Attitudes and Contributions of the Members of the Voluntary League of Women, 1918–1922

Ochotnicza LigaKobiet was the first regular military formation feminine on Polish soil, which was created in 1918. During the Polish-Ukrainian struggle for Lwów. A year later, during the Polish-Soviet War, he founded OLK 2 in Vilnius. The growing threat of the Soviet Union meant that in 1920. Formation was reorganized and in August this year took part in the Battle of Warsaw. Portrait collective members OLK both representatives of the officers, as usual serial – Sentinel, courier or administrative workers. For obvious reasons, the most famous were the first of these, which often continued its operations after the termination of formation – in the interwar period, and later during World War II. These include the, m.in.: the initiator and founder of OLK – Lt.-Col. Aleksandra Zagorska, see. Wanda Gertz – commander of the Legion of Vilnius, Sec. Irena Jędrychowska – Battalion commander OLK in Poznan, Sec. Maria Chojecka – battalion commander campaign administrative OLK in Warsaw, Lieutenant. Halina Kowalska – commander OLK branch in Grudziądz.A large part of the representatives of officers OLK was educated and came from landowning families or intellectual, where the cultivated tradition of independence. They were also often involved in the work of independence before the outbreak of World War I, and thus represented by patriotic attitudes they have been shaped before joining OLK. As a result, in the course of military service, they were characterized by a special commitment and often were successful. Their achievements were appreciated by giving them badges and managerial functions. It is worth noting that the decorations and received praise not only representatives of the officers, but also non-commissioned officers or serial, which were also exemplary soldiers.In conclusion, we can say that the period of operation of OLK was an important step in the military participation of women, and even though the formation was liquidated, gained by its members experience became a vehicle for the development of the movement of military training of women in the interwar period.

“Notes from the Great Times” and “Memoirs from the Years 1916–1918”. Ludomil German and his notes from the First World War the Years 1916–1918”.

The article presents the last years of the life of Ludomił German (1851–1921), a Galician teacher and school inspector, playwright, translator and politician. He was an activist of the Democratic-National Party and Polish Democratic Party, member of the Austrian parliament in Vienna (1907–1918) and the National Parliament in Lviv (1912–1914), vice-president of the Chamber of Deputies and vice-president of the Polish Circle. During the World War I, he kept a diary in which he described his activities in the Supreme National Commitee (established on August 16th, 1914), the Polish Circle and the parliament, as well as the history of the Polish Legions, the struggle for their leadership and the efforts undertaken by the leaders of Galicia and the Kingdom of Poland to unificate the Polish lands and create a more or less independent Polish state. As a supporter of the trialist option (replacing the dualistic Austro-Hungarian Monarchy with the trialistic Austro-Hungary-Poland, created as a result of the joining of the Russian Kingdom of Poland to Galicia), he saw the place of Poles at the side of the Habsburgs almost until the end of the war. He spent the end of his life in Lviv, where he also died. His diary, divided into two parts, is kept in the collections of manuscripts of the Jagiellonian Library in Cracow, Poland (number 8537 I, „Notes from great times”, original) and in the Vasyl Stefanyk National Scientific Library of Ukraine in Lviv (Fond 5, number 6415, vol. I–III, „Memoirs of 1916–1918, copy).

Już podczas nawiązania entente cordial między Wielką Brytanią a Francją w 1904 r. oraz przyłączeniu do niej Rosji w 1907 r. sprawy bliskowschodnie (m.in. Maroko, Egipt, Iran, Afganistan) legły u podstaw tego sojuszu. Toteż kiedy wybucha I wojna światowa, trzy wymienione mocarstwa uznały się za powołane do ukształtowania przyszłości Bliskiego Wschodu zgodnie z własnymi interesami (porozumienie Sykes–Picot, korespondencja Hussein–MacMahon, deklaracja Balfoura i inne). W wyniku wojny (przegrana państw centralnych, wycofanie Rosji bolszewickiej z wojny) Wielka Brytania i Francja stały się jedynymi dominującymi siłami w tym regionie świata. Pierwsza otrzymała mandat Ligi Narodów nad Palestyną (wraz z wydzieloną jej częścią – Transjordanią) i Irakiem. Francja zaś otrzymała mandat nad Syrią i Libanem. Wielka Brytania zachowała ponadto swoją dominację nad Egiptem i Somalią Brytyjską. Francja z kolei – nad Algierią, Marokiem, Tunezją, Somalią Francuską. W tych nowo powstałych krajach arabskich państwo i administrację odwzorowywano na podobieństwo metropolii, co było w pewnych aspektach korzystne, w innych – dysfunkcjonalne i konfliktogenne. Ujawnia się to dobitnie w czasach niepodległości i zimnej wojny, tj. po II wojnie światowej.

American Poles on the frontlines of the Great War: contemporary symbol and content

The premise of this paper is to collect in a systematic way the existing research findings related to documenting the participation of Poles and Americans of Polish origin fighting in the ranks of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF). The primary objective of the paper is to analyze the historical, military, and political dimensions of this participation. The paper is a study in historical politics, which translates into contemporary realities and concepts of political solutions. The following methods have been used as research tools: the historical, comparative, and statistical methods, as well as an analysis of the content of the press, in particular the Polish-American press. The subject matter required specifically a problem- oriented approach, but also a chronological one, documenting political and social processes directly related to the war, occurring after its end and translating into contemporary events. This paper is a broader exploration of this issue.