Jan Stanisław Jankowski (6 May 1882 – 13 March 1953;

noms de guerre A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individu ...

''Doktor'', ''Jan'', ''Klonowski'', ''Sobolewski'', ''Soból'') was a Polish politician, an important figure in the Polish civil resistance during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and a Government Delegate at Home. Arrested by the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

, he was sentenced in the

Trial of the Sixteen The Trial of the Sixteen ( pl, Proces szesnastu) was a staged trial of 16 leaders of the Polish Underground State held by the Soviet authorities in Moscow in 1945. All captives were kidnapped by the NKVD secret service and falsely accused of var ...

and murdered in a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

prison.

Life and career

Jankowski was born in the village of Krasowo Wielkie in

Łomża Governorate Łomża Governorate (russian: link=no, Ломжская губерния; pl, Gubernia łomżyńska) was an administrative unit ( guberniya) of Congress Poland with seat in Łomża. History In 1867 territories of the Augustów Governorate and t ...

(now in

Wysokie Mazowieckie County __NOTOC__ Wysokie Mazowieckie County ( pl, powiat wysokomazowiecki) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Podlaskie Voivodeship, north-eastern Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Pol ...

), some 60 kilometres from

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

. Born to a family of local szlachta, he received an education in Austro-Hungarian Galicia. Early in his youth he became involved in politics. As a

Socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

, in 1906 he was among the co-founders of the National Workers' Union. In 1912 he entered the KTSSN, a Galicia-based confederation of all the political factions supporting Austria-Hungary as the only state to be able to reunite and liberate Poland after roughly a century of partitions. In 1915, at the outbreak of the

Great War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he joined the Polish Legions. After Poland regained her independence in 1918, he remained an active politician. In 1920 he co-founded the National Workers' Party (NPR), which he headed until 1923 and of which he remained a deputy chairman until 1933. As the most prominent politician of the NPR, between 1921 and the May coup d'état of 1926 he was the minister of labour and social policies in the

government of Poland The Government of Poland takes the form of a unitary parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the President is the head of state and the Prime Minister is the head of government. However, its form of government has also been iden ...

. In 1928 he was elected a member of the

Sejm The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland ( Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of ...

, a seat he held until 1935. In 1937 he moved to the Labor Party and became one of its leaders. After the Polish Defensive War of 1939 he remained in Poland and helped in the reconstruction of his party in new, underground conditions. After the foundations for the

Polish Secret State The Polish Underground State ( pl, Polskie Państwo Podziemne, also known as the Polish Secret State) was a single political and military entity formed by the union of resistance organizations in occupied Poland that were loyal to the Gover ...

had been laid, in 1941 Jankowski became the ''Director of Labour and Social Care'' (a ''

de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...

'' minister) of the

Government Delegate's Office at Home The Government Delegation for Poland ( pl, Delegatura Rządu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na Kraj) was an agency of the Polish Government in Exile during World War II. It was the highest authority of the Polish Secret State in occupied Poland and was ...

. After Jan Piekałkiewicz was arrested by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

in February 1943, Jankowski replaced him as the Government Delegate at Home, under the formal rank of the deputy

Prime Minister of Poland The President of the Council of Ministers ( pl, Prezes Rady Ministrów, lit=Chairman of the Council of Ministers), colloquially referred to as the prime minister (), is the head of the cabinet and the head of government of Poland. The responsibi ...

. On 31 July 1944 he approved the decision to start the

Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occurred in the summer of 1944, and it was led ...

. During the fighting in Warsaw, he remained close to the headquarters of the Armia Krajowa, but lost any contact with most of the cells of the Government Delegate's Office in other parts of Poland. After the capitulation of Warsaw to the Germans, he left the city along with civilians and managed to hide in the countryside, from where he continued his duties. In March 1945 he was arrested by the NKVD and taken to

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

, where he was put on trial together with 15 other representatives of the Polish authorities. After three months of brutal interrogation and torture he was presented with the forged accusations of collaboration with

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

, sabotage, terrorism, planning a military alliance with Nazi Germany, owning a radio transmitter and several other trumped-up charges. He was sentenced to eight years in a Soviet prison and died there, probably murdered there on March 13, 1953, two weeks before the end of his sentence. His body was probably buried in the prison in

Vladimir Vladimir may refer to: Names * Vladimir (name) for the Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Macedonian, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak and Slovenian spellings of a Slavic name * Uladzimir for the Belarusian version of the name * Volodymyr for the Ukr ...

Klyazma The Klyazma (, ''Klyaz'ma''), a river in the Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Ivanovo and Vladimir Oblasts in Russia, forms a left tributary of the Oka.Virtuti Militari The War Order of Virtuti Militari (Latin: ''"For Military Virtue"'', pl, Order Wojenny Virtuti Militari) is Poland's highest military decoration for heroism and courage in the face of the enemy at war. It was created in 1792 by Polish King St ...

(5th class) he received for his service in the Warsaw Uprising, in 1995 Jankowski was posthumously awarded the Order of the White Eagle.

Note

udskior.gov.pl

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jankowski, Jan Stanislaw 1882 births 1953 deaths People from Wysokie Mazowieckie County People from Łomża Governorate Polish nobility National League (Poland) members National-Democratic Party (Poland) politicians National Workers' Party politicians Labor Party (Stronnictwo Pracy) politicians Government ministers of Poland Members of the Sejm of the Second Polish Republic (1928–1930) Members of the Sejm of the Second Polish Republic (1930–1935) Diplomats of the Second Polish Republic People of the Polish May Coup (pro-government side) World War II political leaders Polish people of World War II Polish people detained by the NKVD Polish deportees to Soviet Union Polish murder victims Polish people who died in Soviet detention Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland)