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Poland From Medieval Times to World War I
From the days of the earliest kings, the defense of
Polish
soil demanded constant vigilance against Mongol, Tatar,
and,
later, German encroachment. In the 1400s, the first
century of
Poland's union with Lithuania, Polish soldiers often
battled the
Teutonic Knights (see Glossary),
who threatened the union from
their stronghold along the Baltic seacoast
(see
The Polish-Lithuanian Union
, ch. 1). Poland was regarded as the outer
bastion of Western Europe, and the Poles, led by an
aristocratic
military caste, accepted the mission to defend Western
civilization against Eastern intrusions. Jan Sobieski's
defeat of
the Turks at Vienna in 1683, the last great military
victory of
the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, was a turning point in
the
centuries-long struggle against westward expansion of the
Ottoman
Empire.
By 1725, however, Peter the Great had established a
strong,
unified Russian Empire that began to compete with the
Ottoman
Turks for dominance of the Slavic lands between them. At
the same
time, internal political decay weakened the
Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth, and Poland fell permanently behind Russia as
a
military power
(see Decay of the Commonwealth
, ch. 1). In
the
eighteenth century, Russia assumed the role of protector
of
Poland, first against Sweden and then against Prussia. In
this
period, the national army serving the Polish king
degenerated
from its previously honored position. Manpower and royal
prestige
dwindled as local landlords raised their own private
armies.
Under these conditions, Poland lacked the military
strength to
resist the three partitions imposed by Austria, Prussia,
and
Russia between 1772 and 1795. The courageous but hopeless
campaign of Tadeusz Kosciuszko's insurgent army against
the
Russian Army in 1794 marked the final chapter in that era
of
Polish independence. By 1795, Poland had been erased from
the map
(see
The Three Partitions, 1764-95
, ch. 1).
Although the army could not prevent the final partition
of
the country, its veterans and graduates of the military
college
fought alongside the armies of Napoleon in his campaigns
against
Austria, Prussia, and Russia. Many Poles also served in
the army
of Congress Poland after 1815
(see The Napoleonic Period
, ch. 1).
Józef Poniatowski, nephew of the last Polish king,
distinguished
himself in Napoleon's 1809 campaign against Austria. The
Polish
Legion participated in Napoleon's invasion of Russia in
1812.
In the nineteenth century, Polish soldiers and officers
served in the armies of Russia, Prussia (Germany), or
Austria,
depending on which power occupied their region. In this
period,
the practices of the partitioning powers exerted great
influence
on Polish military thought. Poles rose to high command
positions,
particularly in Austrian service. Poles fought on both
sides
during World War I, and all three occupying powers exerted
great
efforts to maintain the loyalty of the Poles in their
jurisdictions. A Polish army was formed in France to help
protect
that country from the Central Powers, whereas Józef
Pilsudski
raised his Polish Legion to fight against Russia (and,
more
incidentally, for Austria) in the hope of eventually
regaining
Poland's independence from Russia. Much of the fighting on
the
eastern front in World War I took place on the territory
of the
former Polish Republic. Some 2 million Polish soldiers
fought
with the armies of the three occupying powers, and 450,000
Poles
died in the war.
Data as of October 1992
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