Zofia Moraczewska, née Gostkowska (4 July 1873 – 16 November 1958) was a Polish politician and

women's rights activist Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...

Life

Zofia Moraczewska was born of 4 July 1873 in Czernowitz,

Duchy of Bukovina The Duchy of Bukovina (german: Herzogtum Bukowina; ro, Ducatul Bucovinei; uk, Герцогство Буковина) was a constituent land of the Austrian Empire from 1849 and a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary from 1867 until 1918 ...

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

(now Chernivtsi,

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 ...

) and graduated from the Teacher's Seminary in

Lemberg Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in Western Ukraine, western Ukraine, and the List of cities in Ukraine, seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is o ...

, the capital of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Lviv, Ukraine), in 1893. She married

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 ...

three years later and joined the

Social Democratic Party of Galicia Polish Social Democratic Party of Galicia ( pl, Polska Partia Socjalno-Demokratyczna Galicji) was a political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common ...

( pl, Galicyjska Partia Socjaldemokratyczna (GPS) or pl, Socjaldemokratyczna Partia Galicji) that same year. They had four children between 1901 and 1907, although the youngest did not survive infancy. Her husband was elected to the

House of Deputies The House of Deputies is one of the legislative houses of the bicameral General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. The other is the House of Bishops. Membership Each diocese of the Episcopal Church, as well as the ...

of the Imperial Council in 1907, representing Stryj (now Stryi, Ukraine), and became the first Prime Minister of the

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 ...

for several months in 1918–19. Moraczewska 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 t ...

and was an editor for the ''Voice of Women'' ( pl, Głos Kobiet), the official newspaper of the Polish Socialist Party's (the renamed GPS) Women's Department from 1919 to 1927. One of her sons died in 1920 during the

Polish–Soviet War The Polish–Soviet War (Polish–Bolshevik War, Polish–Soviet War, Polish–Russian War 1919–1921) * russian: Советско-польская война (''Sovetsko-polskaya voyna'', Soviet-Polish War), Польский фронт (' ...

, her husband in 1944 and her two surviving children were killed in the

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

during World War II. She died on 16 November 1958 in her home in Sulejówek.

Activities

Once the couple settled in Stryj, Moraczewska founded the Women's Association ( pl, Związek Kobiet), which started a school for working women and several

cooperatives A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

. She joined the Women's League of Silezia and Galicia ( pl, Liga Kobiet Galicji i Śląska) in 1915, after the start of

World War I 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 ...

.Durfat, pp. 348–49

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Moraczewska, Zofia 1873 births 1958 deaths Polish women's rights activists Politicians from Chernivtsi People from the Duchy of Bukovina Polish Austro-Hungarians Polish socialist feminists 20th-century Polish women politicians Members of the Legislative Sejm of the Second Polish Republic Members of the Sejm of the Second Polish Republic (1930–1935) Nonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government politicians Officers of the Order of Polonia Restituta