Edmund Kalikst Eugeniusz Charaszkiewicz (; 14 October 1895 – 22 December 1975) was a Polish military intelligence officer who specialized in clandestine warfare. Between the World Wars, he helped establish Poland's interbellum borders in conflicts over territory with Poland's neighbours.
Also, for a dozen years before World War II, he coordinated Marshal Józef Piłsudski's Promethean movement, aimed at liberating the non-Russian peoples of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union—an objective that Piłsudski deemed crucial if Poland, sandwiched between Germany and the Soviet Union, were to preserve her just-regained independence.
Early career
Edmund Charaszkiewicz was born on 14 October 1895 in Punitz (in Polish, Poniec), in the Province of Posen, an area of the German Empire that had been annexed from Poland by Prussia in the Third Partition of Poland (1795). He was the son of Stanisław Charaszkiewicz, a building contractor, and Bronisława, née Rajewska. Edmund completed his elementary schooling in Poniec, then attended secondary schools successively in Krotoszyn, Katowice and Kraków. In the latter city, before World War I, his family lived at ulica Długa 63 (63 Long Street). In Kraków Edmund graduated from secondary school on 17 December 1915, while already a soldier in the Polish Legions.
In that period, it was common for secondary-school students in Galicia to join Polish patriotic paramilitary organizations. On 1 November 1913 Charaszkiewicz, aged 18, joined the Riflemen's Association and in 1913–14 attended an Association noncommissioned-officers' school, using the pseudonym Kalikst (his second given name).
Soon after the outbreak of World War I, on 4 or 5 August 1914, Charaszkiewicz enlisted in the Polish Legions. He served successively in several units and convalesced from several illnesses. In November or December 1917 he was inducted into the Polish Auxiliary Corps (the former Second Brigade of the Polish Legions), in which he served till February 1918 as senior sergeant major. He was then released from the Legions to serve in the German Army. To avoid such service, and because he was liable to arrest and internment as a former Polish Legionnaire, he went into hiding from 18 February until June 1918 in Kraków, and from November 1918 in Warsaw, where he worked at the Ministry of Military Affairs of the Polish Armed Force. His superiors there were two future Polish generals: Colonel Marian Żegota-Januszajtis and Major Stefan Pasławski.
Just after the close of World War I, on 15 November 1918, Charaszkiewicz joined the Polish Army in the rank of sublieutenant. During the Polish-Soviet War (1919–21) he participated in battles at Švenčionėliai, Pabradė, Bezdonys, Vilnius and Eišiškės. During the Polish defence of Vilnius, he was taken prisoner by the Lithuanians and was interned from 19 July to 18 August 1920. He escaped and, on returning to the Białystok Rifle Regiment (Białostocki Pułk Strzelców), temporarily commanded the 11th Company (21 September – 6 October 1920), then served as a junior officer in the 9th Company. On 27 February 1921, for conspicuous valor behind Soviet lines, he was recommended for Poland's highest military decoration, the Virtuti Militari.
Military intelligence
Meanwhile, on 15 December 1920, Charaszkiewicz had been assigned to the Second Department of Polish General Staff, or Intelligence – specifically, to its Upper Silesia Plebiscite Department. During the Third Silesian Uprising he served (2 May – 15 August 1921) as deputy commander of demolition squads known as the Wawelberg Group. For his courage and steadfastness in action against the Germans, as he blew up mined structures in the face of withering enemy fire and thereby halted the German advance, he was on 18 February 1922 again recommended for the Virtuti Militari. On 27 June 1922, Lt. Charaszkiewicz was decorated with the Virtuti Militari, 5th class.