MILEWSKI Michał

1875

1935

Commander of the Western Front of the Greater Poland Uprising and brigadier general in the Polish Army. He was born on 5 December 1875 in Suwałki, to the bourgeois family of Kazimierz and Józefa née Brzozowska. After graduation from secondary school in Suwałki (1895) he joined the 14th Infantry Regiment in Łomża as a volunteer. He completed Officers’ School in Czugujewo. From 1900 onwards, he was an officer. In the ranks of the Leib Guard Borodino Infantry Regiment, he took part in the Russian-Japanese war and in World War I he was wounded four times and suffered from contusions twice. On 3 September 1917, he joined the 4th Rifle Regiment of the 1st Polish Corps of General J. Dowbor-Muśnicki, where he served as the deputy commander and from January 1918, the commander. After the dissolution of the Corps, he was called up to the Polish Army as a member of the commission of General Iwaszkiewicz at the General Staff in Warsaw. On 12 November 1918, he was appointed commander of the 12th Ciechanów Military District, he organised, among other things, the 32nd Infantry Regiment. From l January 1919, he was delegated to Greater Poland. On 18 January, he was appointed commander of the Western Front of the Uprising, on 24 January he took up the post entrusted to him with quarters in Posadowo. A. Biskupski wrote: "With great energy and experience, Colonel Milewski developed the organisational work, took over and integrated the front-line troops within the section entrusted to him, and as a true commander, he became a mentor and a friend of the soldiers and led them to the Glory of the Homeland." On 19 February 1919, by order No. 46 of Central Command, he was appointed commander of the Western District of the Greater Poland Front and on 1 June - promoted to brigadier general. From 11 June, he was the infantry inspector of the 1st Greater Poland Rifle Division and commander of the 1st Infantry Brigade, and from October, the commander of the 27th Brigade (together with this unit, he fought on the Lithuanian-Belarusian Front). After the 1920 war, on 25 September 1921, he was appointed commander of the Poznań Military District and held this post until 7 August 1924. Then, he served as the deputy commandant of the Military District (Brest-on-the-Bug), and from 14 November 1926, as the commandant of that District. On 17 March 1927, Milewski retired. He settled in Kielce. He died on 28 November 1935 in Warsaw. He received the Order of Virtuti Military of the 5th class, the Cross of Independence, the Cross of Valour and the “Poland to Her Defender” Medal.

Z. Kościański, Milewski Michał (1875-1935) (in:) Powstańcy wielkopolscy. Biogramy uczestników powstania wielkopolskiego 1918-1919, v. IV, ed. B. Polak, Poznań 2008, s.122-123.

Zdzisław Kościański