The Chief of State (; ) was the title of the

head of state A head of state is the public persona of a sovereign state.#Foakes, Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representative of its international persona." The name given to the office of head of sta ...

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 ...

in the early years of 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 ...

. This office was held only by

Józef Piłsudski Józef Klemens Piłsudski (; 5 December 1867 – 12 May 1935) was a Polish statesman who served as the Chief of State (Poland), Chief of State (1918–1922) and first Marshal of Poland (from 1920). In the aftermath of World War I, he beca ...

, from 1918 to 1922. Until 1919, the title was called the Provisional Chief of State (). After 1922, the Polish head of state became the

President of Poland The president of Poland ( ), officially the president of the Republic of Poland (), is the head of state of Poland. His or her prerogatives and duties are determined in the Constitution of Poland. The president jointly exercises the executive ...

. The office of Chief of State was created by a Regency Council decree of 22 November 1918, which established a system of governance for Poland pending its revision by a democratically elected ''

Sejm The Sejm (), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (), is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of the Third Polish Republic since the Polish People' ...

'' (parliament). The ''Naczelnik'' exercised the highest civil and military power in the country. He was Commander-in-Chief of the

Polish Army The Land Forces () are the Army, land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 110,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military histor ...

, with powerful prerogatives in the field of

foreign relations Foreign policy, also known as external policy, is the set of strategies and actions a State (polity), state employs in its interactions with other states, unions, and international entities. It encompasses a wide range of objectives, includ ...

. He appointed government ministers, who answered to him, including the

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

. Provisional decrees could be promulgated by the Chief of State with the countersignatures of the Prime Minister and the relevant minister, though any such laws were to be reviewed by the first subsequent Sejm. Józef Piłsudski, who was chosen as Chief of State, relinquished his powers to the first Sejm on February 20, 1919; however, the Sejm requested that he remain Chief of State, stating the powers of the office (now without the word "Provisional") in the Small Constitution of 1919. The Chief of State remained Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Army, named the government (subject to confirmation by the Sejm) and held the highest

executive power The executive branch is the part of government which executes or enforces the law. Function The scope of executive power varies greatly depending on the political context in which it emerges, and it can change over time in a given country. In ...

. He was a member of the Council of National Defence (''Rada Obrony Państwa''), created during the

Polish–Soviet War The Polish–Soviet War (14 February 1919 – 18 March 1921) was fought primarily between the Second Polish Republic and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, following World War I and the Russian Revolution. After the collapse ...

which had threatened the survival of the newly recreated Polish state. Piłsudski relinquished his powers to the newly elected President of Poland, Gabriel Narutowicz, on 14 December 1922.

References

Naczelnik Państwa
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304071759/http://portalwiedzy.onet.pl/45036,,,,naczelnik_panstwa,haslo.html , date=2016-03-04 , WIEM Encyklopedia
Naczelnik Państwa
Encyklopedia PWN 1918 establishments in Poland Heads of state of Poland Titles of national or ethnic leadership Polish titles 1922 disestablishments in Poland * Politics of the Second Polish Republic