Zygmunt Felczak

As an activist of the National Workers' Party and the Labour Faction, he founded the daily paper "Ilustrowany Kurier Polski" and took part in the Warsaw uprising.

His mother came from an impoverished noble family, whose ancestors were sent by Tsarist authorities to Siberia after their participation in the uprisings of November 1830–1831 and January 1863.

[1] Antoni and Michalina were owners of a 20 hectares (49 acres) domain in the village of Chorki, 50 kilometres (31 mi) north west of Łódź, in then Russian-controlled Poland.

In 1931, he moved to Toruń to work as the secretary of the NPR District Board in Pomerania and editor of the magazine "Obrona Ludu" (Defence of the People).

He mentioned later also: "We do not want to introduce a collective system in Poland, and we consider communists to be tightrope walkers and the same fascists as the supporters of Hitler and Mussolini".

He had been regularly brought to court for his anti-government activities and was imprisoned twice for insulting Józef Piłsudski and President Ignacy Mościcki.

In 1939, in the growing threat of an attack of the Third Reich in Poland, he called for young people to actively resist, stating, for instance: "We are ready to make all sacrifices for the integrity and independence of our borders.

After the arrest of Franciszek Kwieciński, he was designated on 29 March 1942, as the new representative of the Labor Party[3] in the underground Political Consultative Committee (PKP).

On 25 October 1942, the leadership of the Labour Faction (Stronnictwo Pracy-SP) recalled Felczak from PKP, accusing him of political intrigue.

In July 1943, he created and led a new political group, the "Stronnictwo Zrywu Narodowego" (National Rising Party) or "Zryw".

Although already seriously ill, Felczak deliberately left a Warsaw hospital to go to Bydgoszcz to help out on local preparations of the 1946 Polish people's referendum held on June 30.

The full support he provided to this biased voting put him in direct conflict with his ancient mentor Karol Popiel, who favored Stanisław Mikołajczyk and his popular Polish People's Party.

[6] In it, he exposed his vision of a "civilizational armament" of Poland, encompassing the following questions: The book, supporting Jan Stachniuk's philosophical ideas, was heavily rejected by the Polish Catholic society.

This year, he published an article in a historical paper ("Roczniki Historyczne"), "The moods of Wielkopolska towards the Hungarian revolution in 1848–1849" (Polish: Nastroje Wielkopolski wobec rewolucji węgierskiej w r. 1848–1849) and another which appeared only after the war.

In addition, he was involved in information activities, which led him to copy magazines opposing anti-government propaganda in collaboration with Tadeusz Chciuk-Celt.

He returned from his last expedition at the end of March 1947, with a status bestowed by the President Władysław Raczkiewicz and Prime Minister Tomasz Arciszewski.

In June 1947, Władysław Raczkiewicz died, giving way to many years of division among emigrants and the loss of recognition of the Polish government from the Western powers.

He resumed his courier role in September–October 1948, to help his friends threatened with arrest by the Security Office (UB) to flee Communist Poland: In early December 1948, Wacław moved from Paris to Czechoslovakia via Innsbruck and Vienna.

In the second half of the 1970s, Wacław regularly traveled to Hungary, where he played an important role in the formation of the democratic Hungarian opposition.

He was holding lectures in private flats, sharing his vision of history for all nations of the Central Europe with eminent Hungarians such as Árpád Göncz, Miklós Vásárhelyi, Sándor Csoóri or György Szabad.

Commemorative plaque of prof. Wacław Felczak, Jagiellonian University
Wacław Felczak tombstone in Zakopane