Wacław Lipiński

Wacław Lipiński (1896-1949) was a Polish historian, military officer and resistance fighter, lieutenant colonel in the Polish Army of the Second Polish Republic, recipient of Polish highest military decoration, the Order of Virtuti Militari.

Born on 28 September 1896 in Łódź, Lipiński became active in underground, patriotic, pro-independence Polish movements of the partition period. He started out in the scouting movement (1911), and joined the paramilitary Polish Rifle Squads (1912). He was a member of the Polish Legions in World War I, where he fought in the battles of Łowczówek, Konary and battle of Kostiuchnówk. Then joined the precursor of the Polish intelligence, the Polish Military Organisation. In 1918 the joined the regular Polish Army, and fought in the Polish-Ukrainian War (battle of Lwów) and then in the Polish-Soviet War (1919-1921), taking part in the Vilna offensive.

In the interwar period, in 1927, he was promoted to major. That year he joined the newly founded Military Bureau of History (Wojskowe Biuro Historyczne). In 1932 he becomes a chief editor of a publication (Niepodległość) of the Józef Piłsudski Institute for Research in Modern History of Poland, and in 1936, a director of the Institute. From 1937 he lectured on the modern history of Poland at the University of Lwów.