In November 1918, Sikorski joined the newly created Polish Army, serving as commandant of the 13th Rifle Regiment of the 4th Division of Polish Rifles (General Lucjan Żeligowski). As commandant of the 20th Infantry Brigade, he fought in the Polish–Soviet War, including the Battle of Warsaw (1920) and in Eastern Galicia.
From July 1926 until March 1932, Sikorski commanded the 9th Infantry Division. On 16 March 1927 he was promoted to the rank of General brygady. On 30 June 1933 Sikorski retired from active service, settling in Warsaw. On 5 September 1939 he was evacuated to Brzesc, and then to Lwów, where he took over the command of the city on 12 September, fighting in the Battle of Lwów (1939). After capitulation he was imprisoned by the Soviets in the camp for Polishprisoners of war (POWs) at Starobilsk.
Together with nearly 3800 Polish POWs held at the prison in Starobilsk, General Franciszek Sikorski was murdered by the NKVD in the spring of 1940 in Kharkiv, aged 50. On 5 October 2007 President Lech Kaczyński posthumously promoted him to Divisional general.
Family
Sikorski was married and had three daughters:
Krystyna (b. 1924), Adela called Ada (1928–1996) and Maria (b. 1931). Ada, Maria and their mother were among the hundreds of thousands of Poles deported by the Soviet Union to forced labor camps in Siberia. The three were taken in 1940 to a forced labor settlement in Zapadnyi[1] in the Arkhangelsk Oblast. They managed to leave the Soviet Union with the newly created Polish Anders's Army for Iran in 1942. Adela and Maria were among the many thousands of Polish children learning in 1942–45 in Polish schools that were established in Isfahan.
As an adult, Ada Fighiera Sikorska was a leading Esperantist and editor of the “Heraldo de Esperanto".
Cross of the 1939 Campaign (posthumously, awarded in London on 15 August 1985).
Sources
Piotr Stawecki, Słownik biograficzny generałów Wojska Polskiego 1918–1939, Wydawnictwo Bellona, Warszawa 1994
Tadeusz Kryska-Karski, Stanisław Żurakowski, Generałowie Polski Niepodległej, Editions Spotkania, Warszawa 1991
References
^"Index of Polish victims of Soviet Repressions in 1939-56" (in Polish). indeksrepresjonowanych.pl. Retrieved 2021-12-16. Search for: "Sikorska" in the "Nazwisko" field, "Adela" in the "Imię" field and "1929" in the "rok urodzenia" field. Parallel data for Maria.