Commemorations and the Shaping of Modern Poland

SEVEN: Poles in Arms: Insurrectionary Legacies

In the first years of the twentieth century, the specter of war loomed large. The Great Powers were engaged in an arms race: Germany hurried to build up its navy to compete with that of Great Britain. The annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary in October 1908 and the outbreak of the First Balkan War four years later rocked the international scene. The very real threat of impending European war cast a new shadow upon the Polish past, particularly its insurrectionary legacy. Half a century had passed since the nation’s last armed struggle. Could Poles extract lessons from earlier battle experiences that would guide them toward independence ? The last major public commemorations preceding the outbreak of World War I were characterized by a new approach to commemorations. While previous events provided Poles with occasions for cultural enrichment and cross-partition networking, now a more practical set of goals took priority. The final celebrations of this period featured the actions of armed Poles in the previous century. The year 1913 provided Poles with opportunities to relate to two episodes connected with the nation’s insurrectionary past: the January Insurrection and the Napoleonic Wars. Poles had memorialized military victories a number of times in the previous decades, the battles at Grunwald, Vienna, and Rac`awice receiving the greatest attention. Now they were to celebrate significant military defeats . Paradoxically, “celebrate” is the appropriate verb in this case, for while Polish activists were aware of the historical outcomes, they managed to single out positive aspects of the two defeats as well. A mix of Romanticism and pragmatism, of hero worship and lessons extracted from past mistakes, of concern with deeds as well as with words contributed to a new model for armed struggle. The fiftieth anniversary of the January Insurrection and the centennial of the death of Prince Józef Poniatowski not only inspired Poles; SEVEN Poles in Arms: Insurrectionary Legacies  they helped to prepare them—physically and mentally, individually and collectively—for the approaching international conflict. To understand the new, pragmatic approach to commemorations visible in 1913, one needs to have a sense of the underlying causes—domestic, national, and international—that not only propelled the Poles in this direction but also facilitated the rise of Polish militarism. New factors helped to transform the commemorative landscape. These included the rising PolishUkrainian conflict in Galicia as well as the lessons learned from the events of 1904–1906 in Russian Poland. Both led to the creation of paramilitary groups. The new celebrations likewise built upon the Grunwald festivities of 1910, with the Falcons’ well-attended field exercises that raised the issue of not only physical fitness but military preparedness as well. While providing the Poles with their usual outlets for commemoration, Galicia also proved to be the one place where these paramilitary organizations might be transformed—at least in the imagination of the commemorators—into the nuclei of national armies. The anniversaries celebrated in 1913–14, the last before the outbreak of world war, provide insight into various movements and desiderata regarding the nation’s future. By superimposing the insurrectionary past on a rapidly changing present—by connecting the living and the dead—these commemorations helped to set the stage for Polish military exploits during World War I. These final commemorations marked the transition from the now traditional celebration of national anniversaries to the accumulation of new deeds worthy of commemoration in the future. PREPARING FOR COMBAT, OR THE REVENGE OF THE VETERANS The next major celebratory milestone after the Grunwald festivities of 1910 was the fiftieth anniversary of the January Insurrection of 1863–64. That Poles in the Kingdom of Poland had revolted in the early 1860s illustrates the maxim of the danger of a little reform. In the early 1860s, Tsar Alexander II’s penchant for reforms had emboldened his Polish subjects to press for change. A series of patriotic demonstrations, funerals, and anniversary celebrations set a new tone in the public sphere and prompted the tsarist authorities to make some concessions to the Poles. The reforms, combined with repressive measures, ultimately proved unpalatable, however , and in January 1863 a group of conspirators decided to initiate guerrilla war. The January Insurrection ultimately proved to be a failure. The underground National Government directing the Polish efforts, armed with its own seal and offices and run by an invisible network of conspirators, Poles in Arms | 185 proved no match for...