On Thursday, 18 December this year, marking the 96th anniversary of the outbreak of the uprising, Mayor Tadeusz Krzakowski, Czesław Kowalak, president of the Society for the Commemoration of the Greater Poland Uprising Czesław Kowalak, as well as students and teachers from Primary School No. 1, which bears the insurgents’ name, paid tribute to the participants of this national liberation uprising who settled in our city after the war and were laid to rest in the Legnica cemetery. Family members of insurgents living in Legnica also attended.
After World War II, around 40 Greater Poland insurgents settled in Legnica. They came to our city from, among other places, Ostrów Wielkopolski and prisoner-of-war camps.
There are 28 insurgents’ graves in the Municipal Cemetery, including the grave of Stanisław Misiek, an Honorary Citizen of Legnica since 1996. Candles were lit on the graves. The annual visits by the Mayor of Legnica, members of the Society for the Commemoration of the Greater Poland Uprising and young people to the insurgents’ graves have become part of Legnica’s patriotic tradition.
It is worth recalling that the Greater Poland Uprising, often described as the final stage of the “longest war in modern Europe” against the Prussian partitioning power, broke out on 27 December 1918 in response to actions by Germans opposed to Ignacy Paderewski’s visit to Poznań. Highly organized and effectively commanded, the insurgents quickly took control of almost all of Greater Poland. The uprising ended on 16 February 1919 with the Truce of Trier, which also covered the insurgent front through the provisions of the armistice of 11 November 1918, ending World War I.
Alongside the 1806 Greater Poland Uprising, it was one of only two victorious national liberation uprisings in Polish history, ending in military and political success. An army of more than 100,000, composed mainly of volunteers, took part in it.
The memory of this uprising is cultivated with particular care in Legnica. A square in the city center bears the name of the Greater Poland Insurgents. The latest, 35th volume of “Legnica Sketches” contains an extensive scholarly article by Czesław Kowalak entitled “Traditions of the 1918–1919 Greater Poland Uprising in Legnica after World War II.”
UM Legnica/ii