Mieczysław Thugutt
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Mieczysław Thugutt (; 20 May 1902 – 8 March 1979) was Polish politician and refugee who lived in the United Kingdom.


Early life

Thugutt was born in 1902 in
Ćmielów Ćmielów is a town in Ostrowiec County, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, Poland, seat of Gmina Ćmielów. As of December 2021, it has 2,954 inhabitants. It is known for one of Poland's oldest Ćmielów Porcelain Factory, porcelain factories dating ...
,
Congress Poland Congress Poland or Congress Kingdom of Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It was established w ...
to Maryla Kozanecka and
Stanisław Thugutt Stanisław August Thugutt (30 July 1873 – 15 June 1941) was a Polish activist and politician during the interwar period of the Second Polish Republic. During World War I, he was a soldier in the Polish Legions. He was the founder and leader o ...
. As a member of the
Polish Socialist Party The Polish Socialist Party (, PPS) is a democratic socialist political party in Poland. It was one of the most significant parties in Poland from its founding in 1892 until its forced merger with the communist Polish Workers' Party to form ...
, he took part in the
Third Silesian Uprising The Silesian Uprisings (; ; ) were a series of three uprisings from August 1919 to July 1921 in Upper Silesia, which was part of the Weimar Republic at the time. Ethnic Polish and Polish-Silesian insurrectionists, seeking to have the area tra ...
, having just turned 20 years old. Following the conflict he went on to study mechanical engineering 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 ...
.


Career

On graduation, Thuggut became an assistant to one of its professors Michał Broszko, before taking a job as an engineer at the
Marconi Company The Marconi Company was a British telecommunications and engineering company founded by Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi in 1897 which was a pioneer of wireless long distance communication and mass media broadcasting, eventually becoming on ...
in 1929. The following year he started a position at the firm of
Lilpop, Rau i Loewenstein Lilpop, Rau i Loewenstein (, often shortened to Lilpop or LRL) was a Polish engineering company. Established in 1818 as an iron foundry, with time it rose to become a large holding company specialising in iron and steel production, as well as all ...
, where he continued working until 1939.


World War II

Following the
Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...
in 1939, Thugutt first moved to
Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...
then, soon after the
Soviet occupation of the Baltic states The occupation of the Baltic states was a period of annexation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania by the Soviet Union from 1940 until its dissolution in 1991. For a period of several years during World War II, Nazi Germany occupied the Baltic st ...
, emigrated to neutral Sweden. Residing in
Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
he took on the pseudonym Adam under which he worked in the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the
government-in-exile A government-in-exile (GiE) is a political group that claims to be the legitimate government of a sovereign state or semi-sovereign state, but is unable to exercise legal power and instead resides in a foreign country. Governments in exile usu ...
. In 1942 Thugutt once again emigrated, this time leaving for the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
. Once there Thugutt became closely acquainted with
Stanisław Mikołajczyk Stanisław Mikołajczyk (; 18 July 1901 – 13 December 1966) was a Polish politician. He was a prime minister of the Polish government-in-exile during World War II, and later Deputy Prime Minister in post-war Poland until 1947. Biography Bac ...
, and was tasked with supervising the secret radio station .


Post–war

With the liberation of Poland by the Soviet Union, talks were undertaken to establish the
Provisional Government of National Unity The Provisional Government of National Unity (, TRJN) was a puppet government formed by the decree of the State National Council (, KRN) on 28 June 1945 as a result of reshuffling the Soviet-backed Provisional Government of the Republic of Pola ...
. Thugutt was subsequently appointed to the position of Minister of Post and Telegraphs on the suggestion of Mikołajczyk. However, Thugutt refused to leave the UK to take up his post and was only in his position nominally. Thereafter he became something of an opponent of Mikołajczyk, although remaining loyal to the
Polish People's Party The Polish People's Party (, PSL) is a conservative political party in Poland. It is currently led by Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz. Its history traces back to 1895, when it held the name People's Party, although its name was changed to the pre ...
. In the aftermath of World War II, an investigation into
War crimes A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hos ...
uncovered the accidental role Thugutt had played in the execution of his former school friend
Stanisław Dubois Stanisław Józef Dubois (9 January 1901 – 21 August 1942) was a Polish journalist and political activist in the Second Polish Republic, member of the left wing of the Polish Socialist Party, as well as the Youth Organisation of the Workers' U ...
. Having sent Dubois a food parcel while he was interned at
Auschwitz Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, 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 consisted of Auschw ...
, Thugutt unwittingly exposed his friend to the attention of the
Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
resulting in the former's execution.


Guesthouse in Brockley

After the war Thugutt opened and ran a
guesthouse A guest house (or guesthouse, also rest house) is a kind of lodging. In some parts of the world (such as the Caribbean), a guest house is a type of inexpensive hotel-like lodging. In others, it is a private home that has been converted for the e ...
in
Brockley Brockley is a district and an wards of the United Kingdom, electoral ward of south London, England, in the London Borough of Lewisham south-east of Charing Cross. It has been named the best area of London to live in. It is an area rich in Vi ...
. In 1947
Zofia Zofia is a Slavic given name of Old Greek origin, meaning wisdom. It is a variant of Sofia. Famous people with the name Zofia: * Anna Zofia Sapieha (1799–1864) * Maria Zofia Sieniawska * Zofia Albinowska-Minkiewiczowa (1886–1971) * Zofia Balt ...
and
Stefan Korboński Stefan Korboński (2 March 1901 – 23 April 1989) was a Polish agrarian politician, lawyer, journalist, and a notable member of the wartime authorities of the Polish Secret State. Among others, he was the last person to hold the post of Govern ...
stayed at hiss guesthouse on their way to exile in the United States.


Personal life

Whilst living in Warsaw during the
Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 7 October 1918 and 6 October 1939. The state was established in the final stage of World War I ...
Thugutt is known to have wedded although the marriage was brief. In exile, Thugutt settled in the south-east London district of Brockley, where he lived with his mother (until her death in 1949) his second wife, and two children from his first marriage.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thugutt, Mieczyslaw 1902 births 1979 deaths People from Ostrowiec County Polish emigrants to the United Kingdom Polish politicians