Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski (30 December 1888,

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

– 22 August 1974, Kraków) was a Polish politician and economist, Deputy Prime Minister of Poland, government minister and manager of the Second Polish Republic.

Biography

He studied at the prestigious Jesuit college in Chyrów, and then graduated chemistry at the University of Lwów and

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...

. After

Józef Piłsudski Józef Klemens Piłsudski (; 5 December 1867 – 12 May 1935) was a Polish statesman who served as the Chief of State (Poland), Chief of State (1918–1922) and first Marshal of Poland (from 1920). In the aftermath of World War I, he beca ...

's May coup d'état of 1926 in the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 7 October 1918 and 6 October 1939. The state was established in the final stage of World War I ...

, he was recommended by president Ignacy Mościcki for the post Minister of Industry and Trade in the government of Kazimierz Bartel. Kwiatkowski was a minister in eight successive governments (1926–30) and Deputy Prime Minister of Poland and Minister of Finance of Poland in two governments (1935–39). Among the most famous achievements of Kwiatkowski are the giant construction projects: the construction of

Gdynia Gdynia is a city in northern Poland and a seaport on the Baltic Sea coast. With an estimated population of 257,000, it is the List of cities in Poland, 12th-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in the Pomeranian Voivodeship after Gdańsk ...

seaport, the development of the Polish Merchant Navy and sea trade, and the creation of Centralny Okręg Przemysłowy (''The Central Industrial Region''). After the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

joined

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

in the

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

in 1939, he evacuated Poland with the rest of the Government on 17 September. He was interned in

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

until 1945. He returned to Poland and supervised the projects of reconstruction of the Polish seacoast, and in the years 1947–1952, he was a deputy to the Polish parliament (

Sejm The Sejm (), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (), is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of the Third Polish Republic since the Polish People' ...

). With the strengthening of the

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

and

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

grip on the Polish government, which he opposed, he fell out of favour of the communist government of the

Polish People's Republic The Polish People's Republic (1952–1989), formerly the Republic of Poland (1947–1952), and also often simply known as Poland, was a country in Central Europe that existed as the predecessor of the modern-day democratic Republic of Poland. ...

and was forced to retire in 1948. From 1952 onward, he concentrated on studies of

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

, and

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

. He died in

on 22 August 1974.

Works

* ''Zagadnienie przemysłu chemicznego na tle wielkiej wojny'' (1923) * ''Postęp gospodarczy Polski'' (Economic Progress of Poland) (1928) * ''Polska gospodarcza w roku 1928'' (Economic Poland in 1928) (1928) * ''Powrót Polski nad Bałtyk'' (The Return of Poland to Baltic) (1930) * ''Dysproporcje. Rzecz o Polsce przeszłej i obecnej'' (1932) * ''"Rzecz najważniejsza Polska" - Wybór myśli politycznych i społecznych'' (1988) - selection of his papers

Bibliography

* Janusz Zaręba, ''Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski - romantyczny pragmatyk'', Centrum Edukacji i Rozwoju Biznesu. Instytut Naukowo-Wydawniczy, Warszawa, 1998 () * ''Archiwum polityczne Eugeniusza Kwiatkowskiego'', Wydawnictwo Sejmowe, Warszawa, 2002 () * Marian Marek Drozdowski, ''Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski'', Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich - Wydawnictwo, Wrocław, 2001 () * Marian Marek Drozdowski, ''Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski w polskiej historiografii i publicystyce historyczno-ekonomicznej'', Instytut Historii Polskiej Akademii Nauk, Warszawa, 1992 () * Marian Marek Drozdowski, ''Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski : człowiek i dzieło'', Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków, 1989 () * Marian Marek Drozdowski, Piotr Dwojacki, ''Archiwum Morskie Eugeniusza Kwiatkowskiego'', E. Kwiatkowski University of Business and Administration, Gdynia, 2009 ()

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kwiatkowski, Eugeniusz 1888 births 1974 deaths Politicians from Kraków People from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria Sanacja politicians Deputy prime ministers of Poland Ministers of finance of Poland Government ministers of Poland Members of the Polish Sejm 1947–1952 Polish Rifle Squads members Polish Military Organisation members Association of the Polish Youth "Zet" members Polish legionnaires (World War I) Polish Austro-Hungarians Polish economists Lviv Polytechnic alumni Academic staff of the Warsaw University of Technology Grand Crosses of the Order of Polonia Restituta Commanders with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta Commanders of the Order of Polonia Restituta Grand Officers of the Legion of Honour Grand Crosses of the Order of the Star of Romania Grand Crosses of the Order of St. Sava Commanders Grand Cross of the Order of the Polar Star Order of Saint Olav Grand Crosses of the Order of the White Lion Grand Crosses of the Order of the Phoenix (Greece) Grand Crosses of the Order of the Crown (Belgium) Burials at Rakowicki Cemetery Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland) People associated with Chyrów

Biography

Works

See also

Bibliography

References