Stanisław "Cat" Mackiewicz (18 December 1896 in
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
, Russia – 18 February 1966 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 ...
,
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 ...
) was a conservative Polish writer, journalist and
monarchist.
The interwar journalist
Adolf Maria Bocheński called him the foremost political journalist of the
interbellum 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 ...
.
Life
Mackiewicz was born into a Polish family that had historically used the ''
Bożawola''
coat-of-arms.
Mackiewicz joined the
Polish Military Organisation in 1917 and served as a volunteer in the Polish Army during the
Polish-Soviet War of 1919–21. He published and served as the editor-in-chief of the independent Wilno (Vilnius) periodical titled "Słowo," wholly financially supported by the noble families of the former
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a sovereign state in northeastern Europe that existed from the 13th century, succeeding the Kingdom of Lithuania, to the late 18th century, when the territory was suppressed during the 1795 Partitions of Poland, ...
. He actively promoted the idea of the so-called Jagellonian Poland, i.e., return to the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic (), was a federation, federative real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...
style of governance in Eastern Europe.
He supported
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 ...
[Krzysztof Masłoń: Błazeńska czapka Cata-Mackiewicza](_blank)
at '' Rzeczpospolita'', 4 August 2010. and in 1928–35 served as a deputy to the ''
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' ...
'' (Poland's parliament), representing the
Piłsudskiite Nonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government.
After Piłsudski's death in 1935, Mackiewicz criticized the ruling elite and in 1939 was imprisoned for 17 days at the
Bereza Kartuska detention camp.
On 18 September 1939, a day after the Soviet attack on eastern Poland during the Soviet-German
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 ...
, he left Poland.
Following the Yalta Conference and subsequent occupation by Stalin of Poland and the later establishment of the Communist Poland, Mackiewicz, like so many other political exiles, remained abroad and was politically active in the Polish émigré community. He served as prime minister of the
Polish government-in-exile
The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile (), was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Poland of September 1939, and the subsequent Occupation ...
in 1954–55.
In 1956, Mackiewicz returned to Poland, where he continued writing under the
pseudonym
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...
of Gaston de Cerizay.
[Neubauer, John (editor) 200]
''The Exile and Return of Writers from East-Central Europe: A Compendium''
Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co, Berlin (p. 177) In 1964 he was one of the signatories of the so-called
Letter of 34 to Prime Minister
Józef Cyrankiewicz regarding freedom of culture.
He was the older brother of ardent enemy of the communist system, writer
Józef Mackiewicz.
Works
* ''Historja Polski od 11 listopada 1918 r. do 17 września 1939 r.'' (The History of Poland from 11 November 1918 to 17 September 1939), 1941, 1958, 1989, 1990, 1992
* ''
Stanisław August'', 1953, 1978, 1991, 1999, 2009
* ''Muchy chodzą po mózgu'' (Flies Walk the Brain), 1957
* ''Zielone oczy'' (Green Eyes), 1958, 1959, 1987
* ''Europa in flagranti'' (Europe ''in flagranti''), 1965, 1975, 2000
* ''Odeszli w zmierzch: wybór pism, 1916–1966'' (They Have Passed into the Twilight: a Collection of Writings, 1916–1966), 1968
* ''Kto mnie wołał, czego chciał...'' (Who Called Me, What He Wanted...), Instytut Wydawniczy "Pax" ("Pax" Publishing Institute), 1972
* ''Był bal'' (There Was a Ball), 1973
* ''Herezje i prawdy'' (Heresies and Truths), 1975
* ''Klucz do Piłsudskiego'' (The Key to
Piłsudski), 1986, 1992, 1996
* ''Lata nadziei: 17 września 1939 – 5 lipca 1945'' (Years of Hope: 17 September 1939 – 5 July 1945), 1990
* ''Myśl w obcęgach: studia nad psychologią społeczeństw sowietów'' (Thinking in a Vise: Studies on the Psychology of Soviet Societies), 1998
* ''Polityka Becka'' (
Beck
Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970), known mononymously as Beck, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his Experimental music, experimental and Lo-fi mus ...
's Policies), 2009
* ''Teraz jestem tutaj. Albo może raczej nigdzie = Now I'm here. Or perhaps, rather, nowhere'', edited by Tomasz Wiech and Maciej Zakrzewski. Kraków:
IPN, 2014. Photographs taken in London from 1945 to 1956.
See also
*
List of Poles
This is a partial list of notable Polish people, Polish or Polish language, Polish-speaking or -writing people. People of partial Polish heritage have their respective ancestries credited.
Physics
*Miedziak Antal
* Czesław Białobrzesk ...
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mackiewicz, Stanislaw
1896 births
1966 deaths
20th-century Polish journalists
20th-century Polish male writers
20th-century Roman Catholics
Military personnel from Saint Petersburg
People from Sankt-Peterburgsky Uyezd
Polish nobility
Nonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government politicians
Members of the Sejm of the Second Polish Republic (1928–1930)
Members of the Sejm of the Second Polish Republic (1930–1935)
Association of the Polish Youth "Zet" members
PAX Association members
Polish monarchists
Polish anti-communists
Polish conservatives
Polish exiles
Polish political writers
Polish Roman Catholic writers
Inmates of Bereza Kartuska Prison
Polish people of the Polish–Soviet War
Burials at Powązki Cemetery
People associated with Kultura (magazine)