Wincenty Rzymowski Explained

Office:Minister of Foreign Affairs
Predecessor:Edward Osóbka-Morawski
Successor:Zygmunt Modzelewski
Term Start:June 1945
Term End:6 February 1947
Office1:Minister of Culture
Predecessor1:Zygmunt Kaczyński
Successor1:Edmund Zalewski
Term Start1:21 June 1944
Term End1:2 May 1945
Birth Date:19 June 1883
Birth Place:Kuczbork-Osada, Congress Poland, Russian Empire
Death Place:Warsaw, Polish People's Republic
Party:Polish United Workers' Party
Alma Mater:Odesa University
Nationality:Polish
Profession:Politician, diplomat, writer
Awards:Order of the Banner of Labour
Order of Polonia Restituta
Medal for Warsaw 1939–1945
Medal of Victory and Freedom 1945
Order of the Star of the Romanian Socialist Republic
Order of Stara Planina

Wincenty Rzymowski (19 July 1883, in Kuczbork-Osada – 30 April 1950, in Warsaw) was a Polish politician and writer. Rzymowski was one of the many faces of Stalinism in postwar Poland.

Career

In the Second Polish Republic, Wincenty Rzymowski was a member of the Democratic Party and a known publicist. He was also forced to resign his membership in the Polish Academy of Literature in a controversy involving allegations of plagiarism.[1]

During World War II he began collaborating with the Soviets. He joined the Union of Polish Patriots, was a Minister of Arts and Culture in the Polish Committee of National Liberation and a Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Provisional Government of National Unity, formed by Stalin. He represented Poland during the signing of the United Nations Charter. In January 1946, he was a Soviet candidate for the position of the first Secretary General of the United Nations, but opposed by the United States.[2] The two powers eventually compromised on Trygve Lie, a socialist from Norway.

Wincenty Rzymowski was also a deputy to the State National Council and Legislative Sejm. From 1947 till the end of his life he was a minister without portfolio in the Polish communist government.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Wincenty Rzymowski (1883–1950) . . 2011 . December 13, 2011.
  2. Hamilton . Thomas J. . 1950 . The U. N. and Trygve Lie . Foreign Affairs . 29 . 1 . 69 . 10.2307/20030815 . 20030815 . 0015-7120.