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From Classroom Conspirator to Revolutionary Soldier: Kazimierz Sosnkowski and the Revolution of 1905-07
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From Classroom Conspirator to Revolutionary Soldier: Kazimierz Sosnkowski and the Revolution of 1905-07 Matthew R. Schwonek On Wednesday, August 15, 1906,1 across the Russian Empire's Polish lands a coordinated campaign by gunmen of the Polish Socialist Party (polska Partia Socjalistyczna, or PPS) attacked government officials and soldiers, the very instruments of foreign rule. The numerous and ferocious "Bloody Wednesday" attacks drove government forces from the streets of cities of the Kingdom of Poland, ceding them for a time to popular forces. One of the principal architects of Bloody Wednesday and the head of the PPS terrorist organization in Warsaw was Kazimierz Sosnkowski. Principally he is remembered as one of independent Poland's leading statesmen. During the First World War he earned fame as a close collaborator of J6zef Pilsudski, the charismatic leader of the independence movement. Promoted to a general's rank within days of independence in 1918, Sosnkowski became a mainstay of the cabinets of the early republic and helped shape Poland's system of national defense. Elevated to commander in chief at the height of the Second World War, he directed the overseas and underground forces of the Government in Exile through the tragic Warsaw Uprising of 1944. In 1906, however, Sosnkowski was a revolutionary and terrorist. Not yet 21 and only a few months before a student at the Warsaw Polytechnic Institute, he was carried by the tide of revolution from schoolhouse activism to the inner circles of the revolutionary movement. Within the PPS, he played a role in party councils in addition to joining the terror campaign of 1906. The Revolution of 1905-07, not just its flow, but also its ebb, helped to define Sosnkowski's views on politics and revolution. In the aftermath he made early and important contributions toward redefining the revolu tionary movement through the establishment of the Union of Active Struggle (Zwiqzek Walki Czynnej, or ZWC). Examination of young Sosnkowski's part in the Revolution of 1905-07 and the impact of this experience fills important lacunae in his curriculum vitae. Also, many other young men and women, future leaders, great and lowly, got their first taste of political life in 1905. The case of Sosnkowski illuminates the manner in which the upheavals that visited the Russian Empire starting in 1904 shaped a generation of activists and leaders. 1 All dates are given in the Gregorian calendar, which was introduced in Poland in 1582 and remained in use during the period of Russian rule. The Making of Russian History: Society, Culture, and the Politics of Modern Russia. Essays in Honor of Allan K. Wildman. John W. Steinberg and Rex A. Wade, eds. Bloomington, IN: Siavica Publishers, 2009, 47- 73. 48 M ATIHEW R. $CHWONEK Sosnkowski was a supporting player in the drama of 1905-07. Perhaps this is the reason that his time in the PPS and its Combat Organization (Organizacja Bojowa, or OB) has escaped scholars' attention2 Investigation of individuals has focused on the revolutionary elite: Pilsudski and his nationalist antipode Roman Dmowski as well as the paterfamilias of social democracy , Julian Marchlewski and Feliks Dzierzynski3 Most were members of the post-1863 generation, dubbed the "defiant ones." This greatest generation not only revived Polish political life at the start of the 20th century but led the independence struggle and the construction of an independent state4 It can be said that studies of the Revolution of 1905 are histories of this elite.s Less attention has been given to the "captains" and "majors" of politics, to which group Sosnkowski belongs. This is unfortunate, because, as Tadeusz 2 The leading work, Maria Pestkowska, Kazimierz Sosnkowski (Wroclaw: Ossolineum, 1995), is deficient in this regard. A conference on the 120th anniversary of his birth ignored the subject as well. See Tomasz Glowinski and Jerzy Kirszak, eds., Kazimierz Sosnkowski, i olnierz, humflnista, mqi stanu w 120. rocznic? urodzin [Kazimierz Sosnkowski , soldier, humanist, and statesman on the 120th anniversary of his birth] (Wroclaw: Gajt, 2005). 3 Leading biographies include Andrzej Garlicki, ]6zef Pilsudski: 1867- 1935 (Warsaw: Czytelnik, 1988); Roman Wapinski, Roman Dmowski (Lublin: Wydawnictwo Lubelskie, 1989); Feliks Tych and Horst Schumacher, ]ulian Marchlewski: Szkie biografiezny (Warsaw : Ksi'lzka i Wiedza, 1966); and Robert E. Blobaum, Feliks Dzieriy,iski and the SDKPiL: A Study of the Origins of Polish Communism (Boulder, CO: East European Monographs, 1984). Recent contributions are Wlodzimierz Suleja, ]6zef Pilsudski (Wroclaw : Ossolineum, 1995); Timothy Snyder, Nationalism, Marxism, and Modern Central Europe: A Biography of Kazimierz Kelles-Krauz 11872-1905) (Cambridge...