Wladyslaw Raczkiewicz
Władysław Raczkiewicz (January 28 1885–June 6 1947) was a Polish political figure and the first president of the Polish government in exile from 1939 until his death in 1947. Wladyslaw, the son of a judge, was born in Russia. He studied in St. Petersburg were he joined the Polish Youth Organization. After graduating from the Faculty of Law at the University of Dorpat he worked as a lawyer in Minsk. On the outbreak of World War I he joined the underground movement for Polish freedom. He served under Josef Pilsudski, who built a private army that would gain Poland independence from Russia. During the Russian Civil War, Pilsudski appointed Raczkiewicz as his Minister of Internal Affairs. Later he became Speaker of the Senate. When Poland was invaded by the German Army in 1939, he escaped to London, where he joined Wladyslaw Sikorski and Stanislaw Mikolajczyk to establish a Polish Government in Exile. In February, 1945, Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt held the Yalta Conference. Poland was the main debating point. Stalin explained that only a strong, pro-Communist Government in Poland would be able to guarantee the security of the Soviet Union. As a result of the conference the Allies withdrew their recognition for the Polish Government in Exile. Raczkiewicz died in 1947.
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