InfoPersons, originating from Poland
Ignacy Jan Paderewski
Born November 18, 1860 in Kurylovka (Kuryłówka) in Russia (now Ukraine).
Died June 29, 1941 in New York
Paderewski was a pianist, composer, diplomat and politician, and the third Prime Minister of Poland.
After absolving the Warsaw Conservatorium, he gained international popularity as a piano player. He was also a substantial composer.
In 1913, Paderewski settled in the United States. During World War I he became an active member of the Polish National Committee in Paris, which was soon accepted by the Entente as the representative of Poland. in London.
At the end of the war, with the fate of the city of Poznań and the whole region of Greater Poland (Wielkopolska) still undecided, Paderewski visited Poznań. With his public speech on 27 December 1918, the Polish inhabitants of Poznań began a military uprising against Germany, called the Great Polish Uprising.
He became the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the reborn independent Polish State (January - December 1919) and he thus represented Poland at the Paris Peace Conference. In the summer of that year, he signed the Treaty of Versailles, which restored the territories of Greater Poland and Pomerania around the City of Gdańsk to Poland. After his resignation on December 4, 1919, he became Polish Ambassador to the League of Nations.
In 1940 he became the head of the Polish National Council, a Polish parliament in exile in London. Paderewski died suddenly because of pneumonia in New York, on June 29, 1941.
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Polonica stamps:
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USA 1960, 08 X |
