Stanisław Piasecki

Stanisław Piasecki (1900 - 1941) was a Polish right-wing activist, politician and journalist. He was editor in chief of the literary magazine Prosto z mostu, which was published in 1935 - 1939.

Piasecki was born on December 15, 1900 in Lwów, Austrian Galicia. He was the son of scouting activist Eugeniusz Piasecki, and was related with famous athlete Jadwiga Wajs. In his late teens, Piasecki fought in the Battle of Lemberg (1918), and the Polish-Ukrainian War. As a volunteer, he also fought in the Polish-Soviet War of 1920 - 1921.

In the 1920s, he studied architecture at University of Jan Kazimierz in Lwow, and law at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. He also was a member of right-wing student organization Academic Union All-Polish Youth. In 1935, Piasecki founded his own literary weekly magazine, Prosto z mostu, which presented Polish right-wing publicists and writers. His ambition was to created a right-wing alternative to the liberal magazine Wiadomosci Literackie.

In September 1939, during the Invasion of Poland, he volunteered to the Polish Army. Hiding from the NKVD, he returned to Warsaw and joined underground National Party. In December 1939, first issue of underground magazine Walka (Struggle) was released, with Piasecki as its editor in chief. The office of the magazine was located at Piasecki’s apartment, and the money for the publication came from Arkadia Restaurant, owned by him. Among guests of his restaurant were Tadeusz Gajcy and Witold Lutosławski.

In December 1940, Piasecki was arrested by the Gestapo. After several months of tortures, he was sent to Pawiak, with his wife kept in the same complex. On June 12, 1941, Piasecki was shot near the village of Palmiry.

Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński, who coworked with Piasecki in the late 1930s, dedicated to him a poem “Stan’s Glasses” (“Okulary Staszka).