Bidspirit auction | Polish Marshal Edward Śmigły-Rydz

Polish Marshal Edward Śmigły-Rydz - Original photo: Polish Marshal Edward Śmigły-Rydz also: Edward Rydz, Edward Rydz-Śmigły, ps. ”Śmigły”, ”Tarłowski”, ”Adam Zawisza” (born March 11, 1886 in Brzeżany, died December 2, 1941 in Warsaw) - Polish military, politician, Polish Marshal, General Inspector of the Armed Forces, Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Armed Forces in the war defense 1939, formally for 17 days ”the successor of the President of the Republic of Poland in the event of an office vacant before the conclusion of peace”. He started his career as the commander of the 3rd battalion of the Polish Legions. When Józef Piłsudski and Kazimierz Sosnkowski were imprisoned in Magdeburg, he took over the leadership of the Polish Military Organization (POW). During the Polish-Bolshevik war, in the rank of lieutenant general, he commanded, inter alia, 3rd and 2nd Army. In 1935, after Piłsudski's death, he was appointed General Inspector of the Armed Forces by President Ignacy Mościcki, and the following year, in controversial circumstances, appointed the Marshal of Poland. On September 1, 1939, on the first day of the September campaign, Ignacy Mościcki appointed him Commander-in-Chief. A day after the USSR's aggression against Poland, he crossed the Romanian border with the Staff of the Commander-in-Chief, where he was interned. In October 1941, he secretly returned via Hungary to occupied Poland, where he remained in the underground until his death in December of the same year. Photo taken after 1936. Picture dimensions: 87x137mm