On 28 October, the collection of the last Ambassador of the Polish Second Republic to Turkey Michał Sokolnicki, which became part of the Polish History Museum’s collection in May 2021, was presented at Belweder, the Polish President’s residence.

The event’s attendees included Secretary of State at the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland Minister Wojciech Kolarski, Secretary of State at the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland and Head of the International Policy Bureau Minister Jakub Kumoch, Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey to Poland Cengiz Kamil Fırat, Director of the Polish History Museum Robert Kostro, as well as Mr Sokolnicki’s family and relatives.

On the very same day, Ambassador Michał Sokolnicki’s unique collection was shown to the President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda and the Estonian President Alar Karis present in Poland on a working visit. Their guide was none other but the Director of the Polish History Museum Robert Kostro himself.

‘Today, Belweder is the site of the first public presentation of Ambassador Michał Sokolnicki’s collection. After 75 years, the collection of family memorabilia, the library and archive of Ambassador Sokolnicki, one of Marshal Piłsudski’s closest associates, is returning to Poland. It was a very long process, and it took many decades of work for the Polish state to acquire this extremely valuable collection of documents, which is a source of knowledge about the diplomacy of the Second Polish Republic and the diplomacy during the Second World War. […] That found its finale during President Andrzej Duda’s visit to Turkey in May this year,’ said Secretary of State of the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland Minister Wojciech Kolarski.

‘My most famous predecessor Michał Sokolnicki served as Ambassador in Ankara from 1936 until 1945. His impact on Polish-Turkish relations but also on Polish history during the Second World War was immense. Above all, he was one of those involved in transporting the national treasury through Romania and Turkey, a treasury that was later used to finance the military effort. Ambassador Sokolnicki is remembered mainly as a writer of memoirs, as a man who documented a large part of that era, and as a certain emblematic figure of Polish interwar diplomacy,’ said Secretary of State in the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland and Head of the International Policy Bureau Minister Jakub Kumoch.

‘Writing Polish history is a special task because very often there is no continuity, which is of course related to enormous losses to Polish culture. […] This is compounded by the fact that a significant part of Polish history took place outside the country’s borders. That is why museologists, archivists, librarians and historians who consolidate the scattered resources of Polish heritage play such an important role. When we manage to discover, lay our hands on or acquire something new, it is always a great celebration for Polish culture and Polish history. And today we have such a celebration – we can finally present one of these lost collections,’ said Director of the Polish History Museum Robert Kostro.

The legendary collection of Michał Sokolnicki came to Poland in May 2021 thanks to the cooperation of the Polish History Museum and the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Ankara, and the support of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Assistance in transporting the memorabilia was provided by the Ministry of National Defence. Selected exhibits will be included in the permanent exhibition of the Polish History Museum building now being constructed in the Warsaw Citadel.

The extraordinary collection of Ambassador Michał Sokolnicki was presented to the President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda and the President of Estonia Alar Karis, present in Poland on a working visit. The exhibition guide was none other than Director of the Polish History Museum Robert Kostro himself.

Michał Sokolnicki (1880-1967) was a historian, politician and diplomat. Born into a landowning family, he studied in Paris at the elite School of Political Science and at Lviv University (as one of Szymon Askenazi’s students). He was an activist of the Polish Socialist Party, and before the First World War he joined the Polish Riflemen’s Association. He became Józef Piłsudski’s private secretary. During the First World War, he was secretary to the Supreme National Committee and held other posts, too. In 1919, Sokolnicki was a member of the delegation to the Paris Peace Conference. Later, he worked in diplomacy, serving as ambassador to Denmark and Turkey (from 1936), the time of his holding the latter post coinciding with the Second World War. In September 1945, after Turkey’s recognition of the communist-led Provisional Government of National Unity in Warsaw, Sokolnicki was forced to leave the embassy. He remained in exile in Turkey, where he lectured at Ankara University. After the war, he collaborated with institutions in exile, including the Piłsudski Institute in New York, the Polish Institute of Science and the Paris-based Kultura.

The presented collection contains, inter alia:

• archival material including numerous documents, photographs, manuscripts and letters;
• over 3,200 books from the 19th and 20th centuries; among them many rare items, Polish, English, French and German publications on foreign policy, history and art history;
• more than 30 old prints;
• 15 portraits of the Sokolnicki family;
• over 60 objects of craftsmanship and decorative arts related to the Ambassador;
• more than a dozen items of private furniture and furniture used in his study, and
• over 40 prints.

Photography PHM/Maciej Cioch