Gabriel Czechowicz (1876-1938) was a Polish lawyer, economist and politician. He was the Polish Treasury Minister from 1926 to 1929. Accused of misuse of government funds, Czechowicz was the only Polish politician of the interwar period that faced the State Tribunal of the Republic of Poland in the so-called Czechowicz Case. The case was dropped without ruling due to pressure from the Sanacja regime.
Czechowicz was born on October 2, 1876, in his family real estate near Minsk, Russian Empire, in a noble family. He graduated from Law Faculty at Saint Petersburg State University, after which took a job in a bank at Riga. In 1905, he began working for the local Russian tax chamber. In 1917, the chamber was evacuated to Tartu, and in 1918, Czechowicz returned to newly restored Poland. In 1919, he was employed by the Treasury Office of Civilian Government of the Eastern Territories. He then was manager of tax chamber in Brest. Transferred to Warsaw, in 1925 he was named manager of Department of Taxes and the State Treasury.
In December 1922, Czechowicz, under the pseudonym Leliwa, wrote a book “The Project of Improvement of Polish Treasury”. The publication criticized the government of Poland, and the author stated that the newly recreated country lacked cohesive tax regulations, and a well-thought out plan of changes. Taxes were collected slowly and inefficiently, and as a result the treasury lost a lot of revenue. Furthermore, there were too many different taxes, and the tax office was too decentralized. Since civil servants earned too little, corruption among them was rampant. Czechowicz had several ideas. He wanted to keep only income tax, and to attach Polish currency to the “perfect gold”.
In 1926, already a high-ranking official of the State Treasury, Czechowicz, again as Leliwa, wrote another book: “The Treasury Problem in the Light of Truth”. He analyzed the works of two ministers of treasury, Wladyslaw Grabski and Jerzy Zdziechowski, criticizing the introduction of the złoty, which replaced the mark.
Following the 1926 May Coup, a new government under Premier Kazimierz Bartel was formed on May 15, 1926. [1] To the surprise of many analysts, Gabriel Czechowicz became new Minister of Finance. He remained in this post only for a few weeks, to be replaced by Czesław Klarner. After a few months, when Jozef Pilsudski became new premier, Czechowicz once again became the Minister of Finance (October 2, 1926). His priority was to reform the tax system, in order to balance the budget. By May 1927, the interest rate was lowered to 8%, which was still higher than France (3.5%).
Contrary to Wladyslaw Grabski, who avoided foreign loans, Czechowicz supported them, claiming they were necessary for the economy. He wanted to introduce Poland to world financial markets, as a stable and trusted customer. In October 1927, a consortium of banks granted the so-called “stabilization loan” to Poland, in the amount of 62 million dollars and 2 million pounds. Its interest rate was higher than in similar loans in Germany and Austria, also Poland had to employ for three years American advisor Charles Dewey, who became a member of the board of the National Bank of Poland. The loan was used to stabilize the zloty and balance the budget deficit.
In 1926 - 1929, Polish economy stabilized. This was due mostly to both the reforms of Wladyslaw Grabski, and favourable international situation.
In December 1927, Gabriel Czechowicz handed 8 million zlotys to the official fund of Jozef Pilsudski. The money was then used in the election campaign of pro-government party, the Nonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government (BBWR). Furthermore, other expenditures of the government were not sent to the Sejm for approval.
Even though Czechowicz followed the orders of Jozef Pilsudski, the Sejm decided that the Minister must face the State Tribunal. Pilsudski himself wrote a newspaper article “The Bottom of an Eye” (“Dno oka”), in which he presented a favourable picture of his minister. Despite this, on March 8, 1929, Czechowicz had to resign. The Tribunal itself did not achieve any decision, and sent the case again to the Parliament. Meanwhile, the 1930 Polish legislative election took place, after which the Sanacja regime legalized Czechowicz’s actions.
Czechowicz himself was bitter about this outcome. In press interviews he frequently stated that he wanted to prove his innocence before the Tribunal. In the early 1930s, he decided to exit the BBWR.
In the 1930s, Czechowicz continued his work as an economist. In 1933, he published a book New Roads in Economy”, presenting his solution to the Great Depression, which greatly affected Poland. Among his proposals were a temporary halt of payments of the foreign debt of Poland, limit to the exports and closer control of the cartels. Following the example of Fascist Italy, Czechowicz supported the introduction of a 40-hour work week. Nevertheless, his book remained unnoticed and did not have any effect on Polish planners.
In 1934, together with Tytus Filipowicz, he founded Polish Radical Party (Polska Partia Radykalna). His political plans were a failure, and in late 1937, he became a treasurer of the Labor Party (Stronnictwo Pracy).
Gabriel Czechowicz died suddenly of heart attack on January 22, 1938, in Warsaw. He was buried at Powazki Cemetery. He was awarded the Commander and Officer Crosses of the Polonia Restituta (1922, 1925).
Stanisław Wojciechowski was a Polish politician and scholar who served as President of Poland between 1922 and 1926, during the Second Polish Republic.
Sanation was a Polish political movement that was created in the interwar period, prior to Józef Piłsudski's May 1926 Coup d'État, and came to power in the wake of that coup. In 1928 its political activists would go on to form the Nonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government (BBWR).
Gabriel Józef Narutowicz was a Polish professor of hydroelectric engineering and politician who served as the first President of Poland from 11 December 1922 until his assassination on 16 December, five days after assuming office. He previously served as the Minister of Public Works from 1920 to 1922 and briefly as Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1922. A renowned engineer and politically independent, Narutowicz was the first elected head of state following Poland's regained sovereignty from partitioning powers.
Kazimierz Władysław Bartel was a Polish mathematician, freemason, scholar, diplomat and politician who served as 15th, 17th and 19th Prime Minister of Poland three times between 1926 and 1930 and the Senator of Poland from 1937 until the outbreak of World War II.
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Janusz Jędrzejewicz was a Polish politician and educator, a leader of the Sanacja political group, and 24th Prime Minister of Poland from 1933 to 1934.
The Nonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government was a "non-political" organization in the interwar Second Polish Republic, in 1928–35. It was closely affiliated with Józef Piłsudski and his Sanation movement. Its major activists included Walery Sławek, Kazimierz Bartel, Kazimierz Świtalski, Aleksander Prystor, Józef Beck, Janusz Jędrzejewicz, Wacław Jędrzejewicz, Adam Koc, Leon Kozłowski, Ignacy Matuszewski, Bogusław Miedziński, Bronisław Pieracki, Adam Skwarczyński, and Janusz Franciszek Radziwiłł.
Władysław Dominik Grabski was a Polish National Democratic politician, economist and historian. He was the main author of the currency reform in the Second Polish Republic and served as Prime Minister of Poland in 1920 and from 1923 to 1925. He was the brother of Stanisław Grabski and Zofia Kirkor-Kiedroniowa.
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Parliamentary elections were held in Poland on 16 November 1930, with Senate elections held a week later on 23 November. In what became known as the Brest elections, the pro-Sanation Nonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government took 47% of the vote and 249 of the 444 seats in Sejm and 77 of the 111 seats in the Senate. The elections are known as the least free elections in the Second Polish Republic due to the Brest trial controversy.
A Piłsudskiite was a political supporter of Marshal Józef Piłsudski, the founder of the First World War Polish Legions and the first Chief of State of the Second Republic of Poland. The Piłsudskiites had a major influence on the politics of Poland during the interwar period (1918–1939).
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Adam Ignacy Koc was a Polish politician, MP, soldier, journalist and Freemason. Koc, who had several noms de guerre, fought in Polish units in World War I and in the Polish–Soviet War.
Stanisław Car was a Polish politician, lawyer, Marshal of the Sejm, deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice.
Maria Wojciechowska, née Kiersnowska, was the First Lady of Poland from 1922 to 1926 as the wife of President Stanisław Wojciechowski.
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