Stanisław Patek

Stanisław Patek (Polish pronunciation: [staˈɲiswaf ˈpatɛk]; May 1, 1866 – August 25, 1944), Polish lawyer and diplomat, served as Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1919 to 1920.

Born in Rusinów, he was an activist of the Polish Socialist Party who began his career as an attorney in 1894 in Warsaw, Russian partition (Congress Poland). From 1903 he became involved in legal assistance for political prisoners, and since defended many Poles accused for political dissident as well as members of Combat Organization of the Polish Socialist Party before the Russian courts in Russian partitioned Poland (particularly in the Warsaw Citadel). Founder and activist of Polish legal association grouping like-minded lawyers (Koło Obrońców Politycznych - The Circle of Political Defenders) as well as of other organizations dedicated to helping political prisoners (Ogólna Kasa Pomocy dla Więźniów Politycznych (General Bank for Helping Political Prisoners), Związek Pomocy dla Ofiar Politycznych (Association of Help for Political Repression Victims); those organizations would be headquartered in his legal offices. In the years 1905-1907 the lawyers of Koło took part in about 260 trials; over 20% were found innocent. During that period he met his future partner, Stefania Sempołowska, a semi-official secretary and counselor of the Koło. He was the personal defender of such high-profile defendants as Stefan Aleksander Okrzeja and Józef Montwiłł-Mirecki, and gained reputation as an excellent orator and lawyer. He gained such a reputation, and skills, that government provocateurs and agents he liked to call for witness commonly made mistakes in their testimonies. He didn't hesitate to criticize the existing political situation, and discuss the common repressions and brutality of tsar's police. In his famous speech during Okrzeja's trial he said:

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