Stanisław Stroński

Stanisław Stroński (1882 1955) was a Polish philologist, publicist and politician (a National Democracy Sejm deputy). In interwar Poland he edited the Rzeczpospolita newspaper and was a professor at Kraków's Jagiellonian University and at the Catholic University of Lublin. During World War II he was a member of the Polish government in exile, serving as information minister.[1] At war's end, he remained abroad.

An outspoken antisemite, Stroński had recent and well documented Jewish roots (his mother Emilia Loevy was a daughter of a Jewish physician from Nisko). Jewish members of the Sejm frequently mentioned his Jewish ancestry when attacking him in speeches.[2]

He was a vocal prewar opponent of Poland's first president, Gabriel Narutowicz, and of Marshal Józef Piłsudski. Following Narutowicz's election, Stroński wrote that he "puts himself forward as a representative of the Polish state thanks to the Jewish-German-Ukrainian vote".[3] Following Narutowicz's murder, Stroński who had just a few days earlier called him a "their [the Jews] President", wrote that the murdered president belonged to the "whole nation".[4]

It was Stroński who coined the expression, "Miracle at the Vistula," intended to derogate Piłsudski's 1920 victory over the Soviets.[5] Ironically, the expression quickly lost its intended meaning and was adopted with approval by some patriotically- or piously-minded Poles unaware of Stroński's ironic intent.[6]

His academic interests centered on the medieval Occitan literature, especially about the Troubadours. In this field he is reputed as one of the most important scholars of the 20th century.[7]

References

  1. Engel, David. "The frustrated alliance: The revisionist movement and the Polish government‐in‐exile, 1939–1945." Studies in Zionism 7.1 (1986): 11-36.
  2. Primed for Violence: Murder, Antisemitism, and Democratic Politics in Interwar Poland, University of Wisconsin Press, Paul Brykczynski, page 150
  3. In Search of Lost Meaning: The New Eastern Europe, University of California press, Adam Michnik, page 77
  4. Primed for Violence: Murder, Antisemitism, and Democratic Politics in Interwar Poland, University of Wisconsin Press, Paul Brykczynski, page 107
  5. Frątczak, Sławomir Z. (2005). "Cud nad Wisłą". Głos (in Polish) (32/2005). Archived from the original on May 10, 2017. Retrieved September 3, 2017.
  6. (in Polish) Janusz Szczepański, Kontrowersje wokół Bitwy Warszawskiej 1920 roku Archived May 14, 2008, at the Wayback Machine (Controversies surrounding the Battle of Warsaw in 1920). Mówią Wieki, online version.
  7. S. Stroński, Le Troubadour Elias de Barjols, Toulouse, Privat, 1906; S. Stroński, Le Troubadour Folquet de Marseille, Cracovie, Académie des Sciences-Éditions du Fonds Osławski 1910; S. Stroński, La Légende amoureuse de Bertran de Born, Paris, Champion, 1914.
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