Wincenty Rzymowski (19 July 1883, in Kuczbork-Osada – 30 April 1950, in Warsaw) was a Polish politician and writer. Rzymowski was one of the many faces of Stalinism in postwar Poland.

Career

In the Second Polish Republic, Wincenty Rzymowski was a member of the Democratic Party and a known publicist. He was also forced to resign his membership in the Polish Academy of Literature in a controversy involving allegations of plagiarism.^[1]

During World War II he began collaborating with the Soviets. He joined the Union of Polish Patriots, was a Minister of Arts and Culture in the Polish Committee of National Liberation and a Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Provisional Government of National Unity, formed by Stalin. He represented Poland during the signing of the United Nations Charter.^[2] In January 1946, he was a Soviet candidate for the position of the first Secretary General of the United Nations, but opposed by the United States.^[3] The two powers eventually compromised on Trygve Lie, a socialist from Norway.^[3]

Wincenty Rzymowski was also a deputy to the State National Council and Legislative Sejm. From 1947 till the end of his life he was a minister without portfolio in the Polish communist government.