The streets are located in the south-eastern part of Bolesławiec, in the vicinity of Kresów II RP, Bronisława Kosiby and Zielona streets. The naming of the newly created streets is connected with the expansion of a housing estate and the need to assign street numbers to the properties that have been built.
Justification for the resolution concerning Sybiraków Street
The newly created street is located in the south-eastern part of Bolesławiec, in the vicinity of Kresów II RP, Bronisława Kosiby and Zielona streets, within precinct no. 0014 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 in perpetual usufruct by a legal person.
Under the local spatial development plan for Bolesławiec, the aforementioned plots are designated for public roads—access streets (plan symbol D-KDD). The proposal to name the newly created street is connected with the expansion of a 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 deported and forcibly settled in Siberia (“sent to Siberia”), many of whom never returned to Poland.
Poles first found themselves in Siberia as prisoners of war in the first half of the 17th century. However, the proper history of Polish Sybiraks begins after the defeat of the Bar Confederates in 1768.
Further waves of deportations, resulting from participation in conspiracies, uprisings and underground activities, took place in the 1830s and 1840s. The largest 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 people accompanying them were deported at that time. In the final 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 deportees from Europe to eastern Siberia was established, passing through Kazan, Orenburg and Tobolsk and divided into 61 stages. All those sentenced to hard labour, as well as people sentenced to lifelong or long-term settlement, had to walk in chains. Daily marching distances ranged from 21 to 42 kilometres.
In the USSR, Siberia continued to be a centre of deportation; among other things, the Gulag camp system, administered by the Main Administration of Camps, was established there. After the USSR invaded Poland, hundreds of thousands of Polish residents of the Borderlands were resettled, some to Siberia and others to Kazakhstan.
From 17 September 1939 to 1956, between 1.3 and 1.5 million Poles were resettled deep into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics—mainly to Siberia and Kazakhstan. The politically motivated deportations aimed to exterminate Polish citizens while simultaneously exploiting them as labourers in the most arduous work. In most cases, the deportations followed a similar scenario. First, a list of people to be deported was prepared; then, usually at night, they were dragged from their homes by force and taken to the nearest railway station. Future deportees 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. People were transported in cattle cars, sometimes with as many as 50 people in each. 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 train stops.
Upon arrival, they were most often assigned to forced labour in mining, forestry or agriculture. Everyone aged between 16 and 60 had to work, regardless of sex. However, even nine-year-old children 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 agreement was signed on the repatriation from the USSR of Poles 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 deportations 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 directed straight to the so-called Recovered Territories. Returning deportees 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 at that time. In documents from the 1940s and 1950s, these numbers were deliberately omitted. 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 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 created street is located in the south-eastern part of Bolesławiec, in the vicinity of Kresów II RP, Bronisława Kosiby and Zielona streets, within precinct no. 0014 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 precinct no. 0014 of Bolesławiec, owned by the Municipality of Bolesławiec and private individuals, and held in perpetual usufruct by a legal person.
Under the local spatial development plan for Bolesławiec, the aforementioned plots are designated for public roads—access streets (plan symbol D-KDD). The proposal to name the newly created street is connected with the expansion of a 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 descended from Jan Haller, the owner of Poland’s first printing house in the 16th century. His grandfather had been a captain in the November Uprising, while his father had taken part in the January Uprising. The future commander of the Blue Army spent his childhood at 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 service in the Austro-Hungarian army in 1895 with the rank of second lieutenant. In 1908, he left the army with the rank of captain, after which he 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 Polish scouting.
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 Legion Regiment with the rank of colonel. His units became known, among other things, for 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 Brigade of the Legions, 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 appointment.
The Corps was 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 among prisoners of war and the Polish diaspora 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 battles against the Germans in the Vosges and Champagne. When the Blue Army was transferred to Poland in spring 1919, it numbered approximately 68,000 soldiers. Haller took command of the Pomeranian Front and, in this role, performed the symbolic Wedding of Poland to the Baltic Sea in February 1920. During the war with 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 National Unity Union. In May 1926, Haller condemned Piłsudski’s coup and was placed in retirement. 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 Great Britain, 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 created street is located in the south-eastern part of Bolesławiec, in the vicinity of Kresów II RP, Bronisława Kosiby and Zielona streets, within precinct no. 0014 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 in perpetual usufruct by a legal person. Under the local spatial development plan for Bolesławiec, the aforementioned plots are designated for public roads—access streets (plan symbol D-KDD). The proposal to name the newly created street is connected with the expansion of a 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 inevitable defeat. To a great extent, it was his work, optimism and excellent cooperation with the Commander-in-Chief that led to the great victory in the Battle of Warsaw. He therefore 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.
Then, following family tradition, he continued his education at the Military Cavalry Cadet School, which he completed 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 in Jarosław. Rozwadowski specialised in artillery, but horses and cavalry were his passion. He completed his studies at the elite Higher War School in Vienna with distinction in 1891.
From 1896, he served as military attaché in Bucharest, where he earned the sincere 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, as he was also an inventor. He invented an artillery sighting device and the 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 XII 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 moving barrage, consisting of shifting the artillery fire line just ahead of the attacking infantry. Close cooperation between the artillery and infantry enabled the capture of Russian positions and forced the enemy to retreat.
In 1916, the Austro-Hungarian military authorities placed Rozwadowski in retirement because he had established contact with the Regency Council and opposed the repression of the Polish population living in war-affected areas. From 1918, Rozwadowski served in the Polish Army. He was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Army, and subsequently 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 Chief 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 the critical moment of the war with 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 commanders of the Polish side.
Some historians identified Rozwadowski as the principal 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 Cavalry and Inspector General of the Cavalry. He participated in the reorganisation of the Polish cavalry. On 12 May 1926, following the outbreak of the May Coup, he took command of the lawful 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 for months presenting Rozwadowski with an indictment. In October 1926, the Military District Court ruled that, in the absence of evidence, there was no reason to maintain pre-trial detention; however, due to political pressure, the general was not released. At the same time, a campaign was organised in the press to discredit Rozwadowski. On 30 April 1927, the general was placed in retirement. In the face of a growing petition campaign in society in defence of the imprisoned officers, Rozwadowski was released on 18 May 1927, with numerous legal irregularities 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 final 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 being devastated 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 period of the Polish People’s Republic, the circumstances and burial place of these remains remain unknown.
Source: based on a study by historia.org.pl.