Karol Śliwka

Who was Karol Śliwka?

Karol Śliwka was a Polish communist politician from Zaolzie region in the First Czechoslovak Republic. Śliwka was one of the most prominent political leaders of the Polish minority in Zaolzie and a member of National Assembly of the Czechoslovak Republic from 1925 to 1938.

Śliwka was born son of a metallurgy worker in Bystřice. After finishing five classes of elementary school in his native village he entered the Polish gymnasium in Cieszyn.

After outbreak of World War I he volunteered to army of General Józef Haller but after several months became a prisoner of war in Russia from 1915 to 1918. In 1917 he joined the Bolshevik Party. In 1921 he became an Executive Committee member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. He was the editor of the newspaper Głos Robotniczy. Śliwka was the foremost leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia within the Polish minority. He was an advocate of unity between Polish, Czech and German communists in Český Těšín.

Śliwka represented the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in the Czechoslovak National Assembly between 1925-1938. As a parliamentarian, Śliwka fought for the rights of the Polish minority in the Czechoslovak Republic.