Wojciech Jacek Zajączkowski (born 19 December 1963 in

Bydgoszcz Bydgoszcz ( , , ; german: Bromberg) is a city in northern Poland, straddling the meeting of the River Vistula with its left-bank tributary, the Brda. With a city population of 339,053 as of December 2021 and an urban agglomeration with more ...

) is a Polish diplomat and historian. Ambassador of Poland to China (2018–2023),

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

(2010–2014), and

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

(2008–2010).

Life

Education

Wojciech Zajączkowski graduated from history at the

Catholic University of Lublin John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin ( pl, Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II, la, Universitas Catholica Lublinensis Ioannis Pauli II, abbreviation KUL), established in 1918. It is the only private college in Poland with the s ...

in 1987. In 1999 he defended at the Institute of Political Studies of the

Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences ( pl, Polska Akademia Nauk, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of ...

his

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

thesis on ethnic minorities in 19th-century Russia and

USSR 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 nationa ...

Career

Till the early 1990s he has been working as an editor. From 1991 to 1998 for the

Centre for Eastern Studies The Centre for Eastern Studies ( pl, Ośrodek Studiów Wschodnich, OSW) is a Warsaw-based think tank that undertakes independent research on the political, economic and social situation in Central and Eastern Europe, Balkans, Caucasus and Central ...

as an analyst,

Senate of Poland The Senate ( pl, Senat) is the upper house of the Parliament of Poland, Polish parliament, the lower house being the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, Sejm. The history of the Polish Senate stretches back over 500 years; it was one of the first co ...

as an advisor,

Stefan Batory Foundation The Stefan Batory Foundation ( pl, Fundacja im. Stefana Batorego) is an independent Polish non-government organization established by American financier and philanthropist, George Soros, along with a group of Polish opposition leaders of 1980s, and ...

as a director of the Central-Eastern Europe Forum. In 1998 he joined the Polish

diplomatic service Diplomatic service is the body of diplomats and foreign policy officers maintained by the government of a country to communicate with the governments of other countries. Diplomatic personnel obtains diplomatic immunity when they are accredited to ...

, working at the embassy in

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 million ...

. In 2000 he became

chargé d’affaires Chargé () is a commune in the Indre-et-Loire department in central France. Chargé is a small town near Amboise. The Rock 'in Chargé festival has revitalized the village sinc2006 Population The inhabitants are called ''Chargéens''. See a ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

, responsible for

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the sout ...

as well. From 2004 to 2007 he headed the Department for Eastern Policy at the

Polish Ministry 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 ...

, and in 2008 he became the Chief Advisor to the

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 ...

and Head of the Working Group on Energy Security. He served as the Poland ambassador to

(2008–2010) and

(2010–2014). Later, he was the Director of the Department of Foreign Policy Strategy at the MFA (2014–2018). In January 2018 he became the

Republic of Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

Ambassador to the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. He presented his credentials to the

President of the People's Republic of China The president of the People's Republic of China, commonly called the president of China, is the head of state and the second-highest political office of the People's Republic of China. The presidency is constitutionally a largely ceremonial off ...

Xi Jinping Xi Jinping ( ; ; ; born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and thus as the paramount leader of China, s ...

on 23 March 2018. He ended his term on 18 August 2023. Between September 2023 and January 2024, he held the post of the deputy director of the MFA Asia-Pacific Department. Since 10 January 2024, he is the director of this Department.

Private life

Wojciech Zajączkowski is married to Izabella Zajączkowska, with three children. Besides his native

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

, he speaks

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

and

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

languages.

Awards

In 2009 he received the Romanian

National Order of Faithful Service The National Order of Faithful Service ( ro, Ordinul Național "Serviciul Credincios") is the second highest national order of Romania, with the Order of the Star of Romania being the highest national order. Originally it was established as the M ...

Works

* ''Federacja czy rozpad Rosji?'', Warszawa: Ośrodek Studiów Wschodnich, 1994. * ''W poszukiwaniu tożsamości społecznej. Inteligencja baszkirska, buriacka i tatarska wobec kwestii narodowej w Cesarstwie Rosyjskim i ZSRR''. Lublin: IESW, 2001. . * ''Czy Rosja przetrwa do roku 2000'', Warszawa: Oficyna Wydawnicza MOST, 1993. * ''Rosja i narody. Ósmy kontynent, Szkic dziejów Eurazji'', Warszawa: Wydawnictwo MG, 2009. ** Czech translation by

Petruška Šustrová Petruška Šustrová (18 May 1947 – 6 May 2023) was a Czech dissident, journalist, and translator. She was a signatory of Charter 77 Charter 77 (''Charta 77'' in Czech and Slovak) was an informal civic initiative in the Czechoslovak So ...

: ''Rusko a národy: Osmý kontinent'', Misgurnus 2011. . *''Zrozumieć innych. Metoda analityczna w polityce zagranicznej''. Warszawa: Krajowa Szkoła Administracji Publicznej, 2011. .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zajaczkowski, Wojciech Ambassadors of Poland to China Ambassadors of Poland to Romania Ambassadors of Poland to Russia Ambassadors of Poland to Turkmenistan Historians of Russia John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin alumni People from Bydgoszcz 20th-century Polish historians Polish male non-fiction writers Polish political scientists Recipients of the National Order of Faithful Service Living people 1963 births