Stanislaw Mierzwa

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Stanislaw Mierzwa

Stanisław Mierzwa (born January 27, 1905 in Biskupice Radłowskie , Poland , † October 10, 1985 in Krakow ) was a Polish lawyer and activist of the Polish People's Party (PSL) .

Life

education

Mierzwa came from a farming family. After attending a two-class school in Biskupice, Mierzwa switched to the four-class German-language school in Żabno in 1916 . He finished this school after two years with the final exam. In 1918 he continued his education at the Jan Amor Tarnowski Grammar School in Tarnów , where he graduated from high school in 1926. Then he entered the Tarnów seminary . After two years he became seriously ill and left the seminary. In autumn 1929 he started at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow , a law degree , he in 1934 with the title of Magister graduated justice.

Social commitment until 1945

In Cracow, Mierzwa joined the Związek Młodzieży Wiejskiej RP (ZMW RP, “Wici”, “Znicz”). While still a student, he became a member of the Polish People's Party ( Stronnictwo Ludowe , SL). In 1933 he received his first two-month prison sentence for "anti-government activities".

In 1933 Mierzwa was elected to the SL Supreme Council. From 1934 to 1935 he was Vice President of the SL in Krakow. From 1935 he was secretary of the SL regional council for Lesser Poland and Silesia . In 1937 he was elected to the Supreme Executive Committee of the SL (Naczelny Komitet Wykonawczy, NKW SL).

From 1940 to 1944 he was a member of the regional leadership of the People's Movement and a member of the Krakow Party Committee. From November 1944 he was a member of the central leadership of the popular movement and a member of the Council of National Unity. Mierzwa was in close contact with Wincenty Witos all this time .

All these years Wincenty Witos was chairman or executive member of the SL. Wincenty Witos led the government of Poland until he was overthrown by Marshal Józef Piłsudski in the 1926 May coup. In 1930 Witos von Piłsudski was imprisoned for a year and a half. He then emigrated to Czechoslovakia from 1933 to 1939 . Back in Poland, Witos was imprisoned by the German occupying forces in 1939 . From 1941 he was released but placed under house arrest because he was unwilling to cooperate with the German fascists.

Process of Sixteen

At the Yalta Conference in February 1945 it was decided to replace the Stalin-loyal Provisional Polish Government with a "Government of National Unity", which should be obliged to "hold free elections on the basis of universal suffrage and secret ballot". This government should be placed on a broader basis and, above all, accommodate democratic leaders from among the Polish government in exile .

In March 1945 Mierzwa was a member of a delegation of the Polish People's Party (SL), which was supposed to lead negotiations with the Soviets on the formation of a "government of national unity". Other delegation participants were Kazimierz Bagiński and Adam Bień . Wincenty Witos, who lived in Piotrków Trybunalski , knew about this company and agreed to it. The three other parties ( Polish Socialist Party , National Party (SN), Party of Labor (SP)) also appointed delegates for such negotiations.

However, Stalin was not interested in other parties participating in the Polish government. Rather, his plan was to eliminate the entire Polish political leadership that was not loyal to Stalin. He subsequently implemented this plan very skilfully.

On March 18 and 20, 1945, the delegates from SL, SP and SN, including Mierzwa, negotiated with a Soviet Colonel Pimienow in a villa in Pruszków near Warsaw . At these meetings they were treated so kindly and courteously by the Soviets that they felt optimistic. This led them to persuade the actual leaders of the underground government, Leopold Okulicki , Jan Stanisław Jankowski and Kazimierz Pużak , to take part in the negotiations. They suspected a Soviet trap, but eventually gave in.

On March 27 and 28, 1945, the sixteen Polish delegates attended the negotiations. They were all kidnapped by the Soviets, brought by plane to Moscow, where the NKVD -Gefängnis Lubyanka imprisoned. In the Sixteen Trials , they were sentenced to prison terms on June 21, 1945. Mierzwa received 4 months in prison and returned to Poland in August 1945.

Social commitment from 1945

After his release in August 1945, Mierzwa began to work in the Polish People's Party (PSL) organized by Stanisław Mikołajczyk . At the district assembly of PSL delegates in Cracow in September 1945 he was elected secretary of the district assembly. When Wincenty Witos died in Krakow in 1945, Mierzwa was the main organizer of the funeral.

In 1946 he was elected a member of the Supreme Executive Committee of the PSL ( Naczelny Komitet Wykonawczy , NKW PSL). From 1945 to 1947 he was a member of the Cracow National Council ( Wojewódzka Rada Narodowa , WRN). Since he was unwilling to cooperate with the communists and was also unwilling to go to the West, Mierzwa was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a military court in 1946. After he was released in 1954, he worked as a legal advisor and attorney.

Mierzwa supported many efforts to keep the memory of Wincenty Witos alive. He founded the Wincenty Witos Museum in Wierzchosławice and campaigned for the construction of the monument to Wincenty Witos in Warsaw.

recognition

On the 100th anniversary of Poland's regaining independence, the President of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Duda , posthumously awarded him the Order of the White Eagle .

literature

  • Stanisław Mierzwa 1905–1985 , publisher: Muzeum Historii Polskiego Ruchu Ludowego, 2011, ISBN 978-83-62171-70-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Znani z Gminy Radłów at gminaradlow.pl. Retrieved November 24, 2019.
  2. ^ Stanisław Mierzwa 1905–1985. Ludowiec i działacz niepodległościowy at ipn.gov.pl. Retrieved November 24, 2019.
  3. ↑ Konferencja naukowa "Stanisław Mierzwa 1905–1985. Ludowiec i działacz niepodległościowy ”- Kraków, 19 października 2010 at ipn.gov.pl. Retrieved November 24, 2019.
  4. ↑ Proces Szesnastu: z Warszawy do Moskwy at historia.org.pl. Retrieved November 24, 2019.
  5. ↑ Prezydent uhonorował pośmiertnie Orderem Orła Białego ponad 20 wybitnych Polaków at dzieje.pl. Retrieved December 7, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Mierzwa, Stanislaw
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish lawyer and activist of the Polish People's Party (PSL)
DATE OF BIRTH January 27, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Biskupice Radłowskie , Poland
DATE OF DEATH October 10, 1985
Place of death Krakow , Poland