Jan Maria Włodzimierz Ciechanowski (15 May 1887 – 16 April 1973) was a Polish economist and diplomat. He served as the envoy of Poland to the United States from 1925 to 1929, and later as the ambassador of the Polish government-in-exile to the United States from 1940 to 1945.
Early life and family
Ciechanowski was born on 15 May 1887 in Grodziec, Congress Poland, Russian Empire (now part of Będzin, Poland). He came from the minor noble family of Ciechanowski, which was of Jewish descent. His father, Stanisław Ciechanowski, was a businessperson and owner of several mines and factories in Grodziec. From 1911 to 1917, Jan Ciechanowski served as the administration manager of his father's operations.
Diplomatic career
From 1919 to 1925, Ciechanowski was a legation counselor at the Polish embassy in London. He then served as the envoy of Poland to the United States from 12 October 1925 to 20 February 1929. During this period, in 1928, he and U.S. Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg signed treaties of conciliation and international arbitration between Poland and the United States.
Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Ciechanowski served as secretary-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland from 1939 to 1940. He was then appointed ambassador of the Polish government-in-exile to the United States, serving from 16 December 1940 to 5 July 1945. On 1 January 1942, he signed the Declaration by United Nations as the representative of Poland. He also led the Polish delegation to the International Civil Aviation Organization convention in Chicago in 1944, which resulted in the signing of the Convention on International Civil Aviation.
Later life
After the war, Ciechanowski remained permanently in the United States. He became a member of the League of Polish Independence, a political organization advocating for Polish independence from the Soviet Union. He died on 16 April 1973 in Washington, D.C.
Works
- Defeat in Victory (1947, Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Co.) — a memoir of his wartime diplomatic service.
Orders and decorations
- Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta
