Stefan Kirtiklis (January 8, 1890 in Kolno - June 24, 1951 in Magdalenka) was a Polish politician associated with the Piłsudski camp, participant of the fight for independence, major of the Polish Army gendarmerie and a Voivode.
Stefan Kirtiklis | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Voivode of Białystok Voivodeship | |
| In office 17 July 1936 – 9 September 1937 | |
| President | Ignacy Mościcki |
| Prime Minister | Felicjan Sławoj Składkowski |
| Preceded by | Stefan Pasławski |
| Succeeded by | Henryk Ostaszewski |
| Personal details | |
| Born | January 8, 1890 Kolno, Congress Poland |
| Died | 24 June 1951 (aged 61) Magdalenka, Polish People's Republic |
| Resting place | Srebrzysko Cemetery |
| Citizenship | Poland |
| Alma mater | University of Brussels |
| Occupation | Social activist, politician |
| Awards | Virtuti Militari, Order of Polonia Restituta, Cross of Valour, Cross of Merit of the Army of Central Lithuania |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  Second Polish Republic |
| Branch/service |  Polish Army |
Biography
editHe was born into the family of Andrzej (a teacher) and Agnieszka née Prusińska. In the years 1904–1905, as a student of the real school, he took an active part in political life. From 1905, he was associated with the independence socialist movement (PPS and its Combat Organization and PPS-Revolutionary Faction). For his active participation in school strikes, he was arrested by the tsarist authorities and imprisoned in an investigative prison. After being released from prison (due to his young age) and graduating from the real school, he was forced to go abroad as a political emigrant to Brussels, where in the years 1909–1913 he studied at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Brussels.[1]
In the years 1914–1917, he worked in the Polish Military Organization, initially in Warsaw, then in the districts of Łomża, Zagłębie Górnicze, Piotrków Trybunalski and in District VI of this organization in Kielce (from May 1 to October 19, 1916) and following Poland's regaining of independence in 1918 he joined the Polish Army. In December 1918 he took up the position of inspector of the People's Militia (organization associated with the PPS), then he held the position of liaison officer at the Civil Administration of the Eastern Lands in Vilnius. At the beginning of 1919 he took an active part in the march to Vilnius and in the battles near Vilnius, and after the occupation of Vilnius he organized and commanded a militia battalion in that city. Then he held a number of managerial positions in the field gendarmerie in Vilnius, Minsk and other cities in eastern Poland. After the occupation of Vilnius by the troops of General Lucjan Żeligowski in 1920 he was nominated to be the head of the security service of Central Lithuania, and in April 1921 he was nominated to be the commander of the 1st Field Gendarmerie Battalion. After completing a higher officer course in Grudziądz, in 1924 he was appointed to the position of commander of the 3rd Gendarmerie Battalion in Grodno, which he held until January 1927. He then served in the Border Protection Corps and was the head of the Security Department of the Provincial Office in Vilnius. While serving in this position, he remained at the disposal of the Minister of Internal Affairs and on the register of the Gendarmerie Officers' Staff.
On November 15, 1928, he was promoted in the Voivodeship Office in Vilnius from a provisional head of department in the 6th service rank to head of department in the 5th service rank, entrusted with the function of the vice-voivode of Vilnius.[2] From 20 December 1930 to 20 June 1931 he was the voivode of Vilnius, then from July to November 1931 the vice-voivode of Łódź Voivodeship,[3] from 21 November 1931 to 14 July 1936 the voivode of Pomeranian Voivodeship,[4] and finally from 17 July 1936 to 9 September 1937 the voivode of Białystok Voivodeship. On 11 September 1937 he went into inactive status, retired in mid-1938, and settled in Vilnius. He became involved with Walery Sławek's group. In the Vilnius area he was also the chairman of the Federation of Polish Unions of Defenders of the Homeland, chairman of the Union of Polish Legionnaires and the Union of Polish People's Party.[4]
After the occupation of Vilnius by the Red Army and the annexation of Lithuania by the Soviet Union, he was arrested by the NKVD in October 1940 and deported to a camp on the Pechora River, Komi, where he stayed until March 1942. Liberated after the Sikorski–Mayski agreement, he left the Soviet Union as a civilian refugee with the Anders' Army in the summer of 1942 and settled in Palestine. From 1943 he was a member of the board of the Union of Polish Patriots in Palestine in the Middle East (from March to May 1944 he co-edited the ZPP press organ "Biuletyn Wolnej Polski"). He tried to leave for Moscow, where he was summoned at the end of 1944, after which on April 30, 1945, he arrived in Warsaw and took up the position of deputy director of a department in the Ministry of Supply and Trade, later working in the Ministry of Recovered Territories as a department director.
On November 11, 1934, the Kościerzyna City Council awarded Stefan Kirtiklis the title of Honorary Citizen of Kościerzyna.[5]
After being dismissed from his job in administration, in 1950 he settled in Magdalenka near Warsaw, where he died. He was buried at the Srebrzysko Cemetery in Gdańsk (area X).[6] In 1918 he married Janina née Szymański (1897–1987), whom he met during his activity in the PPS, later a member of parliament of the Second Polish Republic for the 3rd term on behalf of the BBWR and a member of the authorities of the Women's Civic Work Union. They had two daughters: Anna Barbara and Maria Magdalena.[7]
References
editCitations
edit- ^ Polak 1993, p. 93.
- ^ "Ruch służbowy" (PDF). Dziennik Urzędowy Ministerstwa Spraw Wewnętrznych. 1. Warszawa: Ministerstwo Spraw Wewnętrznych: 98. 1929-01-31..
- ^ Dzikowska-Światowiak Aleksandra (2016). "Działalność Stefana Kirtiklisa jako wojewody pomorskiego w latach 1931-1936" (PDF). Zeszyty Chojnickie. 32: 333.
- ^ a b Nowy Wojewoda Pomorski p. Stefan Kirtiklis „Dzień Pomorski” R.III, Nr 270, Toruń 22 listopada 1931 r.
- ^ Maciej Wajer (2015-05-28). "Wojewoda honorowym obywatelem" (in Polish). Dziennik Bałtycki. Retrieved 2020-02-17.
- ^ "Stefan Kirtiklis". cmentarze-gdanskie.pl. Retrieved 2019-01-22.
- ^ "Janina Kirtiklis". bs.sejm.gov.pl. Retrieved 2019-02-05.
Bibliography
edit- Polak, Bogusław, ed. (1993). Kawalerowie Virtuti Militari 1792–1945. Vol. 2/. Koszalin: Wydawnictwo Uczelniane Wyższej Szkoły Inżynierskiej w Koszalinie. ISBN 83-900510-0-1.