Stanisław Wojciechowski
| Stanisław Wojciechowski | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| President of Poland | |
|
In office 22 December 1922 – 14 May 1926 |
|
| Prime Minister |
Władysław Sikorski Wincenty Witos Władysław Grabski Aleksander Skrzyński Wincenty Witos |
| Preceded by | Gabriel Narutowicz |
| Succeeded by | Ignacy Mościcki |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 15 March 1869 Kalisz, Poland |
| Died | 9 April 1953 (aged 84) Warsaw, Poland |
| Political party | Polish People's Party "Piast" |
| Spouse(s) | Maria Wojciechowska |
| Children | 2 |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
Stanisław Wojciechowski (Polish: [staˈɲiswaf vɔjt͡ɕɛˈxɔfskʲi]; 15 March 1869 – 9 April 1953) was a Polish politician, diplomat, scholar and theorist. In 1922 he was elected the second President of the Republic of Poland following the assassination of Gabriel Narutowicz. He was ousted by the May Coup d'État of 1926.
While a student at the University of Warsaw, Wojciechowski worked for the Polish Socialist movement, which at the time was a major force in the Polish independence effort. He was arrested by czarist police in 1891, and upon his release a year later moved to Paris and then on to London. In England he helped publish the Polish Socialist periodical Przedświt (“The Dawn”) and became friends with Józef Piłsudski. He also studied the cooperative movement, and on returning to Poland in 1906 he spent time working to develop Polish cooperatives.
During World War I he considered Imperial Germany to be Poland’s main enemy and thus Wojciechowski went in 1915 to Moscow, and there in 1917 was elected president of the Council of Polish Parties’ Union. He returned to Warsaw at the end of the war and from January 1919 to July 1920 served as minister of the interior in three separate cabinets of the new Second Polish Republic. He was elected to the Sejm (parliament) as a member of the Polish Peasant Party in November 1922. When the Republic's president Gabriel Narutowicz was assassinated in December 1922, Wojciechowski was chosen to succeed him.
In the new government Wojciechowski and military chief of staff Piłsudski disagreed on the political direction of the nation: Wojciechowski supported continued parliamentary government, while Piłsudski favoured a more authoritarian approach. In May 1926, due to the worsening economic issues of the country, Piłsudski staged the successful May Coup, after which Wojciechowski was removed from his post.
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