The First World War, called the Great War or the European War in Western European literature, was a catastrophe that destroyed the old 19th century order. There were no winners in the classic sense. All the parties to the conflict came out more or less at a loss. All except Poland.
My academic guru, the late Professor Paweł Wieczorkiewicz, used to say that the 19th century should not be dated according to the calendar, but according to the two political caesuras that opened and closed it. The Vienna Congress in 1815, which stabilised the European order, should be regarded as the beginning of the epoch. The end of the 19th century was not 1900 but the beginning of the First World War in 1914.
The Polish national bard, Adam Mickiewicz, in his "Books of Polish Pilgrimage and Nation" brought supplications "For the Universal War". In the middle of the 19th century, Polish independence circles were increasingly convinced that only a general European war could lead to the weakening of the invaders and the rebirth of Poles. Such a war came in 1914. Polish invaders faced each other, some as Central States (Austria-Hungary, Germany) or on the side of the Entente States (Russia). The war dragged other countries into its whirlwind, eventually the powerful United States stood up to them and this determined its end. The losses suffered by the warring parties were enormous. Around 14 million people died directly as a result of the military action. The large number of casualties not directly related to the war but resulting from the war have to be added to this, such as famine and diseases decimating certain areas of Europe. There were also millions of injured and people who have lost their health permanently. The enormous material damage suffered, to a greater or lesser extent, by all those involved in the war has to be added to the loss of human lives.
The crisis was already growing before 1914, when the powers were arming themselves, forming alliances and counter-alliances, and trying to outflank their opponents diplomatically. It was clear to the people involved in European politics that the war would soon break out and end the belle époque. Only that all participants in the impending conflict were convinced that the war would be a rapid one, a bit like the French-Prussian War in 1870 or the Prussian-Austrian War in 1866. A rapid campaign, three or four decisive battles and the parties sit down at the negotiating table to redefine the division of the world. Everyone made a mistake. The war, which could not be won by either side, dragged on for four long years in the hells of trenches in the West and spilled out in the East onto the vast expanses of the Tsarist Empire. The political ferment that began in 1914 with the outbreak of military action led to a deep shock in the monarchies that formed the map of Europe. Germany was seriously weakened, the multinational Habsburg monarchy did not withstand the hardships of war, and Russia plunged into the chaos of the Bolshevik revolution. The de nomine victorious states, France and Great Britain, suffered enormous losses and the trauma of war was felt in them for many decades.
Against the background of all this damage, 11 November, the symbolic day of the end of World War I, is a sad date. It is not a day of victory, it is not a joyful celebration of military successes. In the United Kingdom, for many decades it has been more of a day of contemplation on the victims of war, symbolised by a red poppy in the lapel of a jacket. The war also left enormous scars in the German people, who not only suffered great material and human losses but were humiliated by the terms of the peace treaty, although in the opinion of many soldiers and officers the German Army was not broken up, not a single inch of Vaterland was lost. This bitterness quickly laid the foundations for Adolf Hitler's National Socialism and, as a result, led to an even bloodier World War II.
Hungarians are undoubtedly among the nations that remember the First World War with sadness. Soldiers in Habsburg monarchy uniforms suffered huge human losses during the four years of their struggle on the fronts. When the war came to an end and the Entente countries were considering a new division of Europe, the Hungarians were seen as the aggressors, and when they found themselves in the camp of defeated countries, Vae Victis, woe to the vanquished, as the Romans used to say. In a way, Hungary was punished under the Treaty of Trianon by reducing the lands of the Kingdom of Hungary from practically all sides. Upper Hungary, Transylvania and Rijeka were truncated and annexed to the neighbouring countries.... even Austria got a piece of Hungarian land. Millions of Hungarians suddenly found themselves in foreign countries, separated by borders from their compatriots.
Against the background of all the traumatic experiences of European nations, Poles’ national memory of 11 November looks completely different. As a result of the war and the political catastrophe of the partitioning powers, Poland regained its independence. This fact and the indescribable joy felt by Poles completely overshadowed the losses suffered during the Great War and they were also considerable. Conscripts from all three partitions fought in uniforms of the partitioning armies. Several hundred thousand of them died. The material losses were great. The lands of the Russian partition were affected especially severely, where fighting took place in 1914-1915. Russians withdrawing deep into Russia were taking away what they could and that which they could not - bridges, telegraph lines, railway infrastructure - were destroyed. Then, the subsequent years of German occupation was a period of war contributions - for example, almost all the copper wire was removed from Warsaw - a period of hunger and cold. However, all these unquestionable losses were belittled in national memory by the fact that Poland, after a hundred and several dozen years, appeared on the maps of the world. The Polish government, national colours, the Polish army came to be once again. Enthusiasm stemming from independence regained more than a hundred years ago is difficult to understand today. It had a great influence on the subsequent twenty years of shaping national attitudes, found its expression in art, and resulted, among other things, in an interesting poetic trend, which was represented by the "Skamander" group.
One can say that Poland was one of the few countries to emerge victorious from the First World War. This is the reason why there are such differences in our celebration of 11 November in relation to other European countries. When the English, French and Hungarians invoke the day of remembrance of their fallen ancestors, the Poles celebrate the joyously regained Independence.
Marcin Bąk