Bolesław Piasecki

Poland state institutions Fascists and Nazis Nationalism 1915–1979 ○ Natural causes

From leader of the National-Radical 'Falanga' to chairman of PAX, the Catholic group that worked with the communist regime

In 1929 he joined the secret high-school organisation of the National Party, and in 1934 became head of the party's youth section and co-founded the National Radical Camp (ONR). Interned at Bereza Kartuska, he then led the extreme-right 'Falanga' faction, which preached antisemitism and 'Catholic totalitarianism' and is considered by many a fascist movement. In the Second World War he led the anti-German and anti-Soviet Confederation of the Nation, which joined the Home Army in 1943, and fought around Vilnius. Arrested by the NKVD in 1944, he turned to cooperation with the communist regime, founded the pro-government Catholic PAX Association in 1947 and chaired it until his death. He sat in the Sejm from 1965 and on the Council of State in 1971–1979.

Also known as: Bolesław Bogdan Piasecki · Boleslaw Piasecki