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Maciej Rataj

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Maciej Rataj
Maciej Rataj
Acting President of Poland
In office
15 May – 4 June 1926
Prime MinisterKazimierz Bartel
Preceded byStanisław Wojciechowski
Succeeded byIgnacy Mościcki
In office
16 December – 22 December 1922
Prime MinisterJulian Nowak
Władysław Sikorski
Preceded byGabriel Narutowicz
Succeeded byStanisław Wojciechowski
2nd Marshal of the Sejm
In office
23 November 1922 – 26 March 1928
PresidentJózef Piłsudski
(Chief of State)
Gabriel Narutowicz
Himself (acting)
Stanisław Wojciechowski
Himself (acting)
Ignacy Mościcki
Prime MinisterJulian Nowak
Władysław Sikorski
Wincenty Witos
Władysław Grabski
Aleksander Skrzyński
Wincenty Witos
Kazimierz Bartel
Józef Piłsudski
Preceded byWojciech Trąmpczyński
Succeeded byIgnacy Daszyński
Personal details
Born19 February 1884
Chłopy, near Lemberg, Austria-Hungary
Died21 June 1940(1940-06-21) (aged 56)
Palmiry, General Government
Resting placePalmiry
Political partyPolish People's Party "Piast"
Alma materUniversity of Lwów
OccupationPolitician

Maciej Rataj (19 February 1884 – 21 June 1940) was a Polish politician, speaker of the Polish Parliament and deputy President of the Republic of Poland, and writer.

Biography

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Born in the village of Chłopy, near Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine), on 19 February 1884, he attended a gymnasium in Lwów and studied classical linguistics at the University of Lwów. Upon the completion of his studies he became a gymnasium teacher first in Lwów, and later in Zamość. He became involved in politics after the Second Polish Republic gained independence following the First World War. He was a member of the Polish People's Party "Piast" political party, and, from 1931, a member of the People's Party. He became president of the Stronnictwo and the chief editor of the party's official paper, the 'Zielony Sztandar' in 1935. From 1919 to 1930, and from 1934 to 1935, he was a member of parliament for the Sejm (Polish Parliament), and from 1922 to 1928 he was the Marshal of the Sejm. Between 1920 and 1921 he was the Minister of Religion and Public Education,[1] and prior to this in 1919 he was deputy to the Constitutional Commission, which developed the March Constitution.[2]

He was President of Poland twice: first in December 1922, as Acting President of the Republic of Poland for one week, after the assassination of president Gabriel Narutowicz, and again in May 1926, following Józef Piłsudski's May Coup and the resignation of president Stanisław Wojciechowski. His second term lasted half of a month. On both occasions, he oversaw special election and appointed new governments. In December 1939 he was arrested by Nazi Germany and executed in Palmiry during the German AB-Aktion operation in Poland.[3]

Rataj's grave

Works

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  • Pamiętniki (Memoirs) (1965)
  • Wskazania obywatelskie i polityczne: Wybór pism i przemówień z lat 1919–1938 (1987)
  • Maciej Rataj o parlamentaryzmie, państwie demokratycznym i sanacji (1998)

References

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  1. ^ "Maciej Rataj (1884-1940)". dzieje.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 6 June 2024.
  2. ^ CMS, Widzialni. "Od Konstytucji marcowej do Konstytucji kwietniowej: wybór dokumentów -". www.aan.gov.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 6 June 2024.
  3. ^ "Cemetery-mausoleum - Sites of martyrdom - Heritage Sites - Palmiry - Virtual Shtetl". Archived from the original on 8 April 2015. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
[edit]
Political offices
Preceded by President of Poland
Acting

1922
Succeeded by
Preceded by President of Poland
Acting

1926
Succeeded by