Jan Ferdynand Olszewski was a Polish conservative lawyer and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Poland for five months between December 1991 and early June 1992 and later became a leading figure of the conservative Movement for the Reconstruction of Poland.
13 Facts About Jan Olszewski
2.
On 22 May 1992, Jan Olszewski opposed the signing of a clause in Polish-Russian Treaty of Friendly and Neighbourly Cooperation, which handed over former Russian military bases to international Polish-Russian corporations.
3.
On 5 June 1992,00:00 AM, after a vote of no confidence was approved, with 273 in favour and 119 against, Jan Olszewski was forced to resign as Prime Minister and his cabinet was immediately replaced in an event known as the nightshift.
4.
Jan Olszewski was related to Stefan Aleksander Okrzeja, a Polish socialist nationalist from the turn of the 20th century who was executed by Russian authorities in 1905 for leading insurgent activities.
5.
In 1956, Jan Olszewski joined the writing staff of the weekly Po prostu magazine.
6.
However, Jan Olszewski returned to practice law in 1970 as Edward Gierek assumed power.
7.
Jan Olszewski later became a signatory of the Letter of 59 in 1975, an open protest to changes to the republic's communist constitution.
8.
Jan Olszewski explained his views on economic reforms in an interview with Anthony Murawski in the summer of 1992, published in September 1992 in Multinational Monitor magazine.
9.
Jan Olszewski departed from the Centre Agreement in the summer of 1992 with a number of other rebel MPs, creating the Movement for the Republic.
10.
Jan Olszewski led his party to support the vote of no confidence against Prime Minister Hanna Suchocka in 1993, believing her economic policies had harmed the state.
11.
Jan Olszewski was reelected to the Sejm in 2001, with his party allied with the populist far-right League of Polish Families.
12.
In July 2014, Jan Olszewski was made an honorary citizen of Warsaw by Mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz for his participation in the Warsaw Uprising as well as citing his moral and social authority in service of the city.
13.
Jan Olszewski died after a long illness on 7 February 2019 in a Warsaw hospital.