MASTER PLANNER
EUGENIUSZ KWIATKOWSKI (1888-1974) is a special character in the history of Poland. He was a politician, economist, writer and historian. After years of oblivion, he is now recognised as one of the most outstanding politicians who changed the face of the Polish economy. In the interwar period, he served as a deputy prime minister, as well as minister of industry, trade and treasury. He was a great visionary. He came up with a cohesive concept of Poland’s modernisation. The new Baltic port city of Gdynia and the new Central Industrial District (COP) developed in the interwar period are symbols, permanent traces of his thoughts and actions. Maciej Proliński writes about this eminent economist and statesman as part of a series devoted to the history of Polish statehood published within the “Niepodległa” (Independent Poland) programme.
E
ugeniusz Kwiatkowski was born in Kraków on December 30, 1888. His father was an engineer and his mother came from the well-known burgher Moszczeński family. He was educated in the Lvov Franz Josef Junior High School, followed by a Jesuit school in Bąkowice, where in 1907 he passed the matriculation examination. Later, he studied at the Faculty of Technical Chemistry of the Lvov University of Technology, and then at the University of Munich. During World War I he fought as a soldier of the Polish Legions and of the Polish Military Organisation. During the Polish-Bolshevik war of 1920, he worked for the Polish military. In 1921, he began to lecture at the Faculty of Chemistry of the Warsaw University of Technology, two years later he became technical director
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of the National Association of Nitrogen Factories. He began his political career in 1926, when Prime Minister Kazimierz Bartel entrusted him with the position of minister of industry and trade. Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski championed the idea of establishing the Central Industrial District (COP), including a defence industry hub. The COP was built in 1936-39. The district, located in south-central Poland, was home to over 5 million inhabitants. It significantly strengthened Poland’s economic potential at the time with the new Huta Stalowa Wola (HSW) steelworks, Stomil factory in Dębica, and aviation industry plants in Mielec. The construction of several power plants was also started, including in Czorsztyn and Łukawiec on the San River. The creation of the Central Industrial District was one of pre-war Poland’s largest