Unlike most of the senior officers of the pre-war Polish regime Edward Rydz-Śmigły came from a comparatively humble background.

Born in Galicia his original family name was Rydz and he was born the son of Tomasz Rydz, an NCO in the Austro-Hungarian Army, and his wife whose maiden name was Maria Babiak.

Orphaned at the age of 13 he was raised by his maternal grandparents and, after their deaths, by the family of Dr. Uranowicz, the Town Physician at Brzeżany.

He graduated with distinction at the local Gymnasium (High School) and departed for Krakow, the cultural and artistic heart of Poland, where he completed studies in Philosophy and the History of Art at the city’s ancient Jagiellonian University. Afterwards he studied to be a painter at the Arts Academy (Akademia Sztuk Pieknych) in Krakow and then pursued his studies in Vienna and Munich.

In the years 1910-1911 he attended the reserve officers academy in Vienna and trained at the famous Austrian 4th “Deutschmeister” Infantry Regiment named after Archduke Eugene, a cousin of the Emperor Francis Joseph I.

He completed his military education with distinction and was offered a commission, which he did not accept, in the Imperial Army.

In 1912 he emerged as an organisers of the Polish paramilitary Riflemen’s Association (Związek Strzelecki).

At about the same time he completed his art studies. He was regarded as a very promising talent in landscape and portrait painting and was praised by his professors and critics, who foresaw a great future for him.

Drafted into the Austrian army in July of 1914, Rydz transferred in August to the Polish Legions and fought in the famous Polish 1st Brigade created by Jozef Pilsudski.

He took part in many battles against the Russians in the region of the Southern Vistula and rose quickly through the ranks. By 1916 he was already a full Colonel.

He did not, however, forget his artistic background and exhibited some of his works in Kracow during that period.

In 1917, after the Polish Legions refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Austrian and German authorities, the Legions were disbanded, their soldiers interned and Pilsudski himself put into prison in the Magdeburg fortress.

On Pilsudski`s command Rydz, who escaped a prison term because of bad health, became commander of the Polish Military Organization POW and adopted the code name “Smigly” (meaning fast or agile).

in October 1918 he joined the Socialist Government of Ignacy Daszyński in Lublin as Minister of War, having been promoted to the rank of Brigadier (One-Star-General in the Polish system), Rydz believed that it was appropriate to take the appointment in order to properly represent the still imprisoned Piłsudski.

It was at this time that Rydz, who was perhaps now equally if not better known by his code name, began using the double barrelled name of Rydz-Śmigły which also often appeared as Śmigły-Rydz. He appears to have been equally happy with both forms of his name.

On November 11th 1918 the Government relinquished all power to Piłsudski, who became Provisional Head of State. After some hesitation Pilsudski (who was displeased by Rydz´ cooperation with the Socialists, himself "having left the streetcar of Socialism at the stop called Independence") confirmed him as a Brigadier.

During the Polish-Bolshevik war of 1919-1921 Rydz commanded Polish Armies in several offensives on various fronts. Popular with his men he rapidly developed a reputation as a commander who was always victorious.

He captured Vilna and Dunaburg and was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Latvian armed forces and liberated Livonia from Read Army occupation.

Subsequently he completely destroyed the 12th Division of the Red Army and took Kiev. This was an outstanding military achievement which consolidated his reputation.

He then commanded the Central Front of Polish forces during the famous Battle of Warsaw, known as the Miracle at Vistula. In this decisive battle, the Polish commander Jozef Piłsduski totally outwitted the Soviet commander Mikhail Tukhachevsky.

Rydz-Śmigły's Central Front held against the Soviet attack and later blocked off the escape routes for the defeated Soviet 4th and 15th Armies and 3rd Cavalry Corps of Soviet General Gay Dimitrievich Gay, which had to seek an unglorious escape to East Prussia, where they were interned by the Germans.

After the Polish-Soviet war of 1919-1921 he became the General Inspector of the Polish Army district of Vilna and later the Warsaw area.

In 1926, during the so-called Piłsduski May coup d’ etat, he took the Marshal's side and sent troops from Vilna to reinforce anti-government troops in Warsaw. This fidelity was never forgotten and in 1929 Rydz was appointed as the Marshal's deputy on all matters concerning the East.

On May 13th, 1935, in accordance with the last wishes of Jozef Piłsduski, Rydz was nominated by the president and the government of Poland to serve in the capacity of the General Inspector of the Polish Armed Forces and on November 10th 1936 he was elevated to the rank of Marshal of Poland.

He was now one of the most powerful persons in Poland and was awarded the quite unconstitutional title of "Second Person in the State after the President" in the political settlement which emerged between him and President Ignacy Mosicki in the months after Piłsduski’s death.

Although Rydz-Śmigły and Mosicki reached a balance of power the ruling group was in reality divided between "The President's Men", or "Castle Group", most of them civilians, and "The Marshal's Men", who were mostly old companions of Pilsudski and professional officers.

The Government adopted an increasingly right wing and somewhat authoritarian stance but never drifted into dictatorship or facism.

Rydz-Śmigły clearly saw the danger of a conflict with Germany. He also knew that Poland did not have the resources to either defeat Germany or to impede a German attack for more than a limited period.

With German forces not only in the West and North (East Prussia) but also in the South following the Munich betrayal of Czechoslovakia the Polish position became extremely precarious.

The Polish Government was totally reliant on its treaties with Great Britain and France believing, erroneously, that if Poland could maintain a defensive war and hamper a German advance then the Western allies would intervene to attack Germany in the West.

Following the bitterness of the Polish-Soviet war the Poles could not contemplate any Soviet military access across Polish territory as a part of a last minute Franco-British proposal. The Marshal pointed out that "there is no guarantee that the Soviets will really take active part in the war; furthermore, once having entered Polish territory, they will never leave it".

On 1st September 1939 when Germany invaded Poland, Rydz-Śmigły was immediately nominated as Commander-in-Chief of Polish forces.

On 7th September, along with most of the government, he left Warsaw which soon came under German attack.

Polish co-ordination begun to suffer from communications problems, which greatly impeded his ability to command the forces.

The exposed disposition of Polish forces at the start of the campaign and the failure to establish and maintain adequate communications and co-ordination are the key elements in later criticism of Rydz-Śmigły’s handling of the campaign.

At Brześć on 11th September he issued an order to defend Polish capital of Warsaw at all costs. In his plans, Warsaw and the nearby Modlin Fortress were to become the two fortress in the centre of Poland, holding on, while the bulk of Polish forces were to defend the Romanian bridgehead and await relief counterattack promised by the French and British Allies.

Unbeknown to Rydz-Śmigły, the Western Allies had no such plans!

His plan was dealt a final fatal blow when Soviet forces, implementing a previously secret agreement with Berlin, attacked Poland from the east on 17th September.

Seeing that defence against both neighbours was impossible, Rydz-Śmigły issued an order for Polish forces to retreat towards the Romanian border and to avoid fighting with the Soviet aggressors.

On September 18th 1939 Rydz-Śmigły crossed the Romanian borders and was interned.

The Polish government’s crossing of the Romanian border saved Poland from surrender and allowed the eventual legitimate transference of power to a Government-in-Exile under the terms of the Polish Constitution of the pre-war Polish Second Republic.

Eventually, this would allow the post-communist “Third Republic” to take its legitimacy as the heir of the old “Second Republic” and not the Communist “Peoples Republic”.

While the crossing of the border by the President and Government made sense it is not so easy to justify the departure of the Commander-in-Chief while his troops were still fighting. Rydz-Śmigły has been widely condemned for this action which has never been fully or adequately explained.

Rydz-Śmigły, as the Commander-In-Chief of the Polish Armed Forces, took the complete responsibility for Poland’s military defeat in the September 1939. There were no excuses for this honourable Polish officer, even though Poland was attacked from all sides by vastly stronger powers (Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union).

On the other hand one cannot deny that Rydz-Śmigły, an extremely able Commander on smaller fronts, was not an experienced strategist in a great conflict of two nations. Piłsudski wrote about him in 1922, in an evaluation of Polish generals: "in operational work he displays healthy common sense and a lot of stubborn energy. I could recommend him to everybody as a commander of an army, I am however not sure if he possesses sufficient abilities to function as Commander-in-Chief in a war between two States".

During his internment in Romania, Rydz-Śmigły initiated the creation of a Polish underground military organisation based on officers who were loyal to the memory of Piłsudski.

On October 27th, while in Romanian interment, he relinquished his function as the Commander-in-Chief and General Inspector of the Armed Forces, which were taken up by Władyslaw Sikorski, serving in the new Polish government-in-exile in France (later in the United Kingdom).

Rydz-Śmigły was transferred from the internment camp to the villa of a former Romanian prime minister in Dragoslavele, from which he escaped on 10th December 1940 into Hungary. His flight to Hungary and rumours about his planned return to Poland were a source of considerable concern and anxiety to Sikorski, now the Prime Minister in exile.

Not only was Sikorski a long term political opponent of the Marshal but he emphatically believed that any political or military re-emergence of Rydz-Śmigły would be deeply divisive among Poles and displeasing to Poland’s allies. Sikorski warned underground resistance leaders in Poland that "the Polish Government will regard a sojourn of the Marshal in Poland as a sabotage of its work in the country. The Marshal must as soon as possible move to some country of the British Empire".

However Rydz-Śmigły left Hungary on October 25th 1941 and reached Poland. On October 30th, in strict secrecy, Rydz-Śmigły came back to Warsaw determined to participate in the resistance movement as a common underground soldier, thus voluntarily stripping himself of his rank of Marshal of Poland.

He contacted General Stefan Grot-Rowecki, leader of the Resistance, but could not partake in any armed combat against the Germans, as he suddenly died of heart failure only 5 weeks after his arrival in Warsaw, on December 2nd 1941.

He was buried in Warsaw under his conspiratorial name of "Adam Zawisza". His grave carried that name until 1991.

Rydz-Śmigły was married to Marta née Thomas (by previous marriage Zaleska) who died in Nice in a car accident in 1951. The couple had no children.

Bibliography

Rydz-Śmigły's Works
Military Tactics and Theory

 Walka na bagnety (Bayonet Fight), Lwów 1914;

 W sprawie polskiej doktryny (Poland's Military Doctrine), Warsaw 1924;

 Kawaleria w osłonie (Cavalry as protecting troups), Warsaw 1925;

 Byście o sile nie zapomnieli -Rozkazy, Artykuły, Mowy (Do not forget the Might - Orders, Articles and Speeches), Warsaw 1936;

 Wojna polsko-niemiecka (The Polish-German War), Budapest 1941.

Poetry

 Dążąc do końca swoich dróg (Seeking the end of the ways), Paris 1947 and London 1989.

Paintings and Graphics

 Illustrations to Pilsudski´s book 22nd January, 1863, Lwów 1920;

 Contributions to Art Exhibitions in Cracow (1916) and Warsaw (1917). Most of his paintings are irretrievably lost.

Books about Rydz-Smigły

 Kazimierz Cepnik, Wódz Naczelny i Marszałek Polski Edward Smigły-Rydz, Życie i Czyny (Poland's Commander-in-Chief and Marshal Edward Smigły-Rydz, His Life and Deeds), Lwów 1937;

 Juliusz Kaden-Bandrowski, Piłsudczycy, (The Men of Pilsudski), Oświęcim 1916;

 Paweł Zaremba, Historia Dwudziestolecia 1918 - 1939, (History of the Twenty Years 1918 - 1939), 2 vols., Paris 1967.