Leon Tadeusz Kozłowski (; 6 June 1892 – 11 May 1944) was a Polish archaeologist, freemason and politician who served as

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 ...

from 1934 to 1935.

Biography

Leon Kozłowski was born in 1892 in the village of Rembieszyce near Małogoszcz. Prior to 1914 he moved with his family to Lwów in Galicia (now

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukrain ...

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 ...

), where he joined the local university. He also joined the Riflemen Union and ''Association of Progressive Youth''. After 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

Józef Piłsudski Józef Klemens Piłsudski (; 5 December 1867 – 12 May 1935) was a Polish statesman who served as the Naczelnik państwa, Chief of State (1918–1922) and Marshal of Poland, First Marshal of Second Polish Republic, Poland (from 1920). He was ...

's Polish Legions, where he served in the 1st Uhlans Regiment. After the Oath Crisis of 1917 he joined the

Polish Military Organization 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 ...

and organized the cadres of the future

Polish Army The Land Forces () are the land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 62,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military history stre ...

. When Poland regained her independence in 1918, Kozłowski volunteered for the Polish Army and served with distinction during the Polish-Bolshevik War. Afterwards he was demobilized and returned to Lwów, where he completed his studies at the University of Jan Kazimierz. In 1921 he became a professor there and the head of the ''Faculty of Pre-history''. He held that post between 1921 and 1931 and then again between 1935 and 1939. He was also active in various social and political organizations, including the ''Society for the Repair of the Republic''. As such, following a

military coup A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

in 1928 he got involved in the BBWR movement and the same year he was elected to 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 ...

. He held the post of a Member of Parliament until 1935, when he was chosen to the

Senate of Poland The Senate ( pl, Senat) is the upper house of the Polish parliament, the lower house being the Sejm. The history of the Polish Senate stretches back over 500 years; it was one of the first constituent bodies of a bicameral parliament in Europe ...

. During his political career he held various posts in several governments led by the

Sanacja Sanation ( pl, Sanacja, ) was a Polish political movement that was created in the interwar period, prior to Józef Piłsudski's May 1926 ''Coup d'État'', and came to power in the wake of that coup. In 1928 its political activists would go on ...

movement. He was responsible for the establishment of the prison camp at Bereza Kartuska. Between 1930 and 1935 he was the minister of agrarian reforms. At the same time, between 1932 and 1933 he was a sub-secretary of state in the Ministry of Treasury. Finally, on 15 May 1934, Kozłowski became the

. He held that post until 28 March 1935, when he was replaced by Walery Sławek. On the insistence of Piłsudski, all of the ministers of Kozłowski's government were included in the new government. After death of

Marshal of Poland Marshal of Poland ( pl, Marszałek Polski) is the highest rank in the Polish Army. It has been granted to only six officers. At present, Marshal is equivalent to a Field Marshal or General of the Army (OF-10) in other NATO armies. History To ...

, Kozłowski remained an active politician for some time. He was seen as a representative of the leftist part of the

movement and a supporter of Walery Sławek. However, the latter lost the race to Piłsudski's heritage and Kozłowski returned to Lwów, where he reassumed his posts at the University. In 1937 he also briefly got involved in the Obóz Zjednoczenia Narodowego movement, but without much success. After the Polish Defensive War of 1939 and the outbreak of the World War II, Leon Kozłowski remained in Lwów, where he was 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 spent almost two years in various Soviet prisons, and finally was sentenced to death for "anti-Soviet behaviour". However, after the Sikorski–Mayski agreement of 1941 he was released and travelled to Buzuluk, where he tried joined up with the Polish Army formed there by general

Władysław Anders ) , birth_name = Władysław Albert Anders , birth_date = , birth_place = Krośniewice-Błonie, Warsaw Governorate, Congress Poland, Russian Empire , death_date = , death_place = London, England, United Kingdom , serviceyear ...

. Due to his political past, he was refused. He then left the military camp and started his 1000-mile long trip westwards, accompanied by one officer, intending to join the Germans. He crossed the Soviet-German frontline, for which he was sentenced to death by a Polish court. German authorities sent him on to Berlin. Whilst there he took part in talks with the Nazi authorities, which saw him as a possible collaborationist, and an ally in winning the Poles over to the German cause. It is certain however, that in May 1943 he was sent to the site of the

Katyn Massacre The Katyn massacre, "Katyń crime"; russian: link=yes, Катынская резня ''Katynskaya reznya'', "Katyn massacre", or russian: link=no, Катынский расстрел, ''Katynsky rasstrel'', "Katyn execution" was a series of m ...

as one of the experts brought to the site by the German authorities. Though he had expressed doubts of the version of the events as presented by the Reich Ministry for Propaganda under Joseph Goebbels, he became convinced of the Soviet guilt after having seen the mass graves and conversed with the members of the expert commission of the Polish Red Cross under forensic doctor Marian WodzińskiTomasz Wolsza: ''„To co wiedziałem przekracza swją grozą najśmielsze fantazje“. Wojenne i powojenne losy Polaków wizytujących Katyń w 1943 roku.'' Warszawa 2015, s. 40. The pro-German Polish language daily Goniec Krakowski cited Kozłowski as saying that he had recognized acquaintances among the dead bodies, among them professors from Lwów and ministerial officials from Warsaw.Gdzie występuje bolszewizm – tam leje się krew, in: ''Goniec Krakowski'', 30/31 May 1943, p. 2. - http://dlibra.kul.pl/Content/39177/42907.pdf Interned in Berlin (he lived in hotel Alemannia), Leon Kozłowski found work at an ethnographic museum and could pursue scientific research. He was also awarded a considerable monthly pension. He was wounded in one of Allied air raids on the German capital and died of his wounds on 11 May 1944.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kozlowski, Leon 1892 births 1944 deaths People from Jędrzejów County People from Kielce Governorate Polish Socialist Party – Revolutionary Faction politicians Nonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government politicians Camp of National Unity politicians Prime Ministers of Poland 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) Senators of the Second Polish Republic (1935–1938) Polish Freemasons Polish Military Organisation members Polish legionnaires (World War I) 20th-century Polish archaeologists Members of the Lwów Scientific Society People sentenced to death in absentia Polish people detained by the NKVD Burials at Powązki Cemetery 20th-century archaeologists