Stanislaw Mikolajczyk

Stanislaw Mikolajczyk : Poland

Stanislaw Mikolajczyk was born in 1901. When Poland was invaded by the German Army in September 1939. He escaped to London where he joined with Wladyslaw Sikorski and Wladyslaw Raczkiewicz to establish a Polish government-in-exile.

Following the invasion of the Soviet Union by the German Army, Joseph Stalin agreed in June 1941, to invalidate the Soviet-German partition of Poland.

The relationship between the governments of Soviet Union and Poland was severely damaged by the discovery of mass graves of Polish officers at Katyn. Joseph Stalin claimed that the atrocity had been carried out by the German Army and in April 1943 broke off relations with the Polish government.

In February, 1945, Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt held a conference in Yalta in the Crimea. With Soviet troops in most of Eastern Europe, Stalin was in a strong negotiating position. Roosevelt and Churchill tried hard to restrict post-war influence in this area but the only concession they could obtain was a promise that free elections would be held in these countries.

Poland was the main debating point. Stalin explained that throughout history Poland had either attacked Russia or had been used as a corridor through which other hostile countries invaded her. Only a strong, pro-Communist government in Poland would be able to guarantee the security of the Soviet Union. As a result of the conference the Allies withdrew their recognition for the Polish government-in-exile.

Mikolajczyk agreed to return to Poland in 1945 and was appointed as deputy prime minister. Isolated in the communist dominated coalition, he was forced into exile in 1947.

Stanislaw Mikolajczyk died in 1967.