Jan Plewiński’s activity in the peasants’ movement in the period of the Second Polish Republic and in the anti-Nazi conspiracy

Abstract

Jan Plewiński (1898–1970) can be counted among the most outstanding people's activists in the history of the Sieradz region. Now, however, it is rather little known, as if forgotten. His activity in the years 1945–1972 in the people's movement (in SL, PSL, ZSL) is described in more detail in the biographical sketch included in issue 37 (2021) of the “Yearbook of the Historical Museum of the History of the Polish People's Movement” in Warsaw. From 1919, he was active in the peasant movement in the youth circle of his native village of Strzałki (Majaczewice commune). From 1923, he joined the PSL “Wyzwolenie” (“Liberation”), and from 1931 he was active in the Stronnictwo Ludowe – People's Party (SL), which then gathered members of three previously independently functioning peasant groups. The strongest position was achieved by Plewiński in the 1930s, both in SL and ZMW RP “Wici”. From 1934, he was a member of the SL County Management, a year later he became the county secretary and held it until the outbreak of World War II. In 1936, in 1936, he was elected to the Provincial Board of SL in Łódź. In the years 1935–1936 he headed the poviat structures of the ZMW RP “Wici”. In the years 1936–1938 he was a member of the Provincial Board of this organization. He was associated with the milieu of radical young people's activists, who focused on the periodical „Chłopskie Życie Gospodarcze” (“Peasant Economic Life”). He was a valued speaker and often performed at various public gatherings organized by the Sieradz people's movement. He co-organized the great peasant strike in 1937. At the beginning of the Nazi occupation (November–December 1939), he was imprisoned in Sieradz (as part of the anti-Polish repressions of the occupant). After escaping from prison, he actively participated in the creation of the structures of the people's underground. He belonged to the local leadership of this conspiracy (he was part of the “trio” and then the “five” of the poviat SL “Roch”, in the years 1944–1945 – after the arrest of Adam Banach, he headed the people's underground in the Sieradz district). He was also a soldier of “Chłostra”, and from 1941, of the Bataliony Chłopskie (Peasants' Battalions). During the period of the Second Polish Republic he was imprisoned several times for his activities against the Sanacja regime.