Polish military leader and politician. Active in the independence movement before the First World War, he co‑founded the Union of Active Struggle in 1908 and later commanded Polish troops during the Polish–Soviet War, notably at the Battle of Warsaw in 1920. From 1922 to 1923 he served as Prime Minister and Minister of Internal Affairs of the Second Polish Republic.
After falling out with Józef Piłsudski and losing influence in the late 1920s, Sikorski returned to prominence in 1939 when he became Prime Minister of the Polish government-in-exile and Commander-in-Chief of the reconstituted Polish Armed Forces. Based first in France and later in London, he oversaw the creation of Polish units fighting alongside the Allies and signed the Sikorski–Maiski Agreement (1941) with the Soviet Union to free deported Poles and establish an army in the East. His demand for an international inquiry into the Katyn massacre in 1943 led to a break in relations between the exile government and Moscow.
Sikorski died on 4 July 1943 in a plane crash near Gibraltar under circumstances that gave rise to suspicions of assassination. He was first buried in England and reinterred in Wawel Cathedral, Kraków, in 1993.
Polish military leader and politician. Active in the independence movement before the First World War, he co‑founded the Union of Active Struggle in 1908 and later commanded Polish troops during the Polish–Soviet War, notably at the Battle of Warsaw in 1920. From 1922 to 1923 he served as Prime Minister and Minister of Internal Affairs of the Second Polish Republic.
After falling out with Józef Piłsudski and losing influence in the late 1920s, Sikorski returned to prominence in 1939 when he became Prime Minister of the Polish government-in-exile and Commander-in-Chief of the reconstituted Polish Armed Forces. Based first in France and later in London, he oversaw the creation of Polish units fighting alongside the Allies and signed the Sikorski–Maiski Agreement (1941) with the Soviet Union to free deported Poles and establish an army in the East. His demand for an international inquiry into the Katyn massacre in 1943 led to a break in relations between the exile government and Moscow.
Sikorski died on 4 July 1943 in a plane crash near Gibraltar under circumstances that gave rise to suspicions of assassination. He was first buried in England and reinterred in Wawel Cathedral, Kraków, in 1993.
Bio by: K
