At the end of the 1930s, the nation saw in Śmigły-Rydz a savior who would lead the homeland to victory with Germany. But the Commander-in-Chief did not cope with the role. He fled the country while the soldiers were still fighting. He also turned out to be a wimp privately - he spent his life under the heel of a woman who did not respect him ...
The marshal is unequal to the marshal. In 1936, Edward Śmigły-Rydz took office after Józef Piłsudski. However, while his predecessor was remembered by Poles as a winner, he himself went down in history as a great loser. Not only did he not save the country in September 1939, but when he fled Poland, he also took on the stigma of a traitor.
In his youth, the handsome Śmigły-Rydz could choose between women. It was unfortunate that he gave his heart to a manipulator who did not respect him at all (photo from around 1914).
Perhaps the diary he kept would contain an explanation of his decision to escape, but just before his death, he decided to pass it on to the woman of his life who wrapped him around her finger - Marta Thomas Zaleska. When a femme fatale died in mysterious circumstances ten years later, the document was lost forever…
The approach to representatives of the fair sex is another issue that differs Piłsudski and Śmigły-Rydz. The former dominated their partners, unscrupulously changing them to their liking - and they loved him for that. The second turned out to be rather "soft" in male-female relationships . He allowed his wife to do everything. And Thomas Zaleska used it unscrupulously. She enjoyed playing with his emotions, was prone to mocking her husband, and distanced herself in public from him. It is also possible that she cheated on him - in her case that would not be new.
A ball from the cuckold
She was born in 1895 in Żytomierz. She started her love affairs already in high school - her first prize was a certain Michał (or Tadeusz) Zaleski - heir to the fortune of borderland aristocrats. However, Marta was not allowed to farm on the estate. Zaleski, as a tsarist lieutenant, went to the front of the First World War. At that time, he rented an apartment in Kiev to his wife. When he returned, heard rumors from the "kind" about how his wife had fun with the mysterious Mr. M .
He even caught those lovebirds red-handed. But he was not hardened in anger. He chose not to stand in the way of Martha's love and her lover. So he met his rival to tell him about it personally. Hearing this declaration, "Mr. M" burst out laughing. He bluntly replied that he might play with his wife in bed, but he was not going to marry her at all.
When Śmigły-Rydz was taking over the marshal's mace, Poles had great hopes for him. He did not live up to them. He also turned out to be a wimp in his private life.
What followed was described in the book "Romances at the Summit of Power" by Iwona Kienzler:
The cheated husband decided that the game was compromising the lady's honor and fired his revolver at the amateur of other wives. The unfortunate Mr. M. tried to hide from the bullets under the covers lying on the hotel bed, but of course it was to no avail and was soon lying dead on the floor in a pool of blood . Zaleski allegedly later claimed that he intended to use the last bullet for himself, but he remembered so much in anger that he fired them all ...
After this "incident" the landowner and Martha parted ways. It is not known whether they got an official divorce, at least a beautiful seductress, quickly found herself consoled in the arms of another.
Husband allergy
This is where Marta's turbulent life is entered by none other than a handsome fighter for a free Poland - the 32-year-old colonel Edward Rydz pseud. Pliable. The couple quickly landed in bed. The future Marshal had no idea that he was trapped like game hunting.
The chosen one, Rydz, had a difficult character, to put it mildly. It must be admitted, however, that it made a stunning impression - just like when it first appeared in Warsaw's salons during the carnival at the turn of 1920/1921. “It was then that the foxtail was beginning to fall into fashion. Martha was also dancing then, and her fox movements were noticeable. [...] Very shapely, she was characterized by great beauty, although she had an ugly, slightly freckled complexion. Still, a lot of men loved her. There was just something about it. They call it sex appeal ”- recalled General Regina Hubicka.
Generally, however, Śmigły's partner was marginalized by the environment. The couple did not actually have a social life together. As Iwona Kienzler emphasizes in her book:"They were not seen together either at the castle or at the Belvedere Palace, only one photo of them has been preserved in the archives - from the New Year's ball organized by President Mościcki in 1939".
On the other hand, if she was already at the side of her husband, she was said to have always been wearing white gloves. It was not about elegance. At least not only that. She explained to her friends - often in the presence of Rydz, who heard it, but let it go down on his ears - that he was allergic to her husband ...
An immoral proposal
When the couple moved to Vilnius in the first half of the 1920s, where Edward was an army inspector, Rydz heard rumors that his wife liked the company of other men a bit too much. To indulge her cravings, she went shopping alone - without a maid.
According to the accounts of her contemporaries, she liked to create embarrassing situations. More than once she returned home in the company of men. She chose the more handsome soldiers . She pretended to be a virgin and asked them to help her take the groceries home. Right in front of the door, she began to "rush" to her assistant and suggested to him that the continuation would take place in the apartment. The author of the book "Romances at the Summit of Power" describes:
Imagine the delinquent's surprise when the general himself opened the door, finding him with his uniform unbuttoned, and often with his pants unbuttoned, accompanied by a cheerful general! Apparently, the unfortunate young men reacted quite nervously to this sight, some fainted, others became truly hysterical, and one even wanted to commit suicide on the stairs without delay. Fortunately, as a rule, Śmigły was able to calm the nervous candidates for his wife's lovers and never took any official consequences towards them.
The relationship between Śmigły-Rydz and Marta Zaleska was not successful. The couple actually never showed up in public together (in the photo of Rydz, during a ceremonial breakfast given by the President of the Republic of Poland Ignacy Mościcki at the Royal Castle.
Why did the wife of the general of the Polish army flirt with the soldiers before his eyes? Maybe this was the way she wanted to add value to herself as a woman and to humiliate him? It is not known, in each probably due to a failed marriage, Edward suffered from depression .
"He became as if muted, apathetic, passive, nothing - or so it looked like - interested him except for a bridge game and conversations with a few friends" - recalled Kazimierz Studziński, a close friend of Śmigły. Worse, Marta turned out to be sterile. The couple could not have children, although apparently Rydz liked them.
Married to an agent?
Just before the war, Marta Thomas Zaleska suddenly disappeared from Warsaw and moved to Paris. Maliciously, they claimed that she had gone there in order to get polished before her role as president in 1940, because then Śmigły was to take over the presidency after Ignacy Mościcki.
Historians have different assumptions. During her stay on the Seine, she was on the payroll of the Polish Army . The interview even bought real estate in the French capital under her name. This would suggest that the marshal's trip to the French capital had a more serious purpose than just glittering. However, these are only speculations. We do not know of any reports of her possible espionage activity.
In September 1939, Zaleska returned from France to Warsaw. On the night of September 14-15, 1939, she directed the removal of her husband's property from the city. Under her watchful eye, two military trucks full of antiques, precious tableware and many other valuables left the capital, including the coronation saber of Augustus II the Strong. The property was taken to Romania, from where it went with Zaleska to France.
Śmigły-Rydz, although he devoted his painting career to politics, had something of an artist-dreamer about him. Infatuated with the charms of Marta Thomas Zaleska, he was blind to her numerous flaws.
What happened next? It is certain that Martha lived off her partner's wealth. Former military attaché in Rome, Colonel Marian Romeyko later recalled that had witnessed "how all private-state property of the last Polish marshal was sold out - in bulk and in detail, left and right ”.
Lost on the Riviera
After the war, 50-year-old Marta was seen on the Cote d'Azur - often in the company of younger men. “A certain dealer working in a casino, where Marta was very eager to visit, gave an interview to the boulevards that he was the lover of the widow of the Marshal of Poland. He talked about how a woman called him over, turning on and off the light in the window of her apartment visible from the casino "- writes Iwona Kienzler in" Romance at the Summit of Power ".
The irresponsible lifestyle of the rich widow quickly began to attract various characters from the underworld - including gangsters and drug dealers. There was only one way it could have ended. On July 2, 1951, Marta was a guest at the home of Jan Romanowski, a Polish immigrant and general Anders' adjutant. After this visit, she was lost.
Two weeks later, the son of an innkeeper from one of the villages on the Cote d'Azur found a stuffed sack under the bridge. When he looked inside it pulled him back and made him vomit. There were fragments of human corpses inside. From inside, the woman's torso was pulled out. The victim's head was missing, but it was identified - thanks to the underwear. There was a tag from an expensive company from the United States on the bra and panties. Soon an American woman, a friend of the marshal, who presented her with such a set, came to the French police.
It soon turned out that many valuable items disappeared from Marta Zaleska's apartment, including a gold cigarette case from Rydz. Probably the most valuable treasure for historians - the diary from the last years of his life written down by the marshal is also lost forever.
Despite the many leads taken (the police even suspected General Anders' adjutant), the perpetrators of the crime were not discovered in the end. The most likely version is that she was killed by one of the "bad friends" who devoured a precious gem .
Today, however, historians put forward a different thesis. The robbery motive could only be a staffage, and Śmigły-Rydz's widow died due to her husband's documents - especially that diary, which could turn upside down our knowledge of the backstage of Polish activities during World War II.