As head of the General Staff of the Polish Army he was introduced as a large organizer. His name is associated with the beginnings of Polish Navy, COP or cavalry. General Tadeusz Jordan Rozwadowski, 1 of the best Polish staff and commanders of the reborn Polish Army, is told by the historian Dr. Mariusz Patelski.
General Tadeusz Rozwadowski was possibly the only advanced officer of the ck army of Polish origin, who even before the outbreak of planet War I openly supported the shooting movement. Was that the effect on Joseph Piłsudski? It is known that the commandant of the Legions as a military samuk did not like and appreciate his countrymen with advanced ck army charge...
Dr. Mariusz Patelski: It should be started with the fact that the general was a descendant of the family, whose representatives participated in almost all wars and uprisings fought in defence of the borders and independency of the Polish day of partitions. W January Uprising 2 of his uncles were killed: his mother's brother Józef Rulikowski and his father's brother Tadeusz Rozwadowski. His father was Tomisław Rozwadowski – a lieutenant of the Austrian cavalry, a associate in the conflict of Solferino and a January insurgent who, after the defeat of the uprising, expressed the view that if Poland is to advance to independence, the Polish Army should be supplied with qualified commanders. He besides sent all his sons to Austrian military schools. The future Lieutenant General of the Polish Army besides raised from the household home a sense of deep patriotism, which was not destroyed by long service in the Habsburg army.
In 1911, erstwhile the youngest boy of Rozwadowski – Kazimierz died, the “Kurier Stanisławowski” wrote: “A dense blow hit the home of the state of the Rozwadowski Colonelship. Here's a five-year-old hopeful boy of Kazio, died 7th after a short illness. In this misfortune, we send full Polish civic virtues to the home of Mr Rozwadowski's most heartfelt condolences". This dramatic information for Rozwadowski, although seemingly insignificant to the historian, is very meaningful – I do not know the second specified accident that the high-ranking Austrian officer (the garrison commander) – would flaunt his Polish beliefs and would be written about it in the press at the time.
A year later Rozwadowski met Władysław Studnicki (later the leading Germanophile) and thanks to him he established contacts with leaders of various currents of the Polish shooting movement. The most about this cooperation was written by Władysław Sikorski: "The regiment of the art. Gen. T. Rozwadowski, [...], a hot patriot and a supporter of the independency of the Polish movement, established a constant contact with us in 1912 (under Jordan's nickname). Having access to the court spheres in Vienna and to the heir to the throne, and remaining in constant communication with me as a associate of the “Active Combat Union” department, and later as a military controller of the Committee on Temporary Confederate independency Parties, he has always intervened in Vienna whenever a licence for the shooting movement in Galicia should be obtained, or protected from police harassment.” Józef Piłsudski met Rozwadowski (via Studnicki) in 1913 at the Hunting Club in Krakow. Unfortunately, there was no broader cooperation at the time.
After independency General Rozwadowski As head of the General Staff of the Polish Army he was introduced as a large organizer. His name is associated with the beginnings of Polish Navy, COP or cavalry. At the same time, there was the first major dispute with Piłsudski, who pushed for the the thesis that the Polish Army should be voluntary alternatively than from the draft as planned by the General. In retrospect, is it possible to measure who was right in this dispute?
Piłsudski argued that in the hard situation of the forming state, only volunteers should be admitted to the military, immune to any inconvenience caused by a deficiency of material resources. On the another hand, General Rozwadowski feared that individual troops of the volunteers would be created according to the organization key. As a result, he rightly predicted the anticipation of interior tensions in the army and a situation in which individual formations would choose their enemies to fight. In addition, the voluntary call did not warrant that the military would scope adequate numbers. Eventually, the war situation, the conflict with Ukraine, and then with Czechoslovakia, forced further waves of drafts in Małopolska. The same was actual in Wielkopolska, where the uprising against Germany took place. 2 Polish districts, which in the course of planet War I bled due to the mass enlistment of men into the army of invaders, now (the breakthrough of 1918 and 1919) had to give blood donation again. During this time, the central Poland (old Congress) – the most popular and possessing very large conscription reserves (because the Russians only collected during the first period of the war) remained, if not counting modest volunteer troops, only a passive viewer of these events. The situation did not change until March 1919 after the Legislative Sejm announced its draft.
It seemed like hero defence of Lviv At the turn of 1918 and 1919, Rozwadowski one more time proved his worth and will be given to him to proceed to lead in the struggles for the east borders of the Republic. Meanwhile, after unlocking the Army “East” in March 1919, its commander was appointed head of the Polish Military Mission in Paris. Apparently, the General was put on a side track. Was it only the chief chief's reluctance to do so?
The reason for the general's departure from the position of commander of the Army "East" is complicated. The pressures were from different sides, due to the fact that Rozwadowski exposed himself to both the Lviv national democrats and socialists, and the Chief Leader very rapidly agreed to a change of command, which he utilized to interpret as an expression of resentment. It is besides known that General Józef Dowbor-Muśnicki besides demanded the removal of General Rozwadowski as commander, due to the fact that he did not want the Wielkopolska troops sent to the rescue of Lviv to be commanded by “Austriak”.
Why did Piłsudski refuse to accept the creation of the Polish American Legion in the Polish Army? Rozwadowski received a "green light" in this case to the commander of the American Expeditionary Forces in France, General John Pershing. Volunteers started to volunteer...
The task was created during the time erstwhile General Rozwadowski served as head of the Polish Military Mission in Paris. In a confidential letter to Józef Piłsudski, he pointed out the conflict of Allied volunteers and the model relations that prevailed between American Army officers and soldiers, and specialized American military units (especially airmen, tankers, medical corps and engineering services) were to be a strong support for the young Polish army. Piłsudski, however, feared that the creation of the Legion would be utilized as a tool to interfere in the interior affairs of Poland. Eventually, with the aid of Captain Merian Cooper, the task resulted in the creation of the Polish-American Kościuszko Air Squadron under Major Cedric Faunt-Le-Roy. The emergence of this unit Rozwadowski decided on his own, put the Chief Command before the facts made, squadron to them. Kościuszko besides served Poland well, and the American airmen who served in it served as ambassadors of Poland in the USA for years.
Can it be written present without any uncertainty that it is General Rozwadowski who is mainly liable for “the miracle over the Vistula” in 1920 thanks to the celebrated order of 10,000?
I wrote about it in General Rozwadowski's biography and did not change my opinion, at the same time I would like to stress that the general worked rather closely with the Chief Leader and his function in the course of Warsaw Battle He hasn't revealed for years. He defended the good name of the marshal at the time, and even closed the investigation into the press office of the General Staff, all for the sake of Poland and for the sake of allied Polish-French relations.
After the Polish-Bolshevik War, General Rozwadowski became chief of the General Inspectorate of Driving and began to equip the cavalry to the requirements of modern war. Furthermore, the General was among the fewer officers who had already postulated the improvement of armored weapons and aviation in the 1920s as those formations that would decide on success in future armed struggles. Again, Rozwadowski missed the Marshal's postulates...
In free Poland, Rozwadowski devoted his work to the organization of the Polish cavalry (until 1924 the word "drive") and training of its command staff. In 1924, he co-created a large reform, resulting in a change in structure and upgraded cavalry weapons. The cavalry divisions then formed, which, unfortunately, after May bombing solved – no uncertainty they were missing in 1939. The Central Military Archive in Rembertów contains the full squad of the "General Inspector of Cavalry", and the papers preserved in it attest to how much the General did for this Polish national weapon. In many publications devoted to cavalry, the name Rozwadowski seldom appears, and most frequently erstwhile describing celebrations from regimental festivals or from the presentation of regimental banners. It is good to look for information about his exercises, war games and trainings. There is besides a deficiency of information on how much the General did for the organization, assigning appropriate staff of lecturers, and acquiring cavalry equipment and horses for the Central School of Cavalry in Grudziądz.
Rozwadowski was undoubtedly a visionary, predicting what the future battlefield would look like. As early as 1923, he advocated the creation of stand-alone armoured units, just before his death he prepared a paper devoted to the “Problem of Today's Defense”, besides called the “military test” of Rozwadowski. In this document, he demanded the creation of a peculiar formation, the alleged army of advanced emergency, capable of fast mobilization in the face of an invasion from Germany or Russia. specified an army was to be perfectly equipped with aviation, modernized cavalry and "a self-organized group of peculiar armored car weapons". He thought that in the future war the importance of armored weapons and aviation would increase, and so in 1921 he applied for a peculiar study in the General Staff to coordinate the anti-aircraft and gas defence work. It is besides clear that 1 of his last projects afraid the construction of a fresh kind of air bomb.
During the May coup, General Rozwadowski defended Warsaw against forces on the side Piłsudski. He ordered the bombers to be dealt with, and even bombed against them. Didn't the General exaggerate by fueling a fratricidal fight?
In Polish historiography the word "May bombing" or "May coup" was adopted; in fact in Warsaw there were 3 days of fierce fighting and the more appropriate word is "May War" or "May War" – as General Marian Kukiel wrote. During these fights, led by Gen. Gustav Orlicz-Dreszer, the army of Marshal Pilsudski utilized artillery on the streets. respective times, Belvedere was besides bombed. "Unknown perpetrators" were besides shot at by the president's run marching on the 3rd day of the fighting to Wilanów. Finally, at the end of the war, after the truce was concluded and as translated by mistake, respective grenades were fired in the courtyard in front of the Wilanowski Palace, wounding and killing respective pro-government soldiers. Rozwadowski, without artillery, in retaliation ordered to drop air bombs on selected targets in the capital. However, the effects of these raids, which is worth noting, were very limited and, contrary to subsequent propaganda, did not entail large losses.
For General Rozwadowski, Marshal Piłsudski yet became a nemesis. His imprisonment, being held in contemptible by a advanced officer and a war hero, and ultimately, death in unexplained circumstances brings to head only 1 word: revenge. For a very long time too, the General's merits were either not said at all, or they were greatly reduced. Do you not feel that there is inactive besides small talk about General today?
Rozwadowski and another arrested generals were placed in the Military Investigation Prison in Antokol, Vilnius. The prison was located in the old, long-established palace of the Słuszków. The condition of the premises was disastrous, due to the fear of fire, the prison was heated very sparingly, yet in 1 of the winter's targets the ceiling beams over the furnace, which was in very bad condition, caught fire. Fortunately, the guards managed to suppress the fire in time. The generals held here, alongside Rozwadowski, were also: Juliusz Malczewski, Bolesław Jaźwiński and Włodzimierz Zagórski, they were in close isolation, censored their letters and obstructed possible defence before the military court. It was all meant to humiliate them. In the end, no of them were tried, and General Zagórski disappeared under unexplained circumstances. General Rozwadowski got out of prison after a year of stay, in the following months he began to get sick, among another things, while in his villa in Jastrzębia Góra. Despite consulting many doctors, he died on 18 October 1928 in Warsaw, and was buried in the Lvov Defenders' Cemetery – among his soldiers. After his death, there was frequently a rumor of alleged poisoning, but the autopsy was not performed...
Rozwadowski's dispute with Piłsudski was the main reason why in the period of II Rzeczpospolita no technological biography of the first chief of staff and the most prominent of Polish staff of the 20th century was created. His name was erased from military past studies and school textbooks. Many of his merits were credited to another commanders. The post-May II authorities of the Republic of Poland made all initiatives to commemorate the General hard – for example, the epitaph with its image was not allowed to be walled in the wall of the Mariacki Church in Krakow. Over the years there have been fears to give the name of General 1 of the streets in the city that owed him most – in Lviv. On November 21, 1938, on the 20th anniversary of the rescue of Lviv, president Stanisław Ostrowski, the following resolution was passed. It is worth mentioning that Ostrowski, in order to neutralize possible protests by the state authorities, had to usage the runway and named another Lviv street after the President-in-Office of Ignacy Mościcki with the same decision.
The Censorship of the times of the Polish People's Republic and the deficiency of access to archival collections caused that besides after planet War II no full biography of Gen. Rozwadowski was created. The character of the general was mentioned only on the margins of various studies (only a biogram appeared in the Polish Biographical Dictionary), while his function in the Polish-bolshevik War began to talk louder only in the late 1980s.
Currently, thanks to popular and technological studies, as well as the past of the documentary movie produced by TVP directed by Piotr Boruszkowski, entitled The Forgotten General, as well as a popular-scientific session at the Museum of independency in Warsaw and an exhibition devoted to the life and activities of Tadeusz Rozwadowski at the Museum of the University of Opole The General's character became a small more famous. His name is besides recalled from time to time in parliamentary debates. In 2015, the creators of the portal Historia.org.pl submitted to the Polish Parliament a proposal to recognise the year 2016 (150th anniversary of the General's birth) – "The Year of General Tadeusz Jordan Rozwadowski" – unfortunately without success. Nevertheless, more and more people began to talk about General in the Polish parliament. On 19 May 2016, on the 150th anniversary of the General's birth, a broader message on General Rozwadowski was made by MP Jan Wilk. Senator Jan Rulewski, MP Michał Stasiński and MP Piotr Babinietz, who, in December 2016, promised to return to the draft peculiar resolution on honouring General Tadeusz Jordan Rozwadowski. possibly 2018 will be happier in this respect, especially as we will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Poland's Independence, specified an anniversary of the establishment of the reborn General Staff of the Polish Army and the 90th anniversary of the General's death. I besides know that there is simply a debate in the capital about the possible location of the monument of Gen. Rozwadowski.
On the another hand, the name of the first head of the General Staff of the Polish Army and the organizer of the Polish troops is very frequently omitted during crucial public ceremonies, among others, during subsequent celebrations of the Polish independency Day. This is the case, despite the fact that authoritative celebrations in Warsaw are held at the Memorial of the Unknown Soldier – in the place where the Palace of Saski erstwhile stood, in which the General Staff of the Polish Army was located since 1918. At this point, at the turn of October and November 1918, Rozwadowski issued the first orders concerning the organization of various types of weapons of the Polish Army and various another military acts. He was besides the president of the organizational committee of the construction of the Unknown Soldier Monument in Warsaw, which is besides seldom mentioned. The sad fact is that until today, despite almost 30 years of freedom, there is most likely no military unit in Poland, which would be the patron of 1 of the most prominent Polish commanders of the 20th century – General Tadeusz Jordan Rozwadowski defends.
