Leon Wasilewski (1870–1936) was an activist of the

Polish Socialist Party The Polish Socialist Party ( pl, Polska Partia Socjalistyczna, PPS) is a socialist political party in Poland. It was one of the most important parties in Poland from its inception in 1892 until its merger with the communist Polish Workers' ...

(PPS), a coworker of

Józef Piłsudski ), Vilna Governorate, Russian Empire (now Lithuania) , death_date = , death_place = Warsaw, Poland , constituency = , party = None (formerly PPS) , spouse = , children = Wan ...

Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (''Ministerstwo Spraw Zagranicznych'', MSZ) is the Polish government department tasked with maintaining Poland's international relations and coordinating its participation in international and regional supra-natio ...

, designer of much of

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...

policy towards Eastern Europe, historian and father of Halszka Wasilewska and of

Wanda Wasilewska ukr, Ванда Львівна Василевська rus, Ванда Львовна Василевская , native_name_lang = , birth_date = , birth_place = Kraków, Austria-Hungary , death_date = , death_place ...

Life and career

Born on 24 August 1870 in Saint Petersburg, to an impoverished gentry family with roots in

Livonia Livonia ( liv, Līvõmō, et, Liivimaa, fi, Liivinmaa, German and Scandinavian languages: ', archaic German: ''Liefland'', nl, Lijfland, Latvian and lt, Livonija, pl, Inflanty, archaic English: ''Livland'', ''Liwlandia''; russian: Ли ...

and

Samogitia Samogitia or Žemaitija ( Samogitian: ''Žemaitėjė''; see below for alternative and historical names) is one of the five cultural regions of Lithuania and formerly one of the two core administrative divisions of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...

. His father was an organist at Saint Stanislaus church in St. Petersburg. His mother, Maria Reiter, was a teacher of mixed

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

and

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

ancestry, and came from

Moravia Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The me ...

.John Stanley Micgiel. ''Wilsonian East Central Europe: Current Perspectives''. The Piłsudski Inst. 1995. p. 55. After completing his secondary education he attended Lwow University, where he met his future wife, Wanda Zieleniewska. Both were involved in student politics. He dropped out of his course to follow his political ambitions. Later he briefly attended

Prague University ) , image_name = Carolinum_Logo.svg , image_size = 200px , established = , type = Public, Ancient , budget = 8.9 billion CZK , rector = Milena Králíčková , faculty = 4,057 , administrative_staff = 4,026 , students = 51,438 , underg ...

, where he met

Jan Masaryk Jan Garrigue Masaryk (14 September 1886 – 10 March 1948) was a Czech diplomat and politician who served as the Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia from 1940 to 1948. American journalist John Gunther described Masaryk as "a brave, honest, turbul ...

. He and Wanda had three daughters: Halszka (born in London) and Wanda and Sofia Aldona (born in Kraków).

Politician

After a brief participation in the ''

endecja National Democracy ( pl, Narodowa Demokracja, also known from its abbreviation ND as ''Endecja''; ) was a Polish political movement active from the second half of the 19th century under the foreign partitions of the country until the end of ...

'' movement ( Liga Narodowa), he joined the PPS in Galicia in the 1890s - he would remain a member of the party for his entire life (and join the party's top policy-making body in the late 1920s). Editor of ''Przedświt'' (PPS publication in London), and later, '' Robotnik'' in Galicia. He was loyal to Piłsudski, even during the PPS split in the 1900s, when he remained with his Revolution Faction. Activist in the

Komisja Tymczasowa Skonfederowanych Stronnictw Niepodległościowych The Temporary Coordinating Commission of Confederated Independence Parties ( pl, Komisja Tymczasowa Skonfederowanych Stronnictw Niepodległościowych, KTSSN) formed on 10 November 1912 in the Austrian Partition on the eve of World War I. It was an a ...

(1912-1914). During the

First World 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 was a member of several Polish organizations, including the

Chief National Committee Chief may refer to: Title or rank Military and law enforcement * Chief master sergeant, the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force * Chief of police, the head of a police department * Chief of the boa ...

, and from 1917, a member of the

Polish Military Organisation The Polish Military Organisation, PMO ( pl, Polska Organizacja Wojskowa, POW) was a secret military organization which formed during World War I (1914-1918). Józef Piłsudski founded the group in August 1914; it adopted the name ''POW'' in Novem ...

. After Poland regained independence, he became the first

, serving in the government of

Jędrzej Moraczewski Jędrzej Edward Moraczewski (; 13 January 1870 – 5 August 1944) was a Polish socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownershi ...

from 17 November 1918 to 16 January 1919. Afterwards he served as an advisior to

naczelnik państwa The Chief of State ( pl, Naczelnik Państwa; ) was the title of the head of state of Poland in the early years of the Second Polish Republic. This office was held only by Józef Piłsudski, from 1918 to 1922. Until 1919, the title was called the ...

, Józef Piłsudski; he was a member of the Polish National Committee in Paris (in 1919); and served as the Polish ambassador to Estonia (1920-1921). He took part in the

Treaty of Riga The Peace of Riga, also known as the Treaty of Riga ( pl, Traktat Ryski), was signed in Riga on 18 March 1921, among Poland, Soviet Russia (acting also on behalf of Soviet Belarus) and Soviet Ukraine. The treaty ended the Polish–Soviet War. ...

negotiations and the commission for the

delimitation Boundary delimitation (or simply delimitation) is the drawing of boundaries, particularly of electoral precincts, states, counties or other municipalities.

of Poland's eastern borders.

Scholar

Afterwards he concentrated on historical research. He researched

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

(particularly

Slavic languages The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the Ear ...

ethnography Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...

of the

Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

and

Eastern Europea Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whic ...

n lands, and

history of literature The history of literature is the historical development of writings in prose or poetry that attempt to provide entertainment, enlightenment, or instruction to the reader/listener/observer, as well as the development of the literary techniques ...

. He would serve as the director of two institutes (''Instytut Badania Najnowszej Historii Polski'' (Institute of Studies of Modern Polish History) in the 1920s and ''Instytut Badań Narodowościowych'' (Institute of Nationality Studies) in the 1930s) and editor of the journal ''Niepodległośc''. Supporter of

Międzymorze Intermarium ( pl, Międzymorze, ) was a post-World War I geopolitical plan conceived by Józef Piłsudski to unite former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth lands within a single polity. The plan went through several iterations, some of which antic ...

federation A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...

idea, as well as

Prometheism Prometheism or Prometheanism ( Polish: ''Prometeizm'') was a political project initiated by Józef Piłsudski, a principal statesman of the Second Polish Republic from 1918 to 1935. Its aim was to weaken the Russian Empire and its successor states ...

, he was also a vocal opponent of

polonization Polonization (or Polonisation; pl, polonizacja)In Polish historiography, particularly pre-WWII (e.g., L. Wasilewski. As noted in Смалянчук А. Ф. (Smalyanchuk 2001) Паміж краёвасцю і нацыянальнай ідэя� ...

, arguing that Ukrainians and Belarusians living in Poland should be allowed to assimilate into Polish society at their will and speed. Author of many works, among them ''Litwa i Białoruś'' ("Lithuania and Belarus", 1912), ''Ukraińska sprawa narodowa w jej rozwoju historycznym'' ("The Ukrainian National Cause in its Historical Development", 1925), ''Zarys dziejów PPS'' ("A Short History of the PPS", 1925), ''Józef Piłsudski, jakim go znałem'' ("Józef Piłsudski, as I knew him", 1935). His daughter,

, was a prominent pro-

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

activist in the

People's Republic of Poland The Polish People's Republic ( pl, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million nea ...

Works

* ''Litwa i Białoruś'' (Lithuania and Belarus) (1912) * ''Kresy Wschodnie - Litwa i Białoruś. Podlasie i Chełmszczyzna. Galicya Wschodnia. Ukraina'' (1917) * ''Zarys dziejów PPS'' (Overview of the History of PPS) (1925) * ''Józef Piłsudski, jakim go znałem'' (Józef Piłsudski as I Knew Him) (1935)

Footnotes

References

*
Wasilewski Leon

WIEM Encyklopedia WIEM Encyklopedia (full name in pl, Wielka Interaktywna Encyklopedia Multimedialna - "Great Interactive Multimedia Encyclopedia"; in Polish, ''wiem'' also means 'I know') is a Polish Internet encyclopedia. The first printed edition was released ...

, Last accessed on 25 Feb 2007

External links

* *
Białoruś i Białorusini w pracach Leona Wasilewskiego
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wasilewski, Leon 1870 births 1936 deaths Burials at Powązki Cemetery Politicians from Saint Petersburg People from Sankt-Peterburgsky Uyezd Polish Socialist Party politicians Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Second Polish Republic 20th-century Polish historians Polish male non-fiction writers Ambassadors of Poland to Estonia Polish people of German descent Polish people of Czech descent