Sikorski, Wladyslaw

b. 1881; d. 1943

Polish statesman and soldier, born in Galacia. He studied in Cracow and at the Lvov Technical College. In the First World War he supported the policy of the restoration of Poland by the Central Powers, and later commanded an army in the Polish-Soviet War (1919-20). In 1921 he was chief of the general staff and in 1922 prime minister, restoring order and obtaining general recognition of the Russo-Polish line of demarcation. But after Pilsudski's coup in 1926 he retired and for ten years lived in Paris. In 1939, he left Poland to build up a Polish army abroad and on 30 September was nominated premier of the exiled Polish government and commander-in-chief of all the Polish forces abroad. In 1940 he established his quarters in London as chief of the Polish general staff. The following year he signed a treaty in Moscow, restoring diplomatic relations between the USSR and Poland and annulling the Nazi-Soviet partition of Poland. Sikorski was killed in an aeroplane crash at Gibraltar.

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