Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

Żeligowski, Lucjan (17 October 1865–9 July 1947). Lieutenant colonel (191?), colonel (1915), lieutenant general (Polish Army, July 1918), general (Polish Army, 1920). The Polish commander Lucjan Żeligowski was born at Oszmiana (Ashmiany, now in Belarus) and was a graduate of the Riga Officers School (1885) and a veteran of the Russo–Japanese War and the First World War, during which he occupied numerous staff and command posts.

Following the February Revolution, Żeligowski became one of the most active organizers of Polish national units in Russia. In the spring of 1918, however, having clashed with General Josef Dowbor-Muśnicki over the correct strategy for Polish forces during the Russian struggle, Żeligowski was removed from his post. He journeyed to Kiev and then to the north Caucasus, where he created and commanded a Polish force in the Kuban region that would become the nucleus of the 4th Polish Rifle Division. Although formally part of the Polish Army, Żeligowski’s unit (which included members of a Polish brigade formed earlier at Tiflis that had been disbanded by the German Caucasus Mission) fought alongside the Volunteer Army and the Armed Forces of South Russia during the “Russian” Civil Wars. In October 1918, Żeligowski was named commander in chief of all Polish forces in Russia (including the Polish Legion).

Following the collapse of General A. I. Denikin’s White forces in the spring of 1920 and the beginning of the Soviet–Polish War, Żeligowski’s unit retreated into Bessarabia and then, in April 1919, moved into Poland, where it was redesignated as the 10th Infantry Division of the Polish Army. As commander of that force, he participated in the defense of Warsaw and the pursuit eastward of the retreating Red Army (as commander of the Lithuanian–Belarussian Front). In October 1920, during the Polish–Lithuanian War, he was placed in command of the 1st Lithuanian–Belarussian Division of the Polish Army, composed of volunteers and partisan forces from those territories. On 8 October 1920, in a staged coup (his good friend Józef Piłsudski knew all about it) that has come to bear his name (the Żeligowski mutiny), he seized control of Vilnius (Wilno) and its surroundings, and on 12 October 1920 proclaimed the independence of the Republic of Central Lithuania, which was soon to be absorbed by Poland.

From 1923, Żeligowski served as inspector general of the Polish Army and commander of the Warsaw Military District, and from 1925 to 1927 was minister of military affairs. He then retired to write his memoirs and other works on recent Polish military history, before returning to politics in 1935, as a member of the Polish sejm until 1939. Following the Nazi invasion of Poland, he volunteered for the army but was turned down on account of his age. Having escaped to Paris, he joined the Polish government-in-exile, which transferred to London after the fall of France. Żeligowski died in London, but his body was returned to Poland for burial in the military section of the Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw.

Żeligowski Mutiny. This staged rebellion, led by the Polish general Lucjan Żeligowski in October 1920, during the Polish–Lithuanian War, led to the establishment of the short-lived Central Lithuanian Republic, thereby paving the way for Poland’s annexation of Vilnius/Wilno two years later.

As the Soviet–Polish War wound down in the autumn of 1920, Soviet Russia handed control of the area around Vilnius to Lithuanian forces, who had allowed the Red Army to occupy the area under the terms of the Soviet–Lithuanian Treaty of Moscow (12 July 1920), thereby denying it to the Poles. Lithuania’s possession of Vilnius seemed also to be confirmed by the Polish–Lithuanian Suwałki Agreement (7 October 1920). Poland’s leader, Józef Piłsudski, was determined that Vilnius should be controlled by Poland, but did not want to undermine the pro-Polish faction within Lithuania by a repeat of the Sejny uprising of 1919. He therefore instructed Żeligowski, who was a native of Lithuania, to lead his forces (the 14,000-strong 1st Lithuanian–Belarussian Infantry Division) in a “mutiny”: they were to “desert” from the Polish Army and “independently” seize Vilnius (which Lithuania claimed as its capital), enabling Warsaw to deny all involvement. Żeligowski moved against Vilnius on 8 October 1920, and the following day the outnumbered Lithuanian garrison abandoned the city. On 12 October 1920, the independence of the Central Lithuanian Republic was proclaimed.