Stanisław Szeptycki


Count Stanisław Maria Jan Szeptycki was a Polish count, general and military commander.

Biography

Born in 1867 in Galicia, Austria–Hungary to the aristocratic Szeptycki family, he was the grandson of Polish playwright Aleksander Fredro, son of the count Jan Kanty Szeptycki and brother of Andrey Sheptytsky, Metropolitan Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
Szeptycki joined the Austro-Hungarian Army, where he attained the rank of colonel. In 1914 he joined the Polish Legions, where he became commander of the Third Brigade, and from November 1916 to April 1917 commander of the entire Polish Legions formation. Following the Oath Crisis he commanded the German-aligned Polnische Wehrmacht. Until February 1918 he was Austro-Hungarian governor general of Lublin, but resigned in protest when Germany turned Chełm and the surrounding area over to the Ukrainians. He joined the newly recreated Polish Army in November 1918, and replaced General Tadeusz Rozwadowski as Chief of the General Staff, a post that he held until March 1919.
During the Polish-Soviet War of 1919–1921, Szeptycki commanded the Polish Northeast Front and the 4th Army. In 1919 he commanded Operation Minsk. He disagreed with the Polish Commander-in-Chief, Józef Piłsudski, which cost him his post, and joined the National Democratic opposition to Piłsudski. From June to December 1923 he was Minister of Military Affairs; during that time he challenged Piłsudski to a duel for a perceived slight.
After Piłsudski's May 1926 Coup d'État, Szeptycki was dismissed from active service. After World War II, from 1945 to 1950, he headed the Polish Red Cross.
He died in Korczyna in 1950.

Honours and awards