JANUARY 19 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

JANUARY 19

1863

In 1861 Ludwik Mierosławski became a commander of Polish-Italian military school in Genoa. On January 19,1863 he returned to Poland to join the January Uprising, where he became the leader of the Uprising. Eventually after suffering two defeats (Battle of Krzywosądz and Battle of Nowa Wieś), and political conflict with Marian Langiewicz, Mierosławski resigned his position, and returned to Paris. He would be a vocal critic of the preparation and organization of the January Uprising. He continued to take part in politics of Polish emigrants, but he lost popularity.

1945

With German troops mostly driven out of Poland and the entry of Soviet Troops, Home Army (Armia Krajowa) Commander Leopold Okulicki ordered his forces to disband. (Note: Okulicki ordered the disbandment of the Home Army for fear that the presence of an allied force in Poland would only lead to more people being murdered or arrested by the Soviets. Following an NKVD provocation, he was arrested and imprisoned in Moscow. According to Okulicki, “In comparison with the NKVD, the Gestapo methods are child's play."

1947

Rigged Elections: Polish legislative elections were held, the first since World War Two. The elections were marred by violence. Anti-Communist opposition candidates and political activists were harassed and persecuted by 100,000 men of the Volunteer Reserve Militia (ORMO). According to official results, the Democratic Bloc (dominated by the communist Polish Workers Party, Polish Socialist Party (PPS), People's Party (SL), Democratic Party (SD) and non-partisan candidates) gained 80.1% of the vote and 394 of the 444 seats in the Legislative Sejm. The largest opposition party, the Polish People's Party, was officially credited with 28 seats. In a Time Magazine article, "In a spirit of partisan exuberance tempered with terror, Poland approached its first nationwide popular election, ten days hence. By the last week most of the combined opposition (Socialist and Polish Peasant Party) candidates had been jailed, and their supporters more or less completely cowed by the secret police, by striking their names from voting lists and by arrests. The Communist-dominated Government ventured to predict an "overwhelming" victory."


Leszek Balcerowicz (dob) was a Polish professor of economics at the Warsaw School of Economics, the former chairman of the National Bank of Poland and Deputy Prime Minister in Tadeusz Mazowiecki's government. He was famous for implementing the Polish economic transformation program in the 1990s commonly referred to as the Balcerowicz Plan. The Balcerowicz Plan was a series of reforms, which sought to end hyperinflation and balance the national budget. This resulted in a substantial increase in prices and had forced state-owned companies to become competitive. This amounted to a real shock to the Polish economy. He received harsh criticism for his plan, but most economists agree that without introducing such radical changes, Poland's economic success and steady economic growth would not have been possible.