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Title: Alfred Michal Bilyk papers
Date (inclusive): 1899-2002
Collection Number: 2011C51
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material:
Polish
Physical Description:
1 oversize box
(0.4 Linear Feet)
Abstract: Biographical data, personal documents, certificates, correspondence, and photographs, relating to Polish history between World
Wars I and II. Includes some later Bilyk family papers.
Creator:
Biłyk, Alfred Michał, 1889-1939
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives
The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual
or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 2011.
[Identification of item], Alfred Michal Bilyk papers, 1899-2002, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library
& Archives.
Alfred Bilyk was the last Polish provincial governor (wojewoda) of Lwów (now Lviv) voivodeship, from 1937 to 1939. A prominent
member of the professional and political elite of interwar Poland, Bilyk committed suicide in September 1939, in the final
days of Poland's struggle against the Nazi and Soviet invaders in September 1939.
Bilyk was born and educated in Lwów, second only to Cracow as the cultural center of Austrian Poland. When World War I broke
out, Bilyk, along with thousands of young Poles, joined the Polish Legions and fought against Russia on the side of Austria-Hungary.
When that war ended, Bilyk participated in the national effort to restore the Polish state and fought against the Russian
Bolsheviks in the Polish-Soviet war of 1920. After the war, he left military service and completed a law degree at the Jan
Kazimierz University in Lwów. After a dozen years in private law practice, he returned to public service, appointed by the
president of Poland, Ignacy Moscicki, first as the governor of Tarnopol province and less than a year later, in 1937, as the
provincial governor of his native Lwów.
In the tragic days of September 1939 Bilyk gave a fiery speech on Lwów radio, vowing that he would never leave his post and
that the city of Lwów, which had Semper Fidelis inscribed in its coat of arms, would never capitulate. Because of confusing
directives from the central government, however Bilyk found himself cut off from his administrative headquarters by the advancing
units of the Wehrmacht and the Red Army. After crossing the border into Hungary, and realizing that his beloved city had been
lost to the Soviets, he wrote a farewell note: "I could not fight in Lwów and be in compliance with directives of the Prime
Minister. Thus, I left the city in circumstances that might have contradicted my previous words. My life appears to be of
no value to Poland. I do not want to be interned till the end of the war. I want to save my honor." Alfred Bilyk left money
for the hotel charges and tips for the staff and then shot himself in room no. 5 of the Csillag Hotel in the town of Munkacs
(now Mukachevo) on September 19, 1939, a week short of his fiftieth birthday.
Scope and Content of Collection
Biographical data, personal documents, certificates, correspondence, and photographs, relating to Polish history between World
Wars I and II. Includes some later Bilyk family papers.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Poland -- History -- 1918-1945
Lwów (Poland : Voivodeship)