General Stanisław Maczek: A Biographical Profile

Abstract

In the modern era, from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, Poland has produced very few distinguished political personalities, but a host of military heroes. Other than Roman Dmowski, the National Democratic leader and ideologue, and most recently Lech Wałęsa, in his role as leader of Solidarność, the political sphere has been populated by, at best, competent worthies, and at worst by the grey-faced apparatchiks of the postwar Communist era. That military men have been pre-eminent may simply be a reflection of the peculiar nature of Poland’s history, in which the struggle to preserve, regain and consolidate her freedom and independence has overriden everything else.