During the October session of the Bolesławiec City Council, councillors will probably adopt resolutions on naming streets in Bolesławiec. They will be the following streets:
- Sybiraków
- Generała Józefa Hallera
- Generała Tadeusza Rozwadowskiego.
Justification for the resolution concerning Sybiraków Street
The newly established street is located in the south-eastern part of the city of Bolesławiec, in the area of Kresów II RP, Bronisława Kosiby and Zielona streets, within district no. 0014 of the city of Bolesławiec.
“Sybiraków Street” will consist of plots numbered 202/3 and 201/2, as well as parts of plots numbered 234, 203, 201/3, 397, 196 and 190, owned by the Municipality of Bolesławiec and held under perpetual usufruct by a legal entity.
Under the local spatial development plan for the city of Bolesławiec, the above-mentioned plots are designated for public roads—access roads (plan symbol D-KDD). The proposal to name the newly established street is connected with the expansion of the housing estate and the need to assign street numbers to newly built properties.
The term “Sybirak” is used primarily in two senses. In Russia, it refers to inhabitants of Siberia, while in Poland Sybiraks are understood to be all those Poles who were exiled and forcibly settled in Siberia (“sent to Siberia”), many of whom never returned to Poland.
Poles first arrived in Siberia as prisoners of war in the first half of the 17th century. However, the proper history of Polish Sybiraks began after the defeat of the Bar Confederates in 1768.
Further waves of exile, resulting from participation in conspiracies, uprisings and underground activities, took place in the 1830s and 1840s. The greatest number of Poles were sent to Siberia following the defeat of the January Uprising (1863–1867). It is estimated that around 16,800 Poles and 1,800 accompanying persons were exiled at that time. In the last two decades of the 19th century, those “sent into exile” were mainly participants in the illegal revolutionary movement. From the beginning of the 20th century, the number of exiles grew slightly but steadily. They included people sentenced by courts and those expelled from the country by administrative decision. In 1910, between 48,000 and 52,000 Poles were living in Siberia.
A single transport route for exiles from Europe to eastern Siberia was established, running through Kazan, Orenburg and Tobolsk and divided into 61 stages. All those sentenced to hard labour, as well as people sentenced to life or long-term settlement, had to walk in shackles. Daily marching quotas ranged from 21 to 42 kilometres.
In the USSR, Siberia remained a centre of exile; among other things, the Gulag camp system, administered by the Main Administration of Camps, was established there. Following the USSR’s aggression against Poland, hundreds of thousands of Polish inhabitants of the Borderlands were displaced, some to Siberia and others to Kazakhstan.
From 17 September 1939 to 1956, between 1.3 and 1.5 million Poles were deported deep into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics—mainly to Siberia and Kazakhstan. The politically motivated deportations were intended to exterminate Polish citizens while simultaneously exploiting them as labour for the hardest work. In most cases, the deportations followed a similar pattern. First, a list was prepared of people designated for deportation; then, usually at night, they were forcibly dragged from their homes and taken to the nearest railway station. Those destined for exile were given only a few minutes to pack, and sometimes were not allowed to take anything. The ordeal began during the transport, which lasted several weeks. The transport took place in cattle cars, sometimes holding as many as 50 people. People often died of cold and hunger during the journey itself, especially the elderly and children. The dead were buried or left beside the railway embankment during stops.
Upon arrival, they were usually assigned forced labour in mining, forestry or agriculture. Everyone aged between 16 and 60 had to work, regardless of sex. However, even children as young as nine sometimes worked in order to earn money for food. The work was extremely hard; in winter, people had to work in temperatures of -40°C. In some areas, summer temperatures reached as high as 50°C. Annual mortality is estimated at approximately 30%, resulting from malnutrition, exhaustion, disease and cold.
On 6 July 1945, a Polish-Soviet repatriation agreement was signed for Poles from the USSR who could prove that they had held Polish citizenship before World War II. It was a unique opportunity for hundreds of thousands of Poles to survive and return to Poland. However, the agreement did not end further deportations to Siberia; politically motivated exiles continued, connected with the activities of Poles who were soldiers in the independence underground. Only the amnesty following Józef Stalin’s death in 1953 led to further returns of Poles from Siberia and Kazakhstan.
Transports from Siberia and Kazakhstan were sent directly to the so-called Recovered Territories. Returning exiles could not talk about their Siberian ordeal and officially described themselves as “repatriates from beyond the Bug”; consequently, even today it is difficult to determine the exact number of Sybiraks who settled in Bolesławiec during those years. These figures were deliberately omitted from documents from the 1940s and 1950s. According to contemporary research, the group numbered approximately 150 people.
The number of people who died in Soviet forced-labour camps remains difficult to establish, but historians estimate that between 42 and 60 million people of various nationalities died there. Many others also remained in the “inhuman land” because they could not prove their Polish citizenship. Their descendants still live there today.
Source: based on a study by the Museum of Ceramics in Bolesławiec.
Justification for the resolution concerning Generała Józefa Hallera Street
The newly established street is located in the south-eastern part of the city of Bolesławiec, in the area of Kresów II RP, Bronisława Kosiby and Zielona streets, within district no. 0014 of the city of Bolesławiec.
“Generała Józefa Hallera Street” will consist of plots numbered 194/16 and 194/6, as well as parts of plots numbered 195, 196, 397, 199/7, 199/1, 194/1 and 194/14 within district no. 0014 of the city of Bolesławiec, owned by the Municipality of Bolesławiec and private individuals, and held under perpetual usufruct by a legal entity.
Under the local spatial development plan for the city of Bolesławiec, the above-mentioned plots are designated for public roads—access roads (plan symbol D-KDD). The proposal to name the newly established street is connected with the expansion of the housing estate and the need to assign street numbers to newly built properties.
General Józef Haller was born in 1873 as the third of six children of a landowner, a descendant of Jan Haller, the owner of the first printing house in Poland, established in the 16th century. His grandfather was a captain in the November Uprising, while his father took part in the January Uprising. The future commander of the Blue Army spent his childhood on the family estate in Jurczyce near Kraków. From 1882, the family lived in Lviv, where young Józef completed secondary school. He studied at the Artillery Faculty of the Technical Academy in Vienna and, after graduating, began serving in the Austro-Hungarian army in 1895 with the rank of second lieutenant. He left the army in 1908 with the rank of captain, then worked socially in the cooperative movement and conducted military training for young people from the “Sokół” Gymnastic Society. He also worked to give scouting a Polish character and transform it into the Polish scouting movement.
After the outbreak of World War I, Józef Haller co-organised the Polish Legions alongside the Austro-Hungarian army. He took command of the 3rd Legions Regiment with the rank of colonel. His units distinguished themselves, among other things, by capturing the villages of Rafajłowa and Nadwórna, and also fought the Russians in the Hutsul region and Northern Bukovina. In July 1916, he took command of the 2nd Legions Brigade, which became part of the Polish Auxiliary Corps. In protest against the provisions of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, in March 1918 he broke through the front with the 2nd Brigade and joined its forces with Polish formations in Russia. He took command of the 2nd Polish Corps in Ukraine and received a general’s commission.
The 2nd Corps was nevertheless defeated by the Germans at the Battle of Kaniów in May 1918, and its remnants then made their way through revolutionary Russia to Murmansk, from where Haller also reached France. In July 1918, he joined the Polish National Committee and was appointed commander of the Polish army being formed in France. It consisted of volunteers from among prisoners of war and the Polish communities in France, the United States and Canada. Because of its blue uniforms, the formation was called the Blue Army. In autumn 1918, it took part in fighting against the Germans in the Vosges and Champagne. In spring 1919, when it was transferred to Poland, the Blue Army numbered approximately 68,000 soldiers. Haller took command of the Pomeranian Front and, in this role, performed the symbolic marriage of Poland to the Baltic Sea in February 1920. During the war against the Bolsheviks, he commanded the Northern Front.
After the war, Haller chaired the Polish Scouting and Guiding Association and served as president of the Polish Red Cross. In 1922–1923, he was a member of the Sejm representing the Christian Association of National Unity. In May 1926, Haller condemned Piłsudski’s coup and was retired. From 1936 to 1939, he co-organised the opposition Front Morges and led the Christian-democratic Labour Party. After World War II, he settled in the United Kingdom, where he died in June 1960. His ashes were brought to Poland in 1993.
Source: based on a study by Prof. Wojciech Roszkowski.
Justification concerning Generała Tadeusza Rozwadowskiego Street
The newly established street is located in the south-eastern part of the city of Bolesławiec, in the area of Kresów II RP, Bronisława Kosiby and Zielona streets, within district no. 0014 of the city of Bolesławiec.
“Generała Tadeusza Rozwadowskiego Street” will consist of plot no. 191/34 and parts of plots numbered 195, 196, 191/10, 191/9, 187 and 186, owned by the Municipality of Bolesławiec and held under perpetual usufruct by a legal entity. Under the local spatial development plan for the city of Bolesławiec, the above-mentioned plots are designated for public roads—access roads (plan symbol D-KDD). The proposal to name the newly established street is connected with the expansion of the housing estate and the need to assign street numbers to newly built properties.
General Tadeusz Rozwadowski undoubtedly ranks among the most distinguished commanders in Polish history. In 1920, as Chief of the General Staff, he saved the Polish army from certain defeat. To a very great extent, his work, optimism and excellent cooperation with the Commander-in-Chief led to the great victory in the Battle of Warsaw. For this reason, he earned the title of the first hetman of the reborn homeland. Tadeusz Rozwadowski was born on 19 May 1866 in Babin on the Łomnica River, in what is now Ukraine. He completed secondary school in Lviv.
He then followed family tradition and continued his education at the Military Cavalry Cadet School, graduating with distinction. Although, as the top student, he could have begun service in Austria in one of its prestigious units, he preferred to return to Polish lands. He chose Kraków, where he served in a horse artillery regiment and then served in Jarosław. Rozwadowski specialised in artillery, but his passions were horses and cavalry. He graduated with distinction from the elite Higher War School in Vienna in 1891.
From 1896, he served as military attaché in Bucharest, where he earned the genuine respect of the elites, including the King of Romania. In 1907, he was transferred from Romania to Stanisławów, where he became commander of the 31st Field Artillery Regiment. While serving in Stanisławów, Rozwadowski revealed another of his talents: he was also an inventor. He invented an artillery sighting device and a shrapnel grenade, a new type of projectile that first exploded in the air, showering the enemy with pellets, and then its warhead exploded upon impact with the target.
In 1912, he took command of an artillery brigade in Kraków, and in 1913 he was promoted to the rank of major general. After the outbreak of war in 1914, he took command of the 12th Austro-Hungarian Artillery Brigade. In May 1915, he played a key role in the breakthrough by Austrian and German forces at the Battle of Gorlice. Rozwadowski then proposed a new method of using artillery, the so-called rolling barrage, involving the shifting of the artillery line of fire directly ahead of the attacking infantry. Close cooperation between artillery and infantry enabled the capture of Russian positions and forced the enemy to retreat.
In 1916, the Austro-Hungarian military authorities retired Rozwadowski because he had established contact with the Regency Council and opposed the repression of the Polish population living in war-affected territories. From 1918, Rozwadowski served in the Polish Army. He was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Army, and later Commander-in-Chief of Polish Forces in Eastern Galicia and commander of the “East” Army.
He made a significant contribution to the Polish victory in the Polish-Ukrainian War. In 1919–1920, he was head of the Polish Military Mission in Paris. In this role, he took part in the conference in Spa in July 1920, where he was the only Polish representative to officially protest against the conference’s provisions. He returned to Poland at a critical moment in the war against the Bolsheviks, when the Red Army was advancing towards Warsaw. He was summoned to the capital, where on 22 July 1920 he was once again appointed Chief of the General Staff. He held this position throughout the Battle of Warsaw, serving as one of the Polish commanders-in-chief in the battle.
Some historians identified Rozwadowski as the main architect of the Polish victory in the Battle of Warsaw. His actual role was diminished in later years. From 1921 to 1926, Rozwadowski successively served as Inspector General of Mounted Forces and Inspector General of Cavalry. He helped reorganise the Polish cavalry. On 12 May 1926, following the outbreak of the May Coup, he assumed command of the legitimate government forces. After President Stanisław Wojciechowski resigned and a ceasefire was declared, Rozwadowski and a group of officers commanding the government forces during the coup were arrested and imprisoned. He was held in a cell with poor living conditions.
The Sanacja authorities delayed presenting Rozwadowski with an indictment for months. In October 1926, the Military District Court ruled that, in the absence of evidence, there was no reason to keep him in pre-trial detention; however, due to political pressure, the general was not released. At the same time, a campaign aimed at discrediting Rozwadowski was organised in the press. On 30 April 1927, the general was retired. In the face of a growing public petition campaign in defence of the imprisoned officers, Rozwadowski was released on 18 May 1927, with numerous legal violations committed in the process. The authorities persistently postponed the date of the trial that was to be held against him. Imprisonment caused the general’s health to deteriorate significantly. He died in Warsaw on 18 October 1928. In accordance with his last wishes, he was buried at the Cemetery of the Defenders of Lviv, among the graves of his subordinates.
After World War II, when the cemetery was vandalised by the authorities of the Ukrainian SSR, the general’s remains were moved. Because direct witnesses died and the Polish authorities showed no interest during the Polish People’s Republic period, the circumstances and location of the burial of these remains remain unknown.
Source: based on a study by historia.org.pl.