Stanisław Grzmot-Skotnicki (; 13 January 1894 – 19 September 1939) was a Polish military commander and a general of the Polish Army. During the invasion of Poland of 1939 he commanded the Czersk Operational Group and was among the highest ranking Polish officers to be killed in action in that war. Stanisław Skotnicki was born on 13 January 1894 in the village of Skotniki (being the root of his surname which literally means lord of Skotniki), to a family of Polish nobility (bearing the coat-of-arms of Clan Bogoria of which the lords of Skotniki are among the most ancient and prominent branches). After graduating from a gymnasium in Radom, he was sent to a Trade Academy in Sankt Gallen in Switzerland. There he formed a unit of the Związek Strzelecki and started organizing military training for the Polish emigrees and students. It was then he adopted his nom de guerre of Grzmot (Polish language for thunder), which later formed a part of his surname. Upon the outbreak of the Great War he returned to Poland, to Austro-Hungarian Galicia, where he volunteered for the service in the Polish Legions. In August 1914 he became the member of The Seven Lancers of Belina under Władysław Belina-Prażmowski, the first detachment of the Polish Cavalry to cross the border with Privislinsky Krai. Later in the war he served in the cavalry regiment of the Legions, in which he commanded a platoon and then a squadron. After the Oath Crisis of 1917 he was interned in a camp in Beniaminów. After Poland regained her independence in November 1918 Stanisław Grzmot-Skotnicki took part in re-creation of his cavalry regiment, which later adopted the name of 1st Regiment of Light Cavalry of Józef Piłsudski (1. pułk szwoleżerów im. marszałka Józefa Piłsudskiego). As one of its commanders he took part in the Polish-Ukrainian War, after which he was sent to the newly created School of Cavalry Officers in Warsaw, and then to the Application School of Cavalry in Saumur in France. Upon his return, in August 1920 he became the commanding officer of the 8th Cavalry Brigade and then the entire 2nd Cavalry Division on the fronts of the Polish-Soviet War. After the war he became the head instructor at the Centre for Cavalry Training in Grudziądz. Between 1924 and 1927 he was the commander of the prestigious Poznań-based 15th Uhlan Regiment. Since 1927 he commanded the 9th