2016

In 1925, Edward Raczyński married Joyous Markham, daughter of a British coal mining mogul, Sir Arthur Markham, 1st Baronet, but she died in 1931.

On 25 August 1932 he married his second wife, Cecylia Maria Jaroszyńska, by whom he had three daughters:

  • Wanda Dembińska née Raczyńska (1933-2016), wife of Capt. Ryszard Dembiński (1924-2008), who was chairman of the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum in 1979-2003
  • Viridianna Rey, née Raczyńska (b. 1935), wife of Count Xawery Rey (1934–1987)
  • Katarzyna Raczyńska (b. 1939)

In 1962, his second wife Cecylia died.

In 1991, at the age of 99, Edward Raczyński married his third wife, Aniela Lilpop (daughter of architect, Franciszek Lilpop), thus legalizing a union of many years.

Bibliography[edit]

Raczyński's Works

  • Edward Raczyński, The British-Polish Alliance, Its Origin and Meaning; London 1948
  • Edward Raczyński, W sojuszniczym Londynie. Dziennik ambasadora Edwarda Raczyńskiego 1939–1945; London 1960. ISBN 0-85065-287-1
  • Edward Raczynski, "In Allied London. The Wartime diaries of the Polish Ambassador", London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1962.
  • Omar Khayyám, Rubayat. Polish translation by Edward Raczyński, London, 1960.
  • Edward Raczyński, Rogalin i jego mieszkańcy. London, 1969. ISBN 83-919577-0-5
  • Edward Raczyński, Pani Róża (a Biography of his mother), London 1969. ISBN 83-901583-2-9
  • Edward Raczyński, Od Narcyza Kulikowskiego do Winstona Churchilla. London 1976
  • Edward Raczynski (with Tadeusz Zenczykowski), "Od Genewy do Jalty. Rozmowy radiowe", London, Puls, 1988.
  • Edward Raczyński, Czas wielkich zmian. Paris 1990. ISBN 2-85316-064-5

Family History

  • Simon Konarski, Armorial de la Noblesse Polonaise titrée, Paris 1958

Raczyński's Biography

  • Krzysztof Kania, Edward Bernard Raczynski, 1891–1993, Dyplomata i Polityk, Wydawnictwo Neriton, Warszawa, 2014

See also[edit]

Books[edit]

  • Adams, Robert (1993). British Politics and Foreign Policy in the Age of Appeasement,1935-39. London: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780230375635.
  • Coutouvidis, John (October 1984). "Government-in-Exile: The Transfer of Polish Authority Abroad in September 1939". Review of International Studies. 10 (4): 285–296.
  • Eichenberg, Julia (2023). "Taming the Polyp: Address Books and Their Impact on Wartime Exile in London". In Burcu Dogramaci; Ekaterina Aygün; Mareike Hetschold; Laura Karp Lugo; Rachel Lee; Helene Roth (eds.). Urban Exile: Theories, Methods, Research Practices. Bristol: Intellect. pp. 32–44.
  • McGilvray, Evan (2015). Days of Adversity The Warsaw Uprising 1944. Warwick: Helion. ISBN 9781912174348.
  • Praźmowska, Anita (1987). Britain, Poland and the Eastern Front, 1939. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Praźmowska, Anita (2011). "Poland, the 'Danzig Question', and the Outbreak of the Second World War". In Frank McDonough (ed.). The Origins of the Second World War: An International Perspective. London: Continuum. p. 394-408.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Pace, Eric (August 2, 1993). "Count Raczynski, 101, Diplomat Who Served Poland in Wartime". The New York Times.
  2. ^ Praźmowska 2011, p. 36.
  3. ^ a b c d e Praźmowska 2011, p. 401.
  4. ^ a b c d Adams 1993, p. 141-142.
  5. ^ a b Adams 1993, p. 142.
  6. ^ Adams 1993, p. 144.
  7. ^ Wikisource:Agreement of Mutual Assistance between the United Kingdom and Poland-London (1939)
  8. ^ Coutouvidis 1984, p. 285.
  9. ^ Coutouvidis 1984, p. 285-286.
  10. ^ a b Coutouvidis 1984, p. 286.
  11. ^ Eichenberg 2023, p. 38.
  12. ^ Eichenberg 2023, p. 34.
  13. ^ Eichenberg 2023, p. 34-35.
  14. ^ a b Eichenberg 2023, p. 35.
  15. ^ "The mass extermination of Jews in German occupied Poland, Note addressed to the Governments of the United Nations on December 10, 1942" published later (30 December 1942) by the Polish Foreign Ministry as a brochure distributed to politicians and the medias : http://www.projectinposterum.org/docs/mass_extermination.htm
  16. ^ Martin Gilbert, Auschwitz and the Allies, 1981 (Pimlico edition, p. 96) "Further pressure for action came from the Polish Ambassador, Count Raczynski, who, at a meeting with Anthony Eden on the morning of december 1 (1942) "drew attention", as the Foreign Office noted, "to the wholesale destruction of Jews in Poland" (..) Raczynski had two suggestions : a "warning to Laval" concerning the deportations from France, and a meeting of representatives of the occupied countries to discuss and publicize the persecution. But the Foreign Office rejected the idea of such a meeting"
  17. ^ Walter Laqueur, The terrible secret, 1980 (Penguin edition, p. 236). "On January 18, 1943 Count Raczynski, the Polish Foreign Minister, presented the following demands at the Allied Council : a) The bombing of Germany as a reprisal for the continued extermination of the Polish Jews. b) To press Berlin to let the Jews out of the German-dominated countries, particularly Poland. c) To demand action so as to make the Allied as well as the neutral countries accept the Jews, who had succeeded or would succeed in leaving German-occupied countries. Raczynski did not advance demands for reprisals against German war prisoners and German nationals living in the Allied countries, considering them contrary to the accepted practices of international law. Anthony Eden, acting on behalf of the British Government, rejected the Polish demands and offered instead some vague promises to intervene in certain neutral countries"
  18. ^ a b McGilvray 2015, p. 29.
  19. ^ Michał Komar, Władysław Bartoszewski, Skąd pan jest? (a long interview). Świat Książki, Warszawa, 2006
  20. ^ "Prezydenci Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na Uchodzstwie, 1939–1990" (The Presidents of the Polish Republic in exile), Rada Ochrony Pamięci Walk i Męczeństwa, Warszawa 2002
  21. ^ "Prezydenci Polski 1920-2006 (Od Narutowicza po Kaczyłskiego)". Archived from the original on May 4, 2007. Retrieved November 14, 2008.
  22. ^ "Obituary: Count Edward Raczynski". The Independent. 1993-07-30. Retrieved 2023-06-23.
  23. ^ "Blue plaque for Polish statesman Count Edward Raczyński". Government News. May 24, 2004. Archived from the original on December 2, 2013. Retrieved November 23, 2013.

External links[edit]