Jerzy Giedroyc
Polish writer and activist (1906–2000)
Who was Jerzy Giedroyc?
Jerzy Giedroyc lived from July 27, 1906 to September 14, 2000. Giedroyć was born in Minsk, into a Polish-Lithuanian noble family on 27 July 1906, with the title of kniaź, prince. During the Polish–Soviet War of 1919–1921 his family left Minsk for Warsaw, where he finished the Jan Zamoyski gymnasium in 1924. He went on to study law and Ukrainian history and literature at the University of Warsaw. Jerzy Władysław Giedroyć (Polish pronunciation: [ˈjɛʐɨ ˈɡʲɛdrɔjt͡ɕ]; 27 July 1906 – 14 September 2000) was a Polish writer, lawyer, publicist and political activist. His schooling in Moscow was interrupted by the October Revolution, when he returned home to Minsk.
Historical significance
For many years, he worked as editor of the highly influential Paris-based periodical, Kultura. Giedroyć worked as a journalist and civil servant in interwar Poland, he maintained contacts with leading Ukrainians and urged the Roman Catholic Church to improve relations with the Greek Catholic Church to which many Ukrainians belonged, insisting that Poland's success as a national state depended on satisfying the aspirations of minorities so that minority nationalists would not have convincing arguments against Polish statehood.