Calendar card: Anniversary of the Wielkopolska Uprising - 27.12

Such a discrimination does not make much sense, due to the fact that each Polish uprising took place in different conditions, and the largest ones in the time of partitions – November and January – in highly hard conditions politically. After all, the successful Wielkopolska Uprising must be spoken with pride. It was not an easy journey to the then east run of the Reich for its own. Not everything pointed to triumph from the beginning, nor was there a deficiency of dramatic phrases and a blood sacrifice, frequently forgotten today, was great.

The uprising began on December 27, 1918. It was provoked by the Germans, or alternatively by their shoe, which even the lost war did not stop. Germany did not want to see Poznań a world-famous pianist, and shortly (since January 1919) the Prime Minister of the Government of the reborn Republic and its abroad Minister – Ignacy Jan Paderewski. Paderewski did not care at all, he held a thoughtful political reconnaissance from Gdańsk (the heart of historical Royal Prussia, plundered by the Prussians as a consequence of the First Partition of the Republic), by Poznań to Warsaw, where he was already waiting for the Prime Minister's chair and an honorable but hard mission to represent Polish interests at a peace conference in Paris (with Roman Dmowski).

Paderewski's entrance to Poznań in December 1918 reminded the celebrated entrance to this town in 1806 of Gen. Jan Henryk Dąbrowski (with Józef Wybicki at his side). Without waiting for the arrival of Napoleon's troops, Dąbrowski chased the Prussians from Wielkopolska and Pomerania. This was the first, victorious Wielkopolska uprising, mentioned, among others, in the Lord Tadeusz by Maciek Prusak as a preview of large events for Poland.

The Wielkopolska Uprising lasted little than 2 months - from December 27 to February 1919. It ended with designation by the planet of the inalienable right of Poles to Wielkopolska as the cradle of our statehood. The Trevira truce of 16 February 1919 entered this fact into a general truce, ending planet War I.

This was not apparent to Europe from the start. During the period of partitions, after the fall of Napoleon and the liquidation of the Duchy of Warsaw, the Prussians created the alleged Grand Duchy of Poznań, with all appearances of "autonomy" for Poles, even the equality of Polish and German languages in this area. However, the long-term plan was completely different. He founded specified saturation of the “prince” with the German population, so that Wielkopolska would lose its Polish character erstwhile and for all.

After the Spring of the Peoples, which showed the Polishness of these areas and the vitality of the thought of independent existence of the Polish state, The Prussians replaced the “prince” with the “province” of Poznań. The “autonomy” and the rights to the Polish language were no longer mentioned.

While the situation of Poles was bad in Prussian times, after the unification of Germany – after 1870 – it became dramatic. It was the real Deutschland über alles! Modern German nationalism, symbolized by the sinister character of Chancellor Otto Bismarck, assumed the demolition of everything that was not German. The blunt Germanization and fierce fight against the Catholic Church, considered by the Germans - according to the fact - began as a refuge of Polishness.

An unprecedented German “invention” was a “colonising commission” that dealt with the persecution of any of the citizens of its own country! It bought land owned by Polish citizens from state funds to plant Germans on it.

Poles opposed specified actions thanks to excellent organization and usage of associations – operating in various spheres of public life – to preserve the Polish state of possession in the economy and in national culture.

A period before the historical day on 11 November 1918, Polish organizations operating in Wielkopolska issued a clear declaration:

Only the unification of all parts of the nation settled on Polish lands in 1 whole, full equipped with state rights, can supply a warrant of a lasting covenant of nations. At the moment, the nation, which decides about our future, throughout the full area of the Polish lands in all its layers, together with the thought, creates 1 large, compact and solid national camp. We, Poles in the Prussian district, declare this consent and the content of signatures of all without exception existing Polish parties.

The words were followed by deeds. A Polish territory parliament was created, which confirmed the right of Poles from Wielkopolska, Pomerania and to be united with the reborn homeland. He restored Polish language in Poznań schools and taught religion in Polish.

Poznań Germans began anti-Polish demonstrations, marches through the city of paramilitary formations. 1 thing they did not consider: in these formations more Poles were trained than Germans... Now they were ready to fight for Poland.

In specified an atmosphere and in specified circumstances, on the second day of Christmas he arrived in Poznań Paderewski. At the railway station, German officers, representing the Ministry of abroad Affairs of the Reich, tried to give him an order to leave the city, but the Polish People's defender rapidly chased them away...

At the Bazar Hotel, Master Jan gave a speech, after which Polish Poznań went mad! Poles displayed white-red flags and American, British and French flags in the city. Infuriated Germans broke and insulted these flags the next day and then shot around the city to terrorize Poles. Even in the Bazar hotel window where Paderewski was staying. They were stupid adequate to provoke Poles in the heart of Poland! In fact, they themselves started the Polish uprising!

Polish armed groups, the People's defender and the POW attacked the Police Bureau building and captured it, besides another strategical points of the city. At the same time, the emissaries went to the province, where the conspirators were waiting. In Gniezno, in Września, in Wednesday, in Śrema and in another cities of Wielkopolska the fight with Germany began. There was blood, but Poles knew that this was the minute they had been waiting for for generations.

Franciszek Ratajczak is considered the first fallen Wielkopolska insurgent. He died on December 27 during an assault at the German police building. Today, it has a street of its name in the capital of Wielkopolska, leading straight to the marketplace Square.

The uprising developed rapidly, German officials and policemen fled from subsequent cities of Wielkopolska, Poles took over.

The temporary commander of the uprising – at the will of the ultimate People's Council – was Major Stanisław Taczak. The insurgents captured the central and east Wielkopolska, including Inowrocław and another Kujaw towns. Insurrection battles even stretched to Pomerania, though limited.

In early January 1919, a prominent Polish officer, trained in the Russian army, was the chief of the uprising. His daughter, aviation lieutenant Janina Lewandowska, will be murdered 21 years later by the NKVD in Katyń, as the only female among Polish officers. The second younger daughter will be murdered by General Germans in Palmira...

At the time of the Wielkopolska Uprising, a peace conference began in Paris, during which Roman Dmowski repeatedly referred to events in the country, utilizing them to keep the Polish case and its most favourable global position.

Meanwhile, in the areas under the uprising, there were increasingly fierce fighting, people were killed, cities were passing from hand to hand. The Germans yet found that Poles would not step down, regardless of the price. Their counterattack from Bydgoszcz collapsed. They were broken under the Cloth. Peace talks began in Berlin. The German shoe's on again. The Germans demanded the dissolution of the Wielkopolska Army and the designation of the “swingen” rights of Germany to Wielkopolska!

That was besides much. The Chief of State Józef Piłsudski issued a decree authorising representatives of Wielkopolska to participate in the proceedings of the Legislative Sejm in Warsaw. The Marshal of the Sejm – in order to emphasize this crucial act – was Wojciech Trąmpczyński from Wielkopolska.

No peace talks with Germany had any chance of success. In this situation, our Allies are here. At the request of Marshal Ferdinand Foch – a large friend of Poles – the Wielkopolska Army was declared an allied army. On 16 February 1919, a truce was extended between Germany and the Ententa states in Trevira. This truce was besides covered by the Wielkopolska front, prohibiting Germans from crossing the designated border line. The Wielkopolska Uprising ended with a victory! An global Allied mission arrived to Poznań to guarantee compliance with the terms of the truce.

The large shots may have breathed, but they haven't laid down their weapons. Now, as citizens of the reborn Republic, they felt liable for the full country. The first company of Wielkopolska troops to fight for Polish Lviv left Poznań in March 1919.

The final return to the Republic of the full erstwhile “Prussian district”, including the Podwiślanski Pomerania, will take place in early 1920, on the basis of the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles.

What were the effects of persistent Germanization and colonization of Wielkopolska over the years of Prussian and German rule? The answer was given by the first free elections to the City Council of Poznań. 2 thirds of voters voted for the Polish list! The another voices were Germans and Jews. Bismarck fell in his grave!

On April 10, 1919, a symbolic decree was issued to remove all German subtitles in public places and to change street names. advanced fines and up to 2 years in prison were predicted for delaying these jobs!

Today there are quite a few names in Wielkopolska that cultivate Poland with slavery, Soviet. Names humiliating all of Poland. This is the difference between the Poles of 1919, coming after respective generations from below the partitions, and the indoctrinated, birdbrains of post-Soviet Poland, longing for peernel and a deceptive sense of security, which gave us the mortal enemy of our independence. Let the memory of the Wielkopolska Uprising continue!

Piotr Szubarczyk

behind: http://wolnapolska.pl

[photo: archive - swears on the Polish flag; view of the monument of the Wielkopolska Uprising - unveiled 19 December 2013 in Grodzisk Wielkopolski at the Wielkopolska Uprising Square during the celebration of the 95th anniversary of the outbreak of Wielkopolska Uprising.]

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