Olshina-Vilchinsky, Jozef

Childhood and adolescence

He was born on November 27, 1890 in Krakow, in the family of foreman-builder Jozef Nikolai Vilchinsky and teacher Caroline from the Wagner house ^[1] . He graduated from public school and continued his studies at the State Gymnasium. St. Jacob. In 1910, passed the exam for the certificate of maturity in the Classical gymnasium of St.. Anne in Krakow. In the autumn of the same year he began his studies at the construction department of the Lviv Polytechnic Institute . By 1914, he managed to finish 6 semesters.

During the period of training (from October 1912 to September 1913), he served simultaneously in the Austrian 16th Infantry Regiment of the National Defense in Krakow and graduated with honors from the Reserve Officers School, receiving a cadet sergeant-major degree. It was also marked "Memorable Cross 1912-1913."

From October 1912 he participated in the Polish archery squads. In the summer of 1914 he graduated from the course of instructors of the Polish Streltsy squads in Novy Sонcz . From 1935 until his death, he was chairman of the Harz Commission.

Service in the Polish Legions and the Army

On August 1, 1914, he was mobilized as part of a small unit, on August 6, 1914, he was in the 1st Brigade of the Polish Legions and until July 1917 he took part in battles as company commander and then battalion in the 5th infantry regiment. In October 1914 he was awarded the rank of lieutenant, from January 1915 - captain . After the mass refusal of the Poles to swear on the Austrian emperor, he was forced, as an Austrian citizen, sent to the Austrian army and sent to the front against the French and Italians, then transferred to the territory of Ukraine , where he organized a circle of Polish military organization .

Service in the Polish Army

In November 1918, he secured that his battalion, formerly in the Austrian army, be admitted to the Polish Army as a group under the command of Colonel Rybinsky. Member of the Polish-Ukrainian and Polish-Soviet War - fought on the tail . November 27, 1918 in the battle under Mikulińcami was seriously wounded and captured by the troops of the UNR, was in captivity until June 9, 1919, first in Ternopil , and later in Buchach . In 1919 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel . June 21, 1919 appointed commander of the 3rd Brigade of the Polish Legions . Later he commanded the 1st Brigade, and then the 3rd Brigade of the Legions. In May 1920 he was the commandant of Kiev . Then he commanded the 6th Infantry Division, a separate group consisting of the 3rd Army and the XIV Infantry Brigade. From September 1920 to September 1921 he commanded the XIII Infantry Brigade. In 1921, he changed his. family name, adding to the generic family Vilchinsky also component Olshin.

In 1921 he participated in the support of the 3rd Uprising in Silesia. Since 1922, he served in the Headquarters of the Corps of Corps number V in Krakow as the head of the engineering department. On July 13, 1923, he was transferred to Department V of the Engineering Department of the Ministry of Defense in Warsaw to head the 1st Division, while remaining an officer of the 5th Sapper Regiment. October 10, 1924 was transferred to the border guard corps formed, and from November 17 he was appointed commander of the 2nd Brigade of the Border Guard in Baranavichy . On October 10, 1925, he joined the command of the 1st Brigade of the Border Guard in Zdolbunov .

In November 1926, he was transferred from the engineer engineering officers (5th sapper regiment) to the composition of infantry officers (5th legionary infantry regiment).

March 16, 1927 President of Poland Ignacy Moszitsky assigned him the rank of Brigadier General from January 1, 1927.

In the same month, he was appointed commander of the 10th Infantry Division in Boats, which he commanded until 1935. In 1935-1937 he was director of the State Center for Physical Education and Military Training. From February 9, 1938 - Commander of the District of Corps No. 3 in Grodno .

Death

In September 1939 he commanded the Grodno task force. Already on September 17, the general, heading along with his headquarters by car from Pinsk to Grodno, ran into a large subdivision of the Soviet troops or, according to another version, with communist saboteurs.

On September 22, in the morning, I went by car with my wife Alfred Olshina-Vilchinskaya, adjutant - captain of artillery Mechislav Strzhemeski and another man towards the border of Lithuania. A few minutes later the car was stopped by Soviet tanks in Noviki. The car’s passengers were detained, their personal belongings were taken away and they were divided: the general’s wife was locked in a shed, and General Olshin-Vilchinsky and Captain Strzhemesky were taken aside and killed. According to the wife of the general, it is known that there were signs of ill-treatment on the bodies of two men. Soviet soldiers displayed their blood-stained peaked cap as a trophy. The grave of General Wilczynski is located in the town of Sopotskin , the parish of Teolin, near Grodno, and the symbolic burial is located at the Savior’s cemetery in Krakow.

The contemporary Russian writer Yury Mukhin claims that the general was killed while trying to escape, having left the subordinate units that still fought; meanwhile, witnesses to the execution of the general and his adjutant a shot in the back of the head was his wife and several of her accompanying persons.

On September 22, 1991, on the 52nd anniversary of the death of Olszyna-Vilczyński, a memorial plaque in honor of the general was made in black marble in the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Krakow . In honor of the general named streets in Krakow and Sopotskin.

He was the son of Nikolai Vilchinsky, a bricklayer, and Caroline from the Wagner family.

He is married twice: his first wife, Jozef, with whom he divorced in 1936, had two children: son Weslaw (born 1911) and daughter Galina (born 1913). The second wife of the general was from 1937 Alfred from the Schwartz family (the Stanishevsky family).

• Lieutenant - 1914
• captain - 1915
• Lieutenant Colonel - June 21, 1919
• Colonel - rank increased retroactively from June 1, 1919
• Brigade General - March 16, 1927

• Silver Cross of the Order "Virtuti Militari" (1921)
• Commander's Cross of the Order of the Revival of Poland (1928)
• Independence Cross (1931)
• Cross of the Brave - four times
• Golden cross
• Commemorative Medal for the War of 1918-1921
• Medal "10th Anniversary of Independence"
• Badge officer "Umbrella"
• Golden Badge of Honor of the League of Air Defense and Chemical Protection 1st degree
• Cross for military merit III class ( Austria-Hungary )
• Chevalier of the Order of the Legion of Honor ( France )
• Order "Lachplesis" III class number 1907 ( Latvia )
• Victory Medal (Allied)

• Jerzy Danielewicz: Wyższa kadra dowódcza KOP 1924-1939. W: Lech Grochowski [red.]: Korpus Ochrony Pogranicza w 70 rocznicę powstania. Materiały z konferencji popularnonaukowej. Kętrzyn: Centrum Szkolenia Straży Granicznej, 1994.
• Waldemar Jaskulski: Generał brygady Józef Konstanty Olszyna-Wilczyński (1890-1939). Włocławek: Expol, 2013. ISBN 978-83-60541-09-8 .
• Tadeusz Jurga: Obrona Polski 1939. Warszawa: Instytut Wydawniczy PAX, 1990, s. 799-800. ISBN 83-211-1096-7 .
• Marian Krwawicz, gen. Józef Olszyna-Wilczyński [w:] Polski Słownik Biograficzny, tom XXIV, wyd. 1979, s. 52-53.
• Zbigniew Mierzwiński: Generałowie II Rzeczypospolitej. Warszawa 1990: Wydawnictwo Polonia, s. 195–199. ISBN 83-7021-096-1 .
• Tomasz Zbigniew Zapert, Generałowie Września, Ozon, 2 lutego 2005
• Dariusz Baliszewski, Tajemnica generała Olszyny, "Wprost", nr 1243 z 8 października 2006, wersja elektroniczna dostępne w Internecie, dostęp 2007-12-05, 19:52
• Alfreda Olszyna-Wilczyńska, Jak został zamordowany generał Olsztyna-Wilczyński, Magazyn Polski [Grodno], nr 1/1993, s. 69-76 [opracował: Józef Porzecki]

• The message of the widow gene. Jozef Olshyna-Vilchinsky on his trip to Grodno on September 17, 1939: Marek Verzhbitski: Russian-Belarusian relations under the Soviet occupation of 1939-1941.
• Gene. Y. Olshina-Vilchinsky and Captain M. Strzhesky in the list of the dead soldiers of the Polish Army in the fight against Soviet troops in 1939