The People of Poland at War: 1914-1918

Yet having achieved success, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth stopped in its tracks and ceased to keep up with the times. Its ruling class became self-satisfied and failed to notice its shortcomings and faults, which was the cause of its downfall. A sluggish development of the cities and towns, the predominance of agriculture over all other branches of the economy, failure to grant political rights to the other social estates, which triggered discontent and rebellion, the demise of the moderately well-to-do gentry and the inordinate rise of the top echelons of the wealthiest lords, a retreat from its earlier acceptance of all religions, worldviews, and ethnicities – these were just some of the factors that led to the disaster. In addition, there were wars with the country’s neighbors, including the Swedish invasion in the mid-17th century, which spelled the end of prosperity for Poland–Lithuania and started its gradual slide downhill.

Poland was extinguished at the worst possible time – just as the world was taking its biggest leap into 19th-century industrialization and laying the foundations for its modern political, material, and technological realities. Deprived of a state of their own, the people of Poland were left behind. The Powers which partitioned Poland conducted anti-Polish policies for the whole of the 19th century, though at different intensities in different times. They blocked the economic development of regions with a Polish population. They located important investments in areas they considered their native domains and discriminated against their Polish acquisitions. All this incited the Poles to rise up against their oppressors, but all the insurrections that erupted frequently throughout the century ended in failure.

History offered the Poles a new opportunity when the Imperial Powers of the 19th century collapsed in outcome of the First World War. Specially significant were the changes in the Russian Empire, which was overwhelmed by the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917–1918 and fixed its attention on its own domestic affairs. The multinational, multiethnic Austro-Hungarian Empire disintegrated, splitting up into numerous states, and the Kingdom of Prussia was defeated.

However, history is made by more than just great battles and memorable peace conferences, but also by the lives of ordinary people. And that is what this book by Andrzej Chwalba is about. Professor Chwalba is not preoccupied with the familiar military or political issues. He looks at the story of the man in the street and his everyday life, carefully reconstructing the atmosphere in the diverse parts of Poland during the Great War that started in 1914. He writes about the things that made up people’s everyday lives – gossip, spymania, the collapse of representative organizations, the restrictions put on the work of social organizations, material losses, the loyalty of the Poles to the monarch of their respective Partitioning Power, and to the Polish cause. He is interested in what the papers and the chronicles said, what the diary entries recorded, and what the eyewitnesses of the events reported. He examines interpersonal relations, the way people conducted their commercial affairs, and the atmosphere on the streets.

Today people in Poland are not very aware of the vast losses sustained by the Polish territories and of the tremendous sacrifices their inhabitants made during the First World War. These facts have been eclipsed by the tragic events of the Second World War, which are still impacting on Poland and the lives of its people. Nonetheless, during the First World War most of the battles on the Eastern Front were fought in the Polish territories. Now at each other’s throats, the Partitioners treated the Polish territories as a sparring ground. Many of the atrocities committed during the next World War were tested in 1914–1918. A notorious example were the anti-Semitic pogroms and oppressive measures against the Jewish inhabitants of Galicia by the Russian forces invading the region in August 1914. Their aim was to degrade the status of the local Jewish communities and bring them down to the position Jews had in the Russian Empire, where they were subject to discrimination.

Paweł Kurtyka

President of the Janusz Kurtyka Foundation

The complexity of wartime affairs did not make it easy for me to construct a framework which would be the best to tell a story that evolved at a rapid pace and was full of surprising situations, ideas, opinions, and solutions. I found it indispensable to run a series of simulations to try out a number of different frameworks. In the end I decided on one which combined a chronological order with an array of subjects I discuss as self-standing problems. This account of Poland during the Great War will not start in the traditional way with an account of the diverse Polish political parties and factions, military exploits, the Polish riflemen, or Piłsudski and his legionaries. I’ll begin in a different way.

It was much easier to decide on the chronological cut-off points. The starting point is the death of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which triggered the global disaster. The end point is the traditional and symbolic date, November the Eleventh 1918, when armistice and the end of the War were declared on the Western front, while in Poland the Regency Council handed over military power to Józef Piłsudski. The choice of any other closing date would have set off an endless chain of academic debate.

Professors Jan Jacek Bruski, Tadeusz Czekalski, and Piotr Mikietyński of the Jagiellonian University were good enough to read the book, for which I am grateful to them, and share their comments and suggestions, correct the mistakes, and offer alternative ways to present particular issues. I am all the more indebted to them, since it was certainly not a short read.

Special thanks are due to the book’s reviewers, Professor Tomasz Nałęcz of the University of Warsaw, and Professor Marek Przeniosło of the Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce. I am grateful to them for the vast amount of thorough work they put in, for their concern for the book as a whole, and for all their comments and suggestions. I would also like to thank the management and staff of the Institute of History Library at the Jagiellonian University for their considerate approach and professional assistance.

krone – currency of the Austro-Hungarian Empire

Loyalists – Poles in the Austro-Hungarian and Prussian Partitions who remained loyal to the Partitioning Power governing their region when it was invaded and occupied by the Russians

mark – currency of the German Empire, legal tender in Germany from 1873 until the economic depression of the early 1920s

National Democratic Party, Polish Nationalists (Narodowa Demokracja) – a political party originally from the Russian Partition but gradually acquiring a membership in all three Partitions. It held conservative views but was anti-German and regarded Tsarist Russia as the “lesser evil” for Poland. Their leader was Roman Dmowski.

Partitions of Poland – in the late 18th century the Commonwealth of Poland–Lithuania was partitioned by Russia, Prussia, and Austria, three states neighboring on it. They dismembered it in three stages (1772, 1793, and 1795), each annexing part of its territory, until Poland-Lithuania ceased to exist. For the next 123 years – until 1918 and the end of the First World War – the peoples of the old Commonwealth of Poland–Lithuania lived under the rule of the three Partitioning Powers, which grew more and more hostile to each other and eventually went to war. The unfavorable outcome of the First World War for all three Partitioning Powers gave Poles and other peoples who had been subjugated by them the opportunity to demand independence and set up their own sovereign states.

Passivists – Poles in the Russian Partition of Poland under German and Austro-Hungarian occupation who refused to cooperate with the invaders.

Podolians – a political group of wealthy Poles from Podolia (now a territory in Ukraine) who held Polish national views but remained loyal to Austria-Hungary when their region was invaded by the Russian army.

Polish Circle (Koło Polskie) – informal name of the group of Polish deputies returned in the latter half of the 19th century to the parliaments of the Partitioning Powers (i.e. to the Russian Duma, German Reichstag, and Austro-Hungarian Council of State respectively)

powiat – second-tier (intermediate level) territorial administrative unit in Poland

Realists – Poles with conservative views living in the Russian Partition who remained pro-Russian when their territories were invaded by the Germans and Austro-Hungarians. Many Realists joined a political party called Stronnictwo Polityki Realnej (the Party of Realistic Policy).

ruble – the Russian currency

Seized Territories – the northeastern territories of the old Commonwealth of Poland–Lithuania; at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 they were not included in the Congress Kingdom but incorporated directly in Russia.

Sejm – the Polish parliament, especially its lower chamber

Sokół (“Falcon”) – a Polish gymnastic society which promoted patriotic attitudes

starost – the chief administrative officer of a powiat

Stronnictwo Narodowe (SN, the National Party) – an Activist faction of the National Democrats

Towarzystwo Strzelec (Riflemen’s Society) and Związek Strzelecki (the Riflemen’s Association) – Polish paramilitary organizations under Piłsudski’s command which participated in combat on the Austro-Hungarian side

Trialists – a political group in the Austrian Partition who wanted the Habsburg Empire to assume a tripartite form as an Austro-Hungarian-Polish state

Uprisings – a series of 19th–century Polish armed insurrections against the Partitioning Powers, especially the November Uprising (1830-1831) and the January Uprising (1863-1864). All the 19th-century uprisings were eventually crushed by the forces of the Partitioning Powers, but the national memory of them was an incentive for the Polish pro-independence efforts during the First World War. Veterans of the January Uprising lived to see the restoration of Poland’s independence in 1918.

voivodeship – first-tier (top level) territorial administrative unit in Poland

wójt – the administrative officer of a gmina, especially a rural gmina

złoty – the Polish currency

Abbreviations

AOK – Armeeoberkommando (high command of the German forces; high command of the Austro-Hungarian forces)

CKN – Centralny Komitet Narodowy (Main National Committee)

CKO – Centralny Komitet Obywatelski (CKO, the Citizens’ Central Committee)

GGL – Militärgeneralgouvernement in Polen (Military General Government in Poland, with headquarters in Lublin, the part of the Russian Kingdom of Poland under Austro-Hungarian occupation)

GGW – Generalgouvernement Warschau (the Government General of Warsaw; the part of the Russian Kingdom of Poland under German occupation)

GKO – Główny Komitet Obywatelski (Main Citizens’ Committee)

GKR – Główny Komitet Ratunkowy (Main Welfare Committee)

KBK – Książęco-Biskupi Komitet (the Prince Bishop’s Committee; full name: Książęco-Biskupi Komitet Pomocy dla Dotkniętych Klęską Wojny; the Prince Bishop’s Assistance Committee for the Relief of War Victims)

KNP – Komitet Narodowy Polski (National Committee of Poland)

KRG – Krajowa Rada Gospodarcza (National Economic Council)

KSSN – Komisja Skonfederowanych Stronnictw Niepodległościowych (Committee of Confederated Independence Parties), initially known as the Provisionals

LPP – Liga Państwowości Polskiej (League of Polish Statehood)

MKO – Międzypartyjny Komitet Obywatelski (Interparty Citizens’ Committee)

MKP – Międzypartyjny Komitet Polityczny (Interparty Political Committee)