Ryszard Kaczorowski - the last President of Poland’s government-in-exile

Ryszard Kaczorowski – the last President of Poland’s government-in-exile

26/11/2024
Poles in UK

President Kaczorowski was a scout, member of the Polish underground, NKVD prisoner, and then President of the Polish Government in Exile operating from London. He was the one to hand over the Polish state insignia to the first democratically elected president after the fall of communism. He sacrificed his life to serve Poland.

Ryszard Kaczorowski was born on 26 November 1919 in Bialystok. He was a Polish politician, statesman, social activist and scout, commander of the Grey Ranks (the underground paramilitary organisation of the Polish scout movement) in Bialystok in 1940, after 1945 in exile, member of the National Council (the Polish parliament in exile) of the Republic of Poland and from 1989 to 1990 President of the Republic of Poland in Exile.

As a 14-year-old, he joined the Polish Scouts, where he belonged to the squads of Andrzej Malkowski, one of the founders of the Polish scouting movement. Kaczorowski was active as an instructor, troop leader and summer camp supervisor.

Scouting was one of his greatest passions, as the scouting cap was even symbolically presented on his coffin during his funeral in 2010.

In 1934 Ryszard Kaczorowski began his studies in a Trade School in Białystok.

Just days before the beginning of the 2 World War Ryszard Kaczorowski became a leader of the Scout Emergency Service which was an organisation designed to support the defence efforts of the Polish army in the upcoming war.

After the start of the Soviet aggression on 17 September 1939 and the following occupation of Eastern Poland Kaczorowski became a member of the Polish underground scouting organisations, creating a broader resistance movement on Polish territory.

He was arrested by the NKVD for his “illegal activities” on 17 June 1940. Detained in Bialystok and Minsk, he was sentenced to death by a military court after a two-day trial.

After a hundred days of imprisonment on death row, on 10 May 1941, a Soviet court commuted his sentence to 10 years in a labour camp. He served his sentence on the Kolyma River in the Duskanja gold mine.

Kaczorowski was able to leave the labour camp after the Sikorski-Mayski Agreement, in March 1942 he joined the ranks of the Polish Army being formed in the USSR by General Władysław Anders. He left the inhumane lands of Russia and left for Palestine.

As a soldier of the 2nd Corps in the Communications Battalion of the 3rd Carpathian Rifle Division, he fought in the Italian campaign, serving during the Battle of Monte Cassino as commander of the communications centre of the 2nd Carpathian Rifle Brigade.

After the war ended, Kaczorowski remained in exile in Great Britain, where he completed his education.

In 1947 he graduated from the High School of the 3rd Carpathian Rifle Division in England, later studied foreign trade at Polytechnic Regent Street (later the University of Westminster) and then worked as an accountant for many years until his retirement in 1986.

During his time in England, he took part in various activities of the parliament-in-exile, known as the National Council, and in the social life of the emigration as a member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Polish Veterans and many other Polish organisations.

In 1986 Kaczorowski became his work as Minister of National Affairs in the Polish government-in-exile. At that time he established extensive contacts with opposition activists and independent scouting in the country.

In January 1988, President Kazimierz Sabbat appointed him “successor to the president in case the office becomes vacant before peace is concluded.” The formula was used based on the Polish 1935 April Constitution provisions that regulated state succession in times of war or interrupted state power.

After Sabbat’s sudden death, Kaczorowski was sworn in as president in exile on July 19, 1989.

Ryszard Kaczorowski was the last president of the Republic of Poland in exile. In December 1990, he transferred the power of the office to the newly, democratically elected President of the Republic of Poland Lech Wałęsa. During a ceremony at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, he handed over to him the insignia of the state of the Second Republic of Poland.

On 9 November 2004, Kaczorowski was appointed to the Order of St Michael and St George as an Honorary Knight Grand Cross by Queen Elizabeth II for „his exceptional contribution to the community of Polish emigrees and their descendants living in the UK„.

Kaczorowski died tragically on 10 April 2010, in the crash of a Polish Tu-154M plane near Smolensk, on his way to the 70th anniversary of the Katyn Massacre.