Stanisław Mikołajczyk
On Sunday 21st July 1901 the baby Stanislaus was baptised by the Catholic priest Josef Schneider in the church of St Mary in Eickel (registry number 438). His godparents were his mother’s sister, Viktoria Parysek, and a colleague of his father, a miner by the name of Joseph Gatka.
The family’s plans were ruined when the father suffered a heavy accident at work in 1907, following which he could only be employed as a surface worker. In 1908 his wife returned to Benice with her son who had just turned seven, and used her savings to purchase a six hectare farm in Striesen (Strzyżewo) in the rural district of Gnesen (Gniezno). Her husband remained in Holsterhausen until 1912 where he completed a training as a locksmith.
After finishing school young Stanisłav worked alternatively on his family’s farm and in a neighbouring sugar beet factory where he got to know some members of the National Polish association known as the “Falcons” (Sokół) and joined their group. On 20th June 1919 Poland became an independent country following the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. In August 1920 Mikołajczyk volunteered for service in the army of the Polish Marshall Piłsudski. Here they fought off the oncoming Red Army on the River Weichsel and pushed back the Soviets, who regarded Poland as “a renegade Russian province”, to the east. In the Peace of Riga the eastern borders of Poland were recognised by the Soviet Union on 18th March 1921.
Stanisław Mikołajczyk was wounded during battle and released from the army. He returned to the farm in Striesen and expanded it from 6 to 20 hectares. In the following years he attended agricultural courses at the adult educational centre in Gnesen. In 1924 he became the Secretary of the Farmers Party (Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe PSL) in Poznan, edited a journal for farmers and tenants, and struggled politically against Marshall Piłsudski, who had set up a military dictatorship in Poland in 1926. In 1924 he married his youthful sweetheart Cecylia Ignasiak, and in 1926 his son Marian was born. Up until then his career had proceeded sharply upwards. In 1930 he entered the Sejm as a Member of Parliament for the Farmers Party in the constituency of Gnesen. He was helped by the fact of being a successful farmer, having considerable agronomic knowledge, being a talented orator, and on account of his fame as a war hero and his good looks.
On 27th August 1939 Mikołajczyk signed up as a private in a unit in West Poland and took part in trying to defend Poland against the German invasion of 1st September 1939. After defeat he fled to Paris via Hungary, Yugoslavia and Italy. Here he became a member of the Polish Government in exile but after the capitulation of France in 1940 it moved to London in order to organise military units of Polish exiles in the West. On 27th January 1940 Mikołajczyk was named the Minister of the Interior in the exile government. In the company of General Sikorsky (the Minister President of the Polish exile government) he visited Canada and the USA, and in December 1941, Moscow. There they signed an agreement with Stalin to fight against Hitler’s imperialism. On 22nd January 1942 Mikołajczyk was named as deputy Minister President on account of his diplomatic and organisational services to the exile government.
