Ryszard Kaczorowski, GCMG (; 26 November 1919 – 10 April 2010) was a Polish statesman. From 1989 to 1990, he served as the last president of Poland-in-exile. He succeeded Kazimierz Sabbat, and resigned his post following Poland's regaining independence from the Soviet sphere of influence and the election of Lech Wałęsa as the first democratically elected president of Poland since before the World War II. He died on 10 April 2010 in the plane crash near Smolensk, Russia, along with the president of Poland Lech Kaczyński and other senior government officials.

Life and career

Ryszard Kaczorowski was born on 26 November 1919, in a wooden house at 7 Mazowiecka Street in Piaski District of Białystok. The house stood at the intersection of Mazowiecka Street with the no longer existing Argentyńska Street (now Bułgarska), Białystok, Poland. His parents were Wacław Kaczorowski, of the Jelita Coat of Arms, and Jadwiga (née Sawicka). In 1920, when Białystok was overrun by Soviet forces during the Polish-Soviet War, it briefly served as headquarters of the Polish Revolutionary Committee headed by Julian Marchlewski, which attempted to declare the Polish Soviet Socialist Republic. The city again changed hands after the Battle of Białystok, when the city was liberated by the 1st Legions Infantry Division and 5th Legions' Infantry Regiment. The family witnessed certain dramatic results of the battle from a small wooden house typical of Argentyńska Street.

He completed his education at a school of commerce. He was also a Scouting instructor of a local branch of the Polish Scouting Association. Following the Soviet invasion of Poland at the beginning of World War II, he secretly recreated the scouting movement – which was banned by the Soviet authorities – and became a head of the Białystok banner of the Szare Szeregi.

In July 1940, he was arrested by the NKVD and sent to the Minsk Prison. On 29 January 1941, Kaczorowski was taken to the office of the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Byelorussian SSR, where he asked, among other things, about the possibility of a swift outbreak of Soviet-German war. On 31 January 1941, a show trial was held, and the following day the accused learned that he had been sentenced to death for membership in the Polish counterrevolutionary insurgent organisation Grey Ranks, which aimed to overthrow the Soviet government in Western Belorussia by force of arms. He waited on death row for one hundred days for the sentence to be carried out or changed. It ultimately ended with a ruling by the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union and a 10-year prison sentence, an additional 5-year loss of voting rights and the confiscation of property. On the night of 27-28 May 1941, Kaczorowski was added to a rail transport of prisoners. The wagon reached the transit camp in Nakhodka via Khabarovsk and Vladivostok from which he was transported by ship to Kolyma. He was assigned to the Duskanja gold mine, which in the local language meant "The Valley of Death". Although he was a self-described follower of Józef Piłsudski (Piłsudczyk), Kaczorowski chose to not get involved in any partisan or strictly political activity during his retirement.

On 9 November 2004, Kaczorowski was appointed to the Order of St Michael and St George as an Honorary Knight Grand Cross by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom for "his exceptional contribution to the community of Polish emigrees and their descendants living in the UK".

Death

thumb|220px|Kaczorowski's tomb in the [[National Temple of Divine Providence in Warsaw]]

Kaczorowski died on 10 April 2010 in a plane crash near Smolensk, Russia, along with the then-current president of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, and 94 others. He was 90 years old and was the oldest victim of the crash. On 19 April 2010, Kaczorowski's coffin was taken to St John's Cathedral for a funeral mass, before being buried in a crypt at the National Temple of Divine Providence in Warsaw.

References

Bibliography

  • This article is copied in part from the website of the office of the President of the Republic of Poland, which allows free reproduction of its content; see [http://www.president.pl/x.node?id=4042745].
  • Unofficial website