Polonica
Battle of Warsaw 

Christianity        Millennium        Monte Cassino         Warsaw

On the 50th anniversary of the battle of Warsaw (on the Vistula) in 1970, another sheet was issued showing J. Pilsudsky.  I do not have the sheet to show here, only the stamp.  The sheet is framed with black, decorated with laurel leaves, and the lettering is in gold ink.  The size of the sheet is 106 x 159 mm, imperforate on heavy, white, glossy paper.  The number of issued sheets is unknown.  A perforated single label is shown below.  

General Jozef Pilsudsky (1867-1935), Poland.  Many Polish Americans considered Jozef Pilsudski to be the "George Washington of Poland." This revered general did more than any other single Pole, working primarily with Poles and on Polish soil, to achieve the independence of Poland after the first World War. While in secondary school, Pilsudski first became an avid revolutionary.

Then during his first year of medical school at the University of Kharkov in the Ukraine, he was expelled for suspicious political activities and a year later, in 1887, he was arrested for alleged participation in an assassination attempt on the Russian Czar, Alexander III. Though actually innocent, he nevertheless spent his complete five year sentence in Siberia. Through this episode, Pilsudski gained two important assets: time to plan for Poland's resistance against her oppressors, and credentials as a victim of the Czarist regime. 

On the 50th anniversary of the Polonus Ph8latelic Society of Chicago, and their philatelic exhibition POLPEX, Czeslaw Slania was asked to do an engraving.  The sheet was designed by Leon S. Kawecki.  The subject is a portion of a Polish stamp issued in 1928.  Printed in Stockholm on heavy bright cream coloured paper, 115 x 76 mm.  Several examples exist printed by the engraver on white paper. 

• Memorial for the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Warsaw.  Engraved 1989 for the Polonus Philatelic Society of Chicago.  Only 200 copies have been printed on white paper. 

  Christianity        Millennium        Monte Cassino         Warsaw

Sources:

• Close-Up No. 3/2003, page 11.
• Mr. Jerzy Krysiak (Sweden).