Henryk Golański (1 January 1908 – 13 June 1995) was a Polish electrical engineer, diplomat and politician, appointed as the Minister of Higher Education from 1959 to 1965 (presently Ministry of Science and Higher Education).

Biography

Henryk Golański was born on 1 January 1908 in

Łódź Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...

, a son of Franciszek and Maria Golański. He finished his studies at the

Warsaw University of Technology The Warsaw University of Technology () is one of the leading institutes of technology in Poland and one of the largest in Central Europe. It employs 2,453 teaching faculty, with 357 professors (including 145 titular professors). The student body ...

. In the years 1932–1933, Golański was an engineer and manager of construction and assembly works at the Łódź Heat Power Stations and the Municipal Board in Lódź. He then served in the military as part of the staff at the Cadet Corps in

Siedlce Siedlce () ( ) is a city in the Masovian Voivodeship in eastern Poland with 77,354 inhabitants (). The city is situated between two small rivers, the Muchawka and the Helenka, and lies along the European route E30, around east of Warsaw. It is ...

, obtaining a platoon rank. From 1929 to 1932, Golański was a member of the Association of Independent Socialist Youth (ZNMS) "Życie". During 1934–1939, he worked as a designer at the State Tele and Radio Works in Warsaw. From 1939, he was also a member of the

Union of Armed Struggle The Union of Armed StruggleThus rendered in Norman Davies, ''God's Playground: A History of Poland'', vol. II, p. 464. (; ZWZ), also translated as the Union for Armed Struggle, Association of Armed Struggle, and Association for Armed Struggle ...

, and then the

Home Army The Home Army (, ; abbreviated AK) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) established in the ...

under the pseudonym "Marek". During the war, Golański was part of the resistance and participated in the Warsaw uprising, although in a minor role. This was not something to be proud of under Socialist Poland and, therefore, tended to be downplayed. He died on 13 June 1995 in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

Politics

He joined the

Polish Workers' Party The Polish Workers' Party (, PPR) was a communist party in Poland from 1942 to 1948. It was founded as a reconstitution of the Communist Party of Poland (KPP) and merged with the Polish Socialist Party (PPS) in 1948 to form the Polish United W ...

in 1946, and would later belong to the

Polish United Workers' Party The Polish United Workers' Party (, ), commonly abbreviated to PZPR, was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other legally permitted subordinate minor parti ...

. Between 1947 and 1949, Golański worked at the Ministry of Industry, from 1947 to 1949 at the Department of Industry and Trade, then at the Department of Light Industry as Undersecretary of State in 1950. Afterwards, he joined the Ministry of Higher Education (also as undersecretary of state from 1951). From 18 June 1959 to 14 December 1965, he served as a minister in the government of Józef Cyrankiewicz. From 1966 to 1970 he was the ambassador of Poland to Greece.

Honors

He was awarded the First Class

Order of the Banner of Work The Order of the Banner of Labour () was a governmental award in Poland during the 20th-century era of the Polish People's Republic, a former Marxist-Leninist state. The order was established by the Sejm (a chamber of the Polish parliament) on 2 ...

in 1964.

References

Engineers from Łódź Ambassadors of Poland to Cyprus Ambassadors of Poland to Greece 1908 births 1995 deaths Politicians from Łódź Home Army members Government ministers of Poland Diplomats from Łódź {{Poland-politician-stub