Jedrzej Moraczewski

Jędrzej Moraczewski was a Polish engineer, politician, and publicist, who was one of the leaders of the Polish Socialist Party and the second Prime Minister of the Second Polish Republic. He graduated from the Lviv Polytechnic and joined the Galician Social Democratic Party in 1894. He was elected to the Austrian parliament in 1907 and served until 1918. He was a member of the Temporary Commission of the Confederated Independence Parties and fought in the First Brigade of the Polish Legions. He was the Minister of Communications in the Provisional People's Government of the Republic of Poland and became the Prime Minister on 18 November 1918. He resigned on 16 January 1919 after the arrival of Ignacy Paderewski. He was involved in the recruitment of volunteers and the sabotage activities against the Soviet forces during the Polish-Soviet War. He was a member of the Supreme Council and the Executive Committee of the Polish Socialist Party from 1919 to 1923, and a deputy and vice-marshal of the Sejm from 1919 to 1926. He was the Minister of Public Works in the governments of Aleksander Skrzyński, Kazimierz Bartel, and Kazimierz Świtalski from 1925 to 1929. He supported Józef Piłsudski's coup d'état in 1926 and organized a railway strike in his favor. He was expelled from the Polish Socialist Party in 1927 for joining Piłsudski's government and joined the PPS - Former Revolutionary Faction in 1928. He became the leader of the Central Association of Class Trade Unions in 1930. He was a prolific writer and editor, who published many articles, books, and pamphlets on social, economic, and political issues. He also created one of the first Polish encyclopedias, the Encyclopedia of Knowledge, which was published in 28 volumes from 1928 to 1934. He died on 5 August 1944 when he was hit by shrapnel fired by a Soviet soldier into his house in Sulejówek. He was buried at Powązki Military Cemetery in Warsaw.