Stanisław Jan Patek (; 1 May 1866 – 25 August 1944), Polish lawyer,

freemason Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

and diplomat, served as

Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

from 1919 to 1920.

The lawyer

Born in Rusinów, he was an activist of the

Polish Socialist Party The Polish Socialist Party (, PPS) is a democratic socialist political party in Poland. It was one of the most significant parties in Poland from its founding in 1892 until its forced merger with the communist Polish Workers' Party to form ...

who began his career as an attorney in 1894 in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

Russian partition The Russian Partition (), sometimes called Russian Poland, constituted the former territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that were annexed by the Russian Empire in the course of late-18th-century Partitions of Poland. The Russian ac ...

(

Congress Poland Congress Poland or Congress Kingdom of Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It was established w ...

).Richard J. Kozicki, Piotr Wróbel (ed.), ''Historical Dictionary of Poland, 966-1945'', Greenwood Press, 1996,
Google Print, p.422
/ref> From 1903 he became involved in legal assistance for

political prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although ...

s, and since defended many Poles accused for

political dissident A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established Political system, political or Organized religion, religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, a ...

as well as members of

Combat Organization of the Polish Socialist Party Combat ( French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent conflict between multiple combatants with the intent to harm the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed ( not using weapons). Combat is resorted to either as a method of ...

before the Russian courts in

ed Poland (particularly in the

Warsaw Citadel Warsaw Citadel (Polish language, Polish: Cytadela Warszawska) is a 19th-century fortress in Warsaw, Poland. It was built by order of Tsar Nikolay I of Russia, Nicholas I after the suppression of the 1830 November Uprising in order to bolster im ...

).Stanisław Patek
Encyklopedia PWN, Retrieved on 2 August 2007 Founder and activist of Polish legal association grouping like-minded lawyers (''Koło Obrońców Politycznych - The Circle of Political Defenders'') Krzysztof Pol
Sylwetki wybitnych adwokatów: Adwokaci warszawscy w Cytadeli 1905–1910
Adwokatura Polska as well as of other organizations dedicated to helping political prisoners (''Ogólna Kasa Pomocy dla Więźniów Politycznych'' (General Bank for Helping Political Prisoners), ''Związek Pomocy dla Ofiar Politycznych'' (Association of Help for Political Repression Victims); those organizations would be headquartered in his legal offices. In the years 1905-1907 the lawyers of ''Koło'' took part in about 260 trials; over 20% were found innocent.Halina Kiepurska,

', Palestra nr 4/1964 During that period he met his future partner, Stefania Sempołowska, a semi-official secretary and counselor of the Koło. He was the personal defender of such high-profile defendants as Stefan Aleksander Okrzeja and Józef Montwiłł-Mirecki, and gained the reputation as an excellent

orator An orator, or oratist, is a public speaker, especially one who is eloquent or skilled. Etymology Recorded in English c. 1374, with a meaning of "one who pleads or argues for a cause", from Anglo-French ''oratour'', Old French ''orateur'' (14 ...

and lawyer. He gained such a reputation, and skills, that government provocateurs and agents he liked to call for witness commonly made mistakes in their testimonies. He didn't hesitate to criticize the existing political situation, and discuss the common repressions and brutality of

tsar Tsar (; also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar''; ; ; sr-Cyrl-Latn, цар, car) is a title historically used by Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean ''emperor'' in the Euro ...

's police. In his famous speech during Okrzeja's trial he said: The organizations defending political prisoners had an unclear legal status in Russian Empire, and were repressed by the government. Due to his activities, as the leading Polish lawyer with an unmatched track of getting his defendants out of the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

, and often out from prison altogether, Patek became increasingly inconvenient to the Russian government, and became a target for repressions himself; in 1908 he was accused of "ties with the defendants" (indeed, for a time, even

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 ...

, the future leader of Poland, was hiding in Patek's house); Patek was arrested and briefly imprisoned for a month, but after an intervention by several known Polish and even Russian lawyers, he was released. In 1910 he was subject to another disciplinary hearing for "usage of improper terms during the trials", "conspiracy to change statements", "membership in secret illegal organizations"; he was declared innocent by a regional court, only to have the prosecution open another case against him or appeal against the verdict. Finally, in 1911, despite protests from lawyers from Poland and Russia, he was dropped from the list of the attorneys in

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

; as contemporary Russian newspaper ''Zvezda'' put it, "due to political considerations".''W 1911 r. „Zwiezda" informowała, że Stanisław Patek został nawet usunięty, ze względów politycznych, z rady adwokackiej''.
Svetlana Mihajlovna Falkovic, Maria Kotowska, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1982, , p. 248 After Poland regained independence in 1918, in recognition of his status as one of the most outstanding Polish lawyers, he was involved in the creation of new Polish legal system. In November 1918 he became the President of the Criminal Division of the Appellate Court in Warsaw, and was soon appointed a Judge of the

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

The diplomat

Member of the Polish National Committee in

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as one of the Piłsudski's representatives and Polish delegation at the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...

(16 December 1919 - 9 June 1920). From 1921 to 1926, Polish

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, Japan. From 1926 to 1932 envoy to

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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 ...

, where he negotiated for the Soviet-Polish Non-Aggression Pact.Kornat, Marek;, ''Polish Diplomatic Representatives and Ambassadors in Soviet Union (1921–1939 and 1941–1943'', The Polish Diplomatic Review (5 (21)/2004) From 1933-1935

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

, United States. Returned to Poland due to illness, senator of Poland, nominated by the

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, from 1936 to 1939. A member of the Parliamentary Commission on Foreign Affairs, he was critical of Polish Foreign Minister

Józef Beck Józef Beck (; 4 October 1894 – 5 June 1944) was a Polish statesman who served the Second Republic of Poland as a diplomat and military officer. A close associate of Józef Piłsudski, Beck is most famous for being Polish foreign minister in ...

Last years

After the

German 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 ...

, he was involved in protecting the

Polish Jews The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jews, Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the long pe ...

. He died on 25 August 1944, in a hospital in

,Biblioteka sejmowa. Stanisław Jan Patek
/ref> during the

Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising (; ), sometimes referred to as the August Uprising (), or the Battle of Warsaw, was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from ...

, as a result of injuries sustained on 22 August in an explosion of a

Luftwaffe The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...

bomb.

The lawyer

The diplomat

Last years

References

Further reading