In August 1914 planet War I began, during which Poles undertook an armed and diplomatic conflict for independence. It was successful in November 1918. large and unprecedented in the past of the nation for 123 years.
At the beginning of the armed conflict no of the large planet thought that the Polish issue could become 1 of the leading during the peace treaty. This was an interior substance of 3 invaders, of whom only Russia made a commitment (which it was incapable to keep) that the intent of the war was to unite the Polish lands under the sceptre of the Tsar. However, thanks to the diplomacy undertaken and conducted by the Polish National Committee in Paris with Roman Dmowski, Ignacy Jan Paderewski and Maurycy Zamoyski, we were at the forefront of the winning states, which was confirmed during the signing of the peace treaty in Versailles.
The effort of Polish diplomacy was started in 1914, erstwhile a charity work for Poles affected by the war was created in the Swiss property of Henryk Sienkiewicz in Vevey. Around this work we will find, among others, Ignacy J. Paderewski or Urszula Ledóchowska. They did not spare effort to, asking for money for the victims, at the same time to preach about Poland's right to independence. Urszula Ledóchowska reached the Scandinavian states, Ignacy J. Paderewski to the United States. The latter, distinguished composer and pianist, starting in 1915, will conquer the hearts of Americans not only by playing piano, but besides by preaching the word. As his brave wife, Helena, wrote in her memoirs, the celebrated pianist learned by heart his speeches in English and preached lectures about Poland, its history, its right to independence. In time, he could have replaced this effort with giving ad hoc speeches. At the end of 1916, he prepared a peculiar political memorial for the president of the United States, in which he commanded Poland's right to independence. T. W. Wilson utilized fragments of the memorial erstwhile in January 1917 before legislature he commanded that the United States had to enter the European War. For the first time, from the mouth of the later winner in the war, there were these crucial words that there would be no just peace without free Poland.
At the same time, Roman Dmowski wrote his elaborates directed to the leaders of France and England, in which he not only postulated the creation of independent Poland, but besides argued that strong Poland, an ally of the West, must be established in Central and east Europe fighting Germany for dominance in colonies. Only strong Poland will make it hard for Germany to regulation in Mitteleuropa, it will make it hard to scope allied Turkey, or “windows to the colonial world”. It was thanks to Dmowski, yet in August 1917 that France decided to recognise the National Committee of Poland, operating in Paris, as the only typical of the Polish nation. Roman Dmowski became president of the KNP, becoming the successor of Adam J. Czartoryski, this "diploma without a passport", trying after the fall of the November Uprising to initiate the Polish case on an global forum. It worked now.
Thanks to Dmowski's activity in Paris and Paderewski's activity in the United States, the Blue Army will be built – militarily equipped by France, but politically and militarily commanded by the KNP. Her commander, yet in the autumn of 1918, will be a associate of the Committee General Joseph Haller, as the leader of the Polish Allied Army. Thanks to this work to rebuild Poland with the winning states in planet War I, the government of Ignacy J. Paderewski was created in January 1919, a democratic Poland was created, in the form of Western republics. Then we were only recognized as a state, including a victorious state. Thanks to this, Dmowski and Paderewski could represent us in Paris and make a fresh European order, created on the ruins of the Vienna Treaty of 1815. The emergence of the reborn Poland has been confirmed by the election of Members of the Legislative Sejm. For the first time, passive and active electoral rights besides had women, and all states. Polish priests – mainly local leaders of the Polish community fighting in their territory to join the Matrix. The homeland became the parent of all Poles. The election was won comparatively by right-wing parties, and mainly by the People's-National Union, the leaders of which were KNP activists. On the list of ZLN, the name Paderewski was first mentioned, on the second Dmowski.
However, we should besides remember all those who lived on Polish dirt for 4 years and fought in various armed formations of the possessive states (including the Legions). 1 should remember about the Regency Council, which – although created from the giving of losers in the war – was able to establish the foundation of the Polish administration in 1917–1918 and prepare legal solutions. Upon the return of Józef Piłsudski to Warsaw and the creation of a unilateral, or left-wing, government of Jędrzej Moraczewski (not Wojciech Korfante, as they postulated the centre-right environments), we had to fight the Bolshevik influences in the country immediately. Divine Providence, and in this case it watched, giving us a socialist government in November and December, so that we did not have a revolution on the streets of cities and towns.
It was only the beginning of the conflict for the Independent. Only an armed effort of a young state made in 1918–1921, by the Polish Army under the command of the chief of Józef Piłsudski, defended and strengthened the Republic of Poland.
It began with the beginning of the four-year war, with the departure of the First Personnel Company under the leadership of commandant Józef Piłsudski on 6 August 1914 from the Kraków Oleanders. On 16 August 1914, on the initiative of the Confederate Galician Party, the ultimate National Committee was created, which established the Polish Legions. At the same time, on the another side of the front, on the initiative of the National Democracy and the Committee appointed by him, the Legion named after Kazimierz Pulaski began to be established, and in France – thanks to the energy of the well-known writer-history Wacław Gąsiorowski – the Polish Volunteers Committee was established, which set up the French-German Company of Bajorans to fight.
In celebrating the next anniversary of the Niepodlegelski Uprising, we should remind these organizations and figures, including: Józef Piłsudski Roman Dmowski, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Maurycy Zamoyski, Zdzisław Lubomirski, Władysław Seyda, Wojciech Korfanty, Wincent Witos and Ignacy Daszyński, as well as generals Tadeusz Rozwadowski, Józef Haller, Józef Dowbor-Muśnicki, Kazimierz Sosnkowski, Władysław E. Sikorski, Edward Rydz-Śmigł, Stanisław Szeptycki and Lucjan Żeligowski and Wacław Iwaszkiewicz, and many others, including Captain Czesław Mączyński, Captain Cezław Haller and Lieutenant Wacław Zawadzki, who led various paths towards free Poland, and died.
We besides remember the hierarchs of the Catholic Church with the primate of Poland Edmund Dalbor, the primate of the Polish Kingdom Alexander Kakowski and Bishop Adam S. Sapieha and Archbishop Józef Teodorowicz, the brave priests, Polish patriots, including chaplains of the Polish Army with Bishop Władysław Bandurski and Fr Ignacy Skorupka at the head and leaders of local independency structures, with Fr Stanislaw Adamski in Poznań since 1930, with Fr Józef Londzin in Silesia Cieszynski and Fr Ferdinand Machay in Spiš and Orava. Let us besides remember Fr Marcel Nowakowski, the co-founder of the PCK and the associate of the Legislative Sejm, Fr Kazimierz Lutosławski, among others the co-founder of the Polish Scouting Union and many others.
The military effort continued for the following years of war and post-war time, the formation of borders. In particular, it is essential to remind of the Blue Army established by the Parisian KNP with Gen. Józef Haller at the head and the formations which formed the Polish Army fighting on various fronts, especially in the East from 1919 to 1921. In celebrating independency Day, honors are given to the Wielkopolska Uprisings, Sejneński, Cieszynski and Silesian, Political and social activists, especially local ones, fighting to join Poland with their reborn native lands, united by historical memory and stubborn desire to be in a free country. In a peculiar way, let us remember about youths who were grouped around their authorities in Scout structures (the Scouts), in the “socks” of the Gymnastic Society “Sokol”, about the POW soldiers who fought in insurgent battles, who demolished Germans on 10 and 11 November 1918 in Warsaw, celebrating the approaching freedom. Very many of these participants of diplomatic and armed combat, organizers of local communities fighting to join their lands to Homeland, held liable state functions in the years II of the Polish Republic. They did well in combat and at work. After 20 years, they, as well as their political students, raised in schools of the reborn Poland, again fought. Hello to their memory!
The author of the text is prof. Jan Żaryn, born 13 March 1958. prof. of historical sciences, lecturer at the Institute of Historical Sciences of the University of Warsaw, longtime worker of the Institute of National Memory, educator, academic teacher, publicist, socio-Catholic and political activist, senator. Married, father of three, grandpa of 8 grandchildren.
The article was published in the magazine “Friend of the Family”, published by the Centre of Life and Family. The number “Hail Independent!” 3/2018.
