Historical Calendar: August 16, 1914 – The ultimate National Committee will be established

Anniversary of the appointment of the Chief National Committee in Krakow.

Today in our calendar we will look at events from the times of planet War I and the actions that led to Poland regaining independence.

Due to the failure of Józef Piłsudski to call an anti-Russian uprising, Vienna requested the dissolution of the Personnel Company or its incorporation into the CK Army linear units. Piłsudski felt helpless and depressed; he even considered suicide.

Galician politicians found their way out of the situation, who took advantage of the confusion and consequently the hold associated with the liquidation of the Personnel Company. On 16 August in Krakow, the Chief National Committee (NKN) was formed with Julius Leo at the head, who, with the approval of the Austrian authorities, subjected himself to a staff company and another formed from shooting teams. NKN immediately began creating higher-ranking units, called the Polish Legions.

The plan was to establish an east Legion in Lviv and the Western Legion in Krakow. In the end, the three-brigade western legion was formed and for respective years the name of Polish legions was established. Until today, among Poles there is simply a belief about the organization of Legions straight by Piłsudski, which is clearly not true. In September 1914, he stopped supporting NKN and formed his own political organization called Polish National Organization (PON).

PON was actually independent of Austrians, but in addition to publishing and intelligence activities for the German army, it did little. In general Piłsudski was by nature a snarling and he hated opposition and anyone else over himself due to the fact that he was so hurt that he wasn't in charge of the Legions. He attempted a crash-related activity aimed at weakening the NKN structures and the position of politicians specified as Julius Leo. Later PON was absorbed by Galician NKN and Warsaw POW.

Seeing the failure of his skirmish actions, Piłsudski had to bend and continued to cooperate with the NKN within the First Legion Brigade. But how did it happen that Austrians who were tense about the failure of the insurrection plan and wanted to dissolve the Human Company agreed to establish much larger Polish units called Legions?

There are 3 answers. The first is the fact that Polish Galician politicians, specified as Julius Leo, Witold Czartoryski and Franciszek Stefczyk, are known and respected in Vienna. The second issue is the unfavourable military situation of Austro – Hungary at the very beginning of the war. Despite bold predictions of a fast triumph over the Serbs, as early as mid-August 1914, the Austrian army was detained and decimated by the enemy on the Balkan Front, including in the conflict of Mount Cer.

Similarly, the situation in Galicia was uninterested where the Russians went to the offensive occupying a large area of the state along with Lviv, which fell into their hands on September 3. Under specified conditions, Austrians simply proverbially softened the tube and were willing to accept any assistance, even in connection with certain organizational and political autonomy of Polish individuals. However, neither the influence of Polish politicians nor the mediocre situation on the front would mean anything if it were not for the 3rd decisive origin of money.

If legions were to be uniformed, equipped and maintained by Austrians, there is no difference for them to simply make another own infantry division. The problem was that Polish troops were to be held for Polish money. But where to get specified immense sums – it does not cost a 1000 crowns or even 100,000 crowns. This is about millions of crowns. Piłsudski, who is called the creator of the Legions, did not have specified money.

This brings us to the heart of the issue of independence, that is, where the astronomical sums for legion activities came from. The Galician politicians mentioned here and at the same time completely forgotten fathers of Polish independency Julius Leo, Witold Czartoryski and Franciszek Stefczyk. Julius Leo was not only a freshly baked president of Krakow's NKN but besides a longtime president of the city of Krakow.

During the session of the city council, he led to a million crown donations by the council, which were intended to equip and keep Polish units. Witold Czartoryski donated a large amount of his individual assets and agitated among Galician elites for generous contributions to the Polish military. Francis Stefczyk, a well-known social and Christian banker, went even further.

Using his authority in the planet of over a 1000 Galician savings and credit banks, he sent a letter to them asking for backing from the Legions. More than 400 Galician financial institutions responded to his appeal, of course from areas that have not yet been cut off by the southwest Russian front.

Later, NKN besides conducted collections among Galician society for the benefit of its individual cells, as evidenced by this poster from the era. Unprecedented was the aid of the Catholic Church, and this is not just about moral support and mass for the homeland, but above all, the care of the sick and wounded that the nuns carried.

Also completely forgotten is the fact that at the head of the credit savings banks, which helped the Legions financially, were very frequently the parish priests who were eager to engage in this kind of activity. The very formation and functioning of these funds is an interesting subject and I would like not to make it here. any information on this subject includes Stefczyk's biogram in my latest book on Polish heroes.

Polish legions were militarily subjected to Austrian-Hungarian general staff and field intelligence office with General Oskar Hranilovic von Czvetassin at the head. Józef Piłsudski made direct contact with him, or de facto extended his erstwhile collaboration with their military intelligence. Operating on the Galician and Lublin – Volynian front, Poles fought very bravely and much better than most native imperial – royal units.

Despite the sacrifices of the legionnaires, the central states until November 1916 did not issue any concrete commitments to restitution of free Poland, even erstwhile they began to occupy the full territory of the erstwhile Congressional Kingdom. On the contrary, for the occupied lands 2 governorships were established: German in Warsaw and Austrian in Lublin. Between 1915 and 1916, Legions were experiencing an increasingly pronounced crisis, due to Berlin and Vienna's disregard for the Polish case.

Despite this, it is crucial to be clear – the very functioning of Legions and the establishment of political structures based on Kraków's NKN raised the Polish substance to a long-known level. Thanks to Julius Leo and his friends, the domino effect began, which caused both sides of the planet war to start bidding on the Polish origin always higher.

It is about, among another things, calling on the chief commander of the Russian army Nicholas Mikołajewicz on 14 August 1914, in which he promised to revive Poland with his own parliament and self-government. Of course, it was only a vague announcement of returning to the rules before 1830, or Russian condominium under the Tsaric authority.

Other Ententa countries besides began to make their promises to Poles. In November 1914, Roman Dmowski established the National Committee of Poland (KNP), which put the Ententa powers in the war.

Theoretically, NKN and KNP should be hostile, but their activists contacted each another via neutral Switzerland. For example, Witold Czartoryski, who worked with NKN, met with Roman Dmowski and helped him organize KNP in Lausanne. Czartoryski later besides supported the Regency Council.

The fine and thoughtful policy of our compatriots, who played for both sides of the planet conflict, and in fact solely for the sake of Poland's regaining freedom, resulted in revived movements in all capitals active in the large war. This forced them to bid for the Polish case up until the declaration of independence.

Previous entry from our calendar is available Here.