Stanisław Wojciechowski (Polish: [staˈɲiswaf vɔjt͡ɕɛˈxɔfskʲi]; 15 March 1869 – 9 April 1953) was a Polish politician and scholar who served as President of Poland between 1922 and 1926, during the Second Polish Republic.
He was elected president in 1922, following the assassination of his predecessor Gabriel Narutowicz. During his presidency, Wojciechowski and his erstwhile friend Józef Piłsudski disagreed on the political direction of the nation. In 1926, Piłsudski staged a military coup, which resulted in Wojciechowski's resignation from office.
Stanisław Wojciechowski was born on 15 March 1869 in Kalisz into a Polish noble family with strong ties to the intelligentsia. He was one of seven children of Second Lieutenant Feliks Wojciechowski (1825–1881), a caretaker of a prison in Kalisz who participated during the January Uprising, and his wife Florentyna Vorhoff. He was raised in a spirit of patriotism and devotion to his homeland. In 1888, he graduated from the Men's Classical Junior High School in Kalisz and began his studies at the Imperial University of Warsaw, where he studied at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics until 1891. He belonged to the circle of the most active conspirators, a participant in the secret student groups for self-improvement. Wojciechowski was active during his studies, first in the conspiratorial organisation Association of the Polish Youth "Zet", and later in the burgeoning socialist movement. By 1892, he had abandoned his studies and chosen the life of an exile after his second arrest and detention by the czarist police, first going to Zürich and then Paris. There he learned the trade of typesetter, with which he supported himself.
In 1892, Wojciechowski co-founded the Polish Socialist Party and many nationalists and socialists met in Paris. He travelled several more times illegally to Congress Poland and the Russian Empire and smuggled printing machine components and publications into the country. Together with Piłsudski, he formed the backbone of the socialist movement in Russian Poland. In 1899, he married Maria Wojciechowska, a daughter of a wealthy landowner of szlachta descent.
Political movements and early career
After 1905, he left the Polish Socialist Party over disagreements on the political future of Poland and its relations to the international class struggle. During World War I, Stanisław Wojciechowski believed that Germany posed the biggest threat to Poland and thus decided to stay in Russia rather than side with his erstwhile friend Piłsudski. After the Russian evacuation of Congress Poland in 1915, he moved to Moscow, where he remained active in Polish political circles. After the fall of the Tsarist regime, he was elected president of the Council of Polish Parties' Union, and heavily engaged on behalf of the Polish Army in Russia in 1918. He was forced to leave Moscow under threat of arrest once the Bolshevik regime seized power. On 15 January 1919, the Chief of State nominated him Minister of Internal Affairs, in both the Cabinet of Ignacy Jan Paderewski and Leopold Skulski, whom Wojciechowski replaced during his numerous absences from the country. During this time, Wojciechowski also participated in the drafting of the Polish constitution.
In the legislative elections, Wojciechowski served as the candidate for the Senate, though he failed to win a seat. After the legislative elections, a balance appeared between the left and right forces. This situation also preponderated in the National Assembly, which was to select a new president of Poland and produce a new presidential election. Piłsudski did not want to put up his candidacy, and Wincenty Witos was perceived as a person communicating with the right and not paying attention to the interests of rural villages. Therefore, the Polish People's Party "Piast" put forward and appointed Wojciechowski as the new candidate for the presidency, not involved in current political games. He accepted this decision, but when the Polish People's Party "Wyzwolenie" informed him that Gabriel Narutowicz planned to withdraw from the presidential race. Witos persuaded Narutowicz not to do that.
Wojciechowski was defeated in the fourth ballot to Count Maurycy Zamoyski, who received 228 votes and Wojciechowski only reached 152 votes. At the time of the elections, the main candidates were Zamoyski and Wojciechowski. Narutowicz's good result was a surprise. Once the long voting was over, Zamoyski and Narutowicz advanced to the fifth ballot. Narutowicz finally won the election with the support of "Piast" (Wojciechowski was eliminated on the fourth round). Narutowicz prevailed thanks to the votes of the left, of the representatives for national minorities (these representatives were determined to defeat the National Democracy movement) and of the centrist Polish People's Party "Piast". This last group, initially inclined toward Zamoyski, unexpectedly switched its backing to Narutowicz instead. Eventually, Narutowicz won 289 votes, whereas Zamoyski won only 227 votes, and so Narutowicz was elected the first president of the Second Polish Republic.
Following the assassination of President Narutowicz by Eligiusz Niewiadomski on 16 December 1922, Marshal of the Sejm Maciej Rataj, who served briefly as acting head of state after the assassination, set the date of a new presidential election on 20 December 1922. The right-wing put forward the candidacy of Professor Kazimierz Morawski. Wojciechowski was nominated again as a compromise candidate. Władysław Sikorski was also suggested as a compromise. Originally, Wincenty Witos recommended that his own party, PSL, vote for Morawski. The left wing of PSL opposed this, however, and decided to vote for Wojciechowski, in connection with the events that led to the murder of Narutowicz. As a result of the internal party discussion, it was decided to support Wojciechowski's candidacy. In the first round, Wojciechowski secured 298 votes, with Morawski only gaining 221 votes. Wojciechowski won the election and became the second president of Poland. After the election, representatives of the National Assembly appeared in Wojciechowski's residence to notify him about his election as president. He considered that the will of the Sejm and the Senate should be followed. Alfons Erdman appeared at Wojciechowski's office and demanded that he abstain from accepting his choice. It was, nevertheless, too late; Wojciechowski decided that a delay in this matter was improper. On 20 December 1922, Wojciechowski took the presidential oath and became president.
During his presidency, Wojciechowski attempted to be an enthusiastic politician who was involved in the performance of the government. He actively supported the non-parliamentary ministry of Władysław Sikorski and Władysław Grabski. The height of the president's political influence corresponded with Grabski's cabinet period of activity. Wojciechowski participated in the Political Committee of the Council of Ministers and had an impact on the content of ordinances on the currency reform, created under special powers of attorney granted to the cabinet by the Sejm. Wojciechowski attempted to shape the Polish constitutional system by introducing a constructive vote of no confidence. The mission of forming a new government was entrusted to the leader of the largest group participating in the overthrow of the previous cabinet, and when Wojciechowski failed to select a cabinet, he advocated leaving the old cabinet or establishing a non-parliamentary cabinet. Wojciechowski used this method after the fall of the second cabinet of Wincenty Witos when he committed the purpose of setting a new ministry to Stanisław Thugutt. Another indication of Wojciechowski's constitutional system was the adoption, opposite to the provisions of the constitution, that the Sejm was assembling enduringly, and not in the session system. Wojciechowski never closed the session of the Sejm, which was dictated by the constitution.
Wojciechowski tried to maintain good relations with Józef Piłsudski, who was in perpetual dispute with the succeeding cabinets and some parliamentary groups. The reason for the conflict was the organisation of the military authorities. Piłsudski always saw Wojciechowski as a person who would take his side. In June 1923, Stanisław Szeptycki addressed to the Sejm a bill on the highest military authorities, announcing the liquidation of the powerful military council, which Piłsudski served as the chairman, flaring up a sharp dispute between him and the Marshal. Wojciechowski tried to settle this dispute. Accordingly, Piłsudski sent a letter to the president in which he addressed him with the words: "You have acted as a hangover in the matter of honour, which does not respect the rights of honour and forgets that honour belongs to people personally, not officially." Wojciechowski tried to negotiate between the opposing parties, including taking into account the Maciej Rataj's commentaries, who objected to committing the position of Minister of Military Affairs to Władysław Sikorski. Piłsudski did not want to compromise and treated Wojciechowski, as Rataj regarded, defiantly and as a servant.