Stanisław Grabski | |
|---|---|
 Stanisław Grabski in c. 1919 | |
| Minister of Religious Affairs and Public Education | |
| In office 25 March 1925 – 15 May 1926 | |
| President | Stanisław Wojciechowski |
| Prime Minister | Władysław Grabski Aleksander Skrzyński Wincenty Witos |
| Preceded by | Bolesław Miklaszewski |
| Succeeded by | Antoni Sujkowski |
| In office 27 October 1923 – 15 December 1923 | |
| President | Stanisław Wojciechowski |
| Prime Minister | Wincenty Witos |
| Preceded by | Stanisław Głąbiński |
| Succeeded by | Bolesław Miklaszewski |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1871-04-05)April 5, 1871 |
| Died | May 6, 1949(1949-05-06) (aged 78) |
| Resting place | Powązki Cemetery, Warsaw |
| Political party | National-Democratic Party Popular National Union |
| Spouse(s) | Ludmiła Rożen (1895–1915) Zofia Smolikówna (1916–1949) |
| Occupation | Politician, economist |
| Awards |       |
Stanisław Grabski (pronounced[staˈɲiswafˈɡrapskʲi]; 5 April 1871 – 6 May 1949) was a Polish economist and politician associated with theNational Democracy political camp. As the top Polish negotiator during thePeace of Riga talks in 1921, Grabski greatly influenced the future ofPoland and theSoviet Union.
Stanisław Grabski was the brother ofWładysław Grabski, another prominent Polish economist and politician who served asprime minister, and of political activistZofia Kirkor-Kiedroniowa.
Stanisław Grabski became a political activist early in his life. In 1890, inBerlin, he editedGazeta Robotnicza [pl] (The Workers' Gazette). In 1892 he cofounded thePolish Socialist Party (PPS), but in 1901 he detached himself from that political movement to become a member ofRoman Dmowski's "nationalist" camp (later known asNational Democracy).
A member of theNational League since 1905, a year later he became one of its leaders. From 1907 he was a member of Dmowski's party, theNational-Democratic Party. DuringWorld War I Grabski, like Dmowski, supported the idea that Poles should ally withRussia, and later he joined Dmowski'sPolish National Committee (Komitet Narodowy Polski) inParis.
From 1919 to 1925, in newly independent Poland (theSecond Polish Republic), he was a deputy to theSejm (the Polish parliament) from the right-wingPopular National Union (Związek Ludowo-Narodowy).
During thePolish-Soviet War (1919–1921), he strongly opposed the alliance between Poland and theUkrainian People's Republic (represented bySymon Petliura). He resigned as chair of the parliamentary commission on foreign relations in protest of this alliance.[1] During the negotiations of thePeace of Riga (1921), he was the most influential Polish negotiator and was largely responsible for their outcome. The peace treaty resulted in partitioning ofUkraine andBelarus between Poland and theSoviet Union.[2] While peace withSoviet Russia had been accomplished, the"federalist" objectives ofJózef Piłsudski had thus been defeated.[3][4]
In 1923 and from 1925 to 1926 he was the Minister of Religious Beliefs and Public Education. In that time he further pursued nationalist policies, especiallyPolonization. He was the architect of the 1924Lex Grabski, which de facto sought to eliminate theUkrainian language from Polish schools.[5] These policies resulted in a dramatic increase in Ukrainian private schools and served to alienate Ukrainian youths from Polish authority.[6] In 1926 he was also one of the first Poles to speak onradio, during thePolish Radio inauguration ceremony.[7] He was also one of the principal Polish negotiators for theConcordat of 1925.
After Piłsudski'sMay Coup in 1926 he distanced himself from politics and concentrated on academic research intoeconomics. Before theSecond World War, he was aprofessor at theLwów University,Dublany Agricultural Academy, andJagiellonian University.
When theSoviet Union took control of Eastern Poland (Kresy) in 1939, following theInvasion of Poland, Grabski was arrested by the Soviets and imprisoned, like many prominent Polish intellectuals. Following theSikorski-Mayski Agreement, he was released and moved toLondon, where he joined thePolish government in exile. He returned to Poland in 1945. Working closely together with Polish communistWanda Wasilewska, Grabski (who referred to Stalin as "the greatest realist of all") sought to use Stalin to create a compact and ethnically homogenous Poland and helped to design a program for implementing policies to insure an ethnically pure Polish state. He proposed Polish and Ukrainian resettlement plans to Stalin, and traveled to Lviv in order to urge Poles to leave.[8] He became one of the deputies to the president of the quasi-parliamentState National Council, until the newSejm was elected in the1947 Polish legislative election. Afterwards he returned to his teaching career, becoming a professor at theUniversity of Warsaw.
He died inSulejówek and was buried atPowązki Cemetery in the family grave of the Grabski family.
Grabski was an outspoken exponent of nationalist ideology in the interwar period. Agreeing withRoman Dmowski on the goal of assimilating the non-Polish population of theKresy, Grabski differed in his approach. Whereas Dmowski apparently sought to recognize Ukrainians and Belarusians as folk variants of Poles, Grabski's approach was to reduce the non-Polish population to the status of second-class citizens and limiting their contact with the Polish majority. By creating a contrast between an advanced Polish culture and a primitive minority culture Grabski hoped that long term assimilation would be assured.[9]
In 1895, Grabski married Ludmiła Rożen. The couple had five children – three daughters (Feliksa, Ludmiła, Janina) and two sons (Stanisław and Zbigniew). Stanisław died in 1920 during thePolish-Soviet War. Zbigniew (1907–1943) was a scoutmaster, jailed until 1941 by Soviets, he died as a result of an accident during his military duties. After the death of his wife in 1915, Stanisław Grabski married Zofia Smolikówna in 1916. They had two daughters – Anna (born 1919) and Stanisława (1922–2008).
