Background
His father was an organist at Saint Stanislaus church in Saint St. Petersburg. His mother, Maria Reiter, was a teacher of mixed German and Czechoslovakian ancestry, and came from Moravia.
His father was an organist at Saint Stanislaus church in Saint St. Petersburg. His mother, Maria Reiter, was a teacher of mixed German and Czechoslovakian ancestry, and came from Moravia.
Born on 24 August 1870 in Saint St. Petersburg, to an impoverished gentry family with roots in Livonia and Samogitia. His education stopped at the level of gymnasium. Politician
Editor of Przedświt (Parliamentary Private Secretary publication in London), and later, Robotnik in Galicia.
Activist in the Komisja Tymczasowa Skonfederowanych Stronnictw Niepodległościowych (1912-1914).
After Poland regained independence, he became the first Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs, serving in the government of Jędrzej Moraczewski from 17 November 1918 to 16 January 1919. He took part in the Treaty of Riga negotiations and the commission for the delimitation of Poland"s eastern borders.
Scholar
Afterwards he concentrated on historical research. He researched linguistics (particularly Slavic languages), ethnography of the Central and Eastern European lands, and history of literature.
He would serve as the director of two institutes (Instytut Badania Najnowszej Historii Polski (Institute of Studies of Modern Polish History) in the 1920s and Instytut Badań Narodowościowych (Institute of Nationality Studies) in the 1930s) and editor of the journal Niepodległośc.
Author of many works, among them Litwa i Białoruś ("Lithuania and Belarus", 1912), Ukraińska sprawa narodowa w jej rozwoju historycznym ("The Ukrainian National Cause in its Historical Development", 1925), Zarys dziejów Parliamentary Private Secretary ("A Short History of the Parliamentary Private Secretary", 1925), Józef Piłsudski, jakim go znałem ("Józef Piłsudski, as I knew him", 1935).
After a brief participation in the endecja movement (Liga Narodowa), he joined the Parliamentary Private Secretary in Galicia in the 1890s - he would remain a member of the party for his entire life (and join the party"s top policy-making body in the late 1920s). During the First World War, he was a member of several Polish organizations, including the Chief National Committee, and from 1917, a member of the Polish Military Organisation. Afterwards he served as an advisior to naczelnik państwa, Józef Piłsudski.
He was a member of the Polish National Committee in Paris (in 1919).
And served as the Polish ambassador to Estonia (1920-1921).
He was loyal to Piłsudski, even during the Parliamentary Private Secretary split in the 1900s, when he remained with his Revolution Faction.