Wojciech Jacek Zajączkowski (born 19 December 1963 in

Bydgoszcz Bydgoszcz is a city in northern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Kuyavia. Straddling the confluence of the Vistula River and its bank (geography), left-bank tributary, the Brda (river), Brda, the strategic location of Byd ...

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

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

(2010–2014), and

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

(2008–2010).

Life

Education

Wojciech Zajączkowski graduated from history at the

Catholic University of Lublin John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin (, , abbreviation KUL) is a university established in 1918. History Father Idzi Benedykt Radziszewski founded the university in 1918. Lenin allowed the priest to take the library and equipment of ...

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

Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences (, 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 distinguished scholars a ...

his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

thesis on ethnic minorities in 19th-century Russia and

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

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 (, 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 Asia. The centre was founded i ...

as an analyst,

Senate of Poland The Senate () 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 constituent ...

as an advisor,

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

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 obtain diplomatic immunity when they are accredited to o ...

, working at the embassy in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. In 2000 he became chargé d’affaires in

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

, responsible for

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the south and southwest and the Caspian Sea to the west. Ash ...

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

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

, and in 2008 he became the Chief Advisor to the

Prime Minister of Poland A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only wa ...

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 extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

Ambassador to the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. He presented his credentials to the

President of the People's Republic of China The president of China, officially the president of the People's Republic of China, is the List of state representatives of the People's Republic of China, state representative of the China, People's Republic of China. On its own, it is a Fig ...

Xi Jinping Xi Jinping, pronounced (born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has been the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (China), chairman of the Central Military Commission ...

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 * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

, he speaks English, French,

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) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

and Ukrainian languages.

Awards

In 2009 he received the Romanian

National Order of Faithful Service The National Order of Faithful Service () is the second highest national order of Romania after the Order of the Star of Romania, and the third highest State decoration, with the Order of Michael the Brave being the first. Originally it was establ ...

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: ''Rusko a národy: Osmý kontinent'', Misgurnus 2011. . *''Zrozumieć innych. Metoda analityczna w polityce zagranicznej''. Warszawa: Krajowa Szkoła Administracji Publicznej, 2011. . *''Rozumieć politykę międzynarodową. Metody analizy źródeł otwartych''. Warszawa: Ośrodek Studiów Wschodnich, Wydawnictwo Scholar, 2025. .

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