Sikorsky proposes revising the awards of the Order of the White Eagle
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski proposed initiating a review of the list of recipients of the Order of the White Eagle. He noted that the initiative should not be aimed at stripping Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the award, but rather at analyzing historical cases in which the order was awarded to controversial figures, among whom he mentioned Catherine II, Benito Mussolini, and Antoni Macierewicz.
Who does Sikorski want to strip of the Order of the White Eagle?
The Polish Foreign Minister proposes to begin the process of stripping the Order of the White Eagle from Russian Empress Catherine II, the fascist dictator of the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 to 1943, Benito Mussolini, and the Polish politician, Minister of Defense (2015–2018) Antoni Macierewicz.
If the Order of the White Eagle is to be abolished, shouldn’t we start with Empress Catherine, Mussolini, and Macierewicz? he wrote on social media.
It is worth noting that Catherine II received the order in 1787 from the hands of Polish King Stanisław August Poniatowski. At the same time, the Russian empress’s policy toward Poland—which in the 18th century was known as the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth—was expansionist in nature and culminated in the dissolution of Polish statehood. The empress interfered in the internal affairs of the neighboring country, destabilized it, and ultimately initiated the three partitions of Poland (1772, 1793, 1795) together with Prussia and Austria.
Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was awarded the Order of the White Eagle in 1923 by then-Polish President Stanisław Wojciechowski during a visit to the country. Mussolini later distinguished himself by transforming Italy into an authoritarian system with a militaristic ideology, launching colonial wars, and becoming an ally of Nazi Führer Adolf Hitler.
Former Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz was awarded Poland’s highest honor in 2022. The decision sparked heated controversy in Polish society. In particular, Polish politicians cited Macierewicz’s activities at the Ministry of Defense, which they deemed destructive—specifically, the disbandment of the Military Intelligence Service and his possible involvement in the leak of information regarding the investigation into the Smolensk disaster.
Radosław Sikorski wrote about this on his page on social media platform X.
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