The Strike of the generals was a joint resignation of a group of high commanders of the Polish Army in October 1924.
A group of officers, who were previously members of the Polish Legions in World War I, submitted resignation from duty as a response to the statement of General Franciszek Latinik, commander of Corps District No. X., garrison of Przemyśl. The resigning officers, that included Major General Edward Śmigły-Rydz, Lieutenant General Gustaw Orlicz-Dreszer, Lieutenant General , Lieutenant General , Lieutenant General Aleksander Litwinowicz, Colonel Felicjan Sławoj Składkowski and Lieutenant Colonel , considered Latinik's unfavorable comments on the former Legions' members a source of personal insult and demanded a firm reaction of the state authorities to these comments. The events gained high publicity, being widely discussed in both Polish and international press. Request of the group that made a collective resignation was rejected; the crisis eventually contributed to the resignation of Latinik himself. On February 28, 1925, at the age of sixty, at his own request, he left the active service.
Background
Franciszek Latinik gained experience serving until 1918 in the Austro-Hungarian Army (as Poland did not exist as an independent state), and participated as a colonel in the fights of World War I. After entering Polish Army, he did not show sympathy to former soldiers of Polish Legions. Having been educated in an elite Academy of the General Staff in Vienna, Latinik considered Legions members incompetent and did not respect their military qualifications. Politically, he sympathized with National Democracy. According to Jerzy Rawicz, in 1919, when commanding Polish forces defending the Czech offensive in Cieszyn Silesia, Latinik has entered into a dispute with some representatives of leftist circles, among others Dorota Kłuszyńska, social activist and feminist who later became a Member of the Senate from PPS list.
The first incident pointing to Latinik's reluctance to former members of the Legions took place in the spring of 1921. At the time, Latinik was already appointed lieutenant general and was a commander of the General District Kielce. In July 1921 Major Marian Prosołowicz lodged a complaint with Latinik to the Ministry of Military Affairs, stating that his superior "offended legionaries as such." In his testimony, Porosłowicz recalled the words of Latinik:
However, in the opinion of other witnesses, there was no basis to recognize these words as referring generally to the legionnaires as a group. The then Minister of Military Affairs Józef Leśniewski dismissed the complaint of Prosołowicz, stating that Latinik's statement was "offensive but not political". In the situation given, Minister Leśniewski had demanded that Latinik summoned Major Porosłowicz to the report and informed him about the minister's decision, demanding from Latinik also to state "that he considered the words addressed to Major Prosołowicz on May 23rd to be uttered in exaltation and he did not intend to punish his younger colleague".
From October 1921, Latinik was the commander of Corps District No. X. in Przemyśl. Residing in Przemyśl was unprofitable for him; he previously counted on transferring to the city with an academic center due to the possibility of providing higher education to his daughters. Chief of State Józef Piłsudski had a negative attitude to the activity of Latinik in Przemyśl. As Latinik described in a later report, after the assassination of President Gabriel Narutowicz on December 16, 1922, he was ordered to report to Piłsudski:
Piłsudski answered:
The basis for the indictment was a report of a secret meeting at Latinik's house that took place a few days before the attack on President Narutowicz. The election of Narutowicz less than two weeks earlier was followed by several protests and strong negative propaganda from the anti-Semitic right-wing; some historians argue that these actions led, in the climax, to the murder of Narutowicz. Latinik strongly denied the allegations, declaring that "the reporter must either have been mentally ill or a malicious calumniator". For the meeting mentioned in the report Latinik invited, among others, Bishop of Przemyśl Józef Pelczar and the Starost of Przemyśl District. It was to take place in November and deal with the increasing acts of sabotage in Przemyśl and propose forms of self-help organizations. As Piłsudski remained unconvinced by these explanations, Latinik was to present a printed report of the meeting to the Marshal later on.