Bronisław Wilhelm Pieracki (28 May 1895 – 15 June 1934) was a Polish military officer and politician.

Life

As a member of the Polish Legions in World War I, Pieracki took part in the Polish-Ukrainian War (1918–1919). He later supported Józef Piłsudski's May 1926 Coup. In 1928 Pieracki was a deputy in the Polish Sejm from the Nonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government, and afterward deputy Chief of Staff of the Polish Armed Forces. He was minister of internal affairs from 27 May 1931 until his 1934 assassination, and was posthumously awarded Poland's highest civilian and military decoration, the Order of the White Eagle.

Assassination

On 15 June 1934, Pieracki was assassinated by a member of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. His death gave Poland's Sanation government a justification to create, two days after the assassination, the Bereza Kartuska Prison. The prison's first detainees were almost entirely the leadership of the Polish nationalist far-right National Radical Camp (the ONR), arrested on 6–7 July 1934. Sentenced to death in the Pieracki assassination were Stepan Bandera, Mykola Lebed and Yaroslav Karpynets. Their sentences were commuted to life imprisonment, and both managed to escape during the German invasion of Poland.

Honours and awards