| abstract | - Edward Rydz-Smigly (Polish, Edward Rydz-Śmigly, also Edward Smigly-Rydz) (March 1886 – 2 December 1941) was a Polish military and political leader as well as a painter and poet. He served as General-Inspector of Poland's armed forces from 1935-1939. During that period, Rydz-Smigly was de facto leader of the country in a power-sharing arrangement with the President, Ignacy Mościcki. Rydz-Smigly commanded the Polish military during the invasion and conquest of that country by Germany and the Soviet Union at the outset of World War II. On 18 September 1939, following the fall of his country, he entered Romania, where he was interned for slightly more than a year, during which time he renounced his command of the Polish military. In December 1940, he crossed from Romania into Hungary, and from there into Slovakia and then back into Poland, where he volunteered as a common soldier in the Polish resistance movement. He died of heart failure in Warsaw in December 1941.
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