Rzeczywistość polityczna II Rzeczypospolitej w twórczości Józefa Putka

Józef Putek (1892-1974) served as an MP in successive parliaments in the interwar period; he was also a sports and local government activist, editor and publicist. As a young man he joined the agrarian Polish People’s Party (PSL); when it split up in 1913, he became one of the founder members of the Polish People’s Party - the Left. In 1922 Putek formed a splinter group PSL - People’s Left and joined forces with PSL – Liberation in the run-up for a parliamentary election. Throughout his career Putek made no effort to disguise his aversion to PSL - Piast, and especially towards its most prominent leader Wincenty Witos. In the early 1920s he was one of the most uncompromising critics of the nationalist-agrarian (Chjeno-Piast) coalition. However, when Witos’s government was overthrown by Marshal Piłsudski in May 1926, Putek observed the new political realities carefully. He hailed the coup, but later grew increasingly critical of Piłsudski’s style of government. Not only were his hopes of a rapprochement between the Marshal and the Left dashed; he also got deeply worried about the change in Poland’s political life. His fears were not unfounded. On 10 September 1930 Putek with a group of leading politicians of the Centerleft alliance was arrested and incarcerated in the Brest Fortress. On 13 January 1932 he was sentenced to 3 years of reformatory detention. However, a speedy appeal stopped the sentence from coming into force. The Warsaw Court of Appeal upheld the District Court ruling and, in accordance the Criminal Code, the penalty mode was stiffened from reformatory to jail. When that sentence came into force he was admitted to the prison at Wadowice on 27 November 1933. On 29 September 1934 Putek was reprieved by a Presidential decree: the remaining part of his sentence was suspended and his citizen’s rights were restored. Undaunted, Putek returned to politics. In the 1938 election he ran successfully as an independent in the 87th Electoral District (Wadowice). He made a comeback after the war and did not leave the political scene until 1956. In the last phase of his life he turned his attention to the practice of law and writing.