Walery Sławek

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Between 1888 and 1894, he attended an elementary school in Nemyriv. In 1899, Sławek graduated from a trade school in Warsaw and began working for an insurance company. At that time, he became involved in the activities of several socialist organizations. In 1900, Sławek moved to Łódź as an employee for the insurance company Horodiczka i Stamirowski. Soon afterwards, he joined the Polish Socialist Party (PPS). While in Łódź, he was deeply involved in the activities of the PPS, which targeted the Tsarist authorities and struggled for Polish independence. Upon returning to Warsaw (May 1901), Sławek was named one of the leaders of local branch of the PPS. He was frequently sent on missions to other cities of the Russian Empire. In Vilnius (1902), he met and became friends with the future Marshal of Poland, Józef Piłsudski, and Aleksander Prystor. In June 1902, Sławek was elected leader of the PPS for the Governorates of Kielce and Piotrków Trybunalski. At that time, he fell in love with Wanda Juszkiewicz, the stepdaughter of Józef Piłsudski. She became the love of his life, and after her premature death, Sławek did not become involved in any other relationship. On 6 March 1903 he was…Citește mai mult

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Walery Jan Sławek (Polish pronunciation: [vaˈlɛrɨ ˈjan ˈswavɛk] ; 2 November 1879 – 3 April 1939) was a Polish politician, freemason, military officer and activist, who in the early 1930s served three times as Prime Minister of Poland. He was one of the closest aides of Polish leader, Józef Piłsudski.

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Early years Walery Sławek was born on 2 November 1879 into an impoverished noble family, in the village of Strutynka in the region of Podolia, then part of the Russian Empire. He was one of four children: two of his older sisters died early of Tuberculosis. His father, Bolesław Sławek, worked at a sugar plant owned by Count Józef Mikołaj Potocki. His mother was Florentyna née Przybylska, and the Sławek family was distinctly related to the family of composer and politician Ignacy Jan Paderewski.

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Soon after the May Coup, Józef Piłsudski sent Sławek to the Tarnowski family's Dzików Castle, for a series of talks with members of Polish nobility. His mission was to convince them to support the Sanacja regime. In the autumn of 1927, the informal “Council of Colonels” was created. It consisted of a group of close Piłsudski aides and was headed by Sławek. Its meetings took place at Sławek's Warsaw apartment. Before the 1928 Polish legislative election, Sławek came up with the idea of creating a new pro-government political body, the Nonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government (BBWR) of which he was the chairman. After the BBWR's victory in the election, Sławek was its main ideologist and one of the most influential persons in the country. One of the closest associates of Piłsudski, he was fanatically devoted to the Marshal, who called him the “Loyal Walery”. Sławek was one of the first ten persons awarded with the Cross of Independence with Swords. After the collapse of the government of Kazimierz Bartel, on 29 March 1930, Sławek became Prime Minister of Poland as one of the so-called Piłsudski's colonels. His cabinet was almost identical to the government of Bartel, with Stanisław…Citește mai mult

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On 2 April 1939 at 8:45 p.m. (the exact hour of Piłsudski's death), Sławek shot himself in the mouth at his Warsaw apartment, located on Jan Chrystian Szuch Avenue. Before the suicide, he wrote a farewell letter that said: “I am taking away my life. Please do not blame anybody. 2/IV. 1939. W. Sławek (...) I have burned all private papers, and those confined to me. If not all, please forgive me. God Almighty will perhaps forgive me my sins, including this final one”. Furthermore, he left a letter for President Mościcki, however, its contents have never been revealed. The bullet was stuck in Sławek's palate, and he was taken to Józef Piłsudski Military Hospital. He underwent a blood transfusion, and then a two-hour surgery. His condition temporarily improved at approximately 4 a.m. on 3 April, but he died the same day at 6:45 a.m. The funeral took place on 5 April at Warsaw Garrison Church. Sławek was buried at the Powązki Cemetery; among the pallbearers were Aleksander Prystor, Janusz Jędrzejewicz, Michał Tadeusz Brzek-Osinski and General Lucjan Żeligowski. The funeral was a demonstration of those followers of Piłsudski who opposed the Śmigły-Rydz's regime. The Marshal himself was present at the…Citește mai mult

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External links Newspaper clippings about Walery Sławek in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW Włodzimierz Suleja: Walery Sławek Archived 2019-10-09 at the Wayback Machine. In: Polski słownik biograficzny. 1997–1998.

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Sławek was one of the chief advisors of Piłsudski. In mid-1914, he joined 1st Brigade, Polish Legions, but in August, he did not march with First Cadre Company to Congress Poland, remaining in Kraków. In 1915, Sławek was sent by Piłsudski to Warsaw, where he created local structures of Polish Military Organisation (POW). At the same time, he formed a secret body within the POW, called Military Association (Zwiazek Wojskowy), later renamed into Organization A. In December 1916, after the creation of Provisional Council of State, Sławek was employed by its Military Commission. Following the Oath crisis, he was arrested by the Germans (13 July 1917) and sent to Warsaw Citadel and then to Szczypiorno and Modlin. He was finally released on 12 November 1918.

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Polish Army On 1 January 1919 Sławek joined the 4th (Intelligence) Department of Polish General Staff. In May 1919, he was sent to the Lithuanian borderland, where he tried to reach an agreement with the Lithuanian general Silvestras Zukauskas. The purpose was to initiate a joint Polish-Lithuanian anti-Bolshevik front, but his attempt failed. In November 1919, he left for Tallinn, to negotiate with envoys of Estonian and Latvian governments. In January 1920, Sławek was sent to Ukraine, where he cooperated with Civil Commissar for Podolia and Volhynia, Antoni Minkiewicz. Promoted to major (22 April 1920), he was a Polish envoy to Ataman Symon Petliura. Together with Wacław Jędrzejewicz, he signed a military appendix to the Treaty of Warsaw (1920), between Poland and Ukrainian People's Republic. For the remaining part of Polish–Soviet War he remained in southeastern provinces of Poland, where he tried to create mixed, Polish-Ukrainian volunteer units. Between 1922 and 1923, Sławek attended the Wyższa Szkoła Wojenna (military school) in Warsaw. After graduation and nomination to the rank of Officer of the General Staff, he was sent to Łódź on 15 October 1923, to the staff of 4th Military District. At that time, he became a Freemason. On 29…Citește mai mult

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Late 1930s Walery Sławek planned to replace the dissolved BBWR with a new structure, called Common Organization of the Society (Powszechna Organizacja Społeczeństwa). His idea was harshly criticized by Edward Śmigły-Rydz, who sent to him a letter writing that there is no need for such a body to be formed. On 24 May 1936 Sławek was replaced by Adam Koc, who became new chairman of the Association of Polish Legionnaires. A few weeks later, he was named chairman of the Józef Piłsudski Institute of Modern History, a post, designed to keep him away from political life. This nomination was purely honorary and marked Sławek's decline. On 11 November 1936 President Mościcki nominated Edward Śmigły-Rydz to the post of Marshal of Poland. Most of the so-called Piłsudski's Colonels refused presidential invitation to this event. Sławek himself decided to accept the invitation, but later stated that his promotion to Marshal was one of the saddest days of his life, as he was of the opinion that Józef Piłsudski was the only person worthy of that rank. On 21 February 1937 the Camp of National Unity (OZN) was officially formed. It was yet another blow to Sławek's prestige, as in his opinion, the…Citește mai mult

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Polish writer and air-force pilot Mieczysław Pruszyński, in his book "The Secret of Piłsudski" ("Tajemnica Piłsudskiego") claims that Sławek's suicide was directly linked to the Anglo-Polish military alliance, and British guarantee to Poland, accepted by Józef Beck: "Sławek killed himself after British guarantee to Poland had been announced and accepted. This guarantee was developed into an alliance, which Adolf Hitler saw as casus belli. Sławek was of the opinion that such an alliance, aimed at the Third Reich, would end in a Polish-German war. The war against which Józef Piłsudski had warned until the last days of his life (...) When on 2 April Sławek found out that Beck had left for London, he committed suicide in the evening of the same day. For him, Beck's trip meant the war with Germany and the end of Poland" (Mieczysław Pruszyński, Tajemnica Piłsudskiego, Warszawa 1997). A few hours before his death, Sławek met with a man named Bogdan Podoski, to whom he said: "I know it, I feel that they are leading Poland to destruction, and I do not know how to react against it". In 2004, in a Polish Newsweek article, historian Dariusz Baliszewski wrote that in early spring of 1939,…Citește mai mult