Escape of the Polish government in 1939 – on 17th September 1939, in the course of on-going fights with Germans, the Soviet army entered the territory of Poland, which meant a total defeat in the defensive. The Polish government, the President and the Commander-in-Chief made a decision to evacuate Polish authorities to Romania, with an intention to move to France later on. The Ambassador of Romania guaranteed the Polish government the right to pass through. On 18th September the highest authorities of Poland crossed the border in Zaleszczyki and entered Czerniowiec.

There the President Ignacy Mościski delivered an address to the nation in which he announced the transfer of the Polish authorities to the allied country. The delivery of address was an defiance of the Hague Convention, which served as a pretext for the Romanian authorities to intern the Polish authorities, what in turn was demanded from Germans. On the same day the members of the Polish authorities were isolated in different places in the territory of Romania. The Polish Constitution from 1935 gave the President the right to chose his successor in case of a war. Ignacy Mościski appointed Władysław Raczkiewicz who managed to get to France. The new President appointed general Władysław Sikorski as the Premier of the Polish government-in-exile in Paris.