Youth is the future and great hope of Poland. In the past young Poles proved it many times with their knowledge, hard work, willingness to change, but also with their sacrifice and fight against the enemy. Such was the case in 1918 in Lvov, when the city was liberated by the Eaglets. To this day, the Eaglets of Lwow are a symbol of great love for the homeland and readiness for supreme sacrifice. In 1918, when Ukraine planned to incorporate Lviv into its territory, in defiance of the historic Polish character of the city, the students took up arms and were later called the 'Eaglets of Lviv'. On November 1, 1918 an uprising broke out in the home town of Aleksander Fredro, Jan Długosz and Tadeusz Bor-Komorowski. It was not until several days later that the Polish army, reinforced among others by the Przemysl Eaglets, arrived to relieve the city. Historians believe that it lasted until 22 November. More than six thousand Poles took part in the three-week fighting. Almost half were young people, and the youngest participant in the fighting was nine years old. More than four hundred people died, including almost two hundred pupils and students. The bodies of the dead were laid to rest at the Cemetery of the Defenders of Lwow in 1922. This uprising of young Poles was not isolated. Less known but extremely dramatic and moving is the story of the Defenders of Przemysl. Simultaneously with fighting for Lvov there were also armed clashes for Przemysl in which students took up arms, often paying the highest price of their lives for the freedom of their homeland.
"On the 100th anniversary of Poland's restoration of independence, the Sejm of the Republic of Poland pays tribute to the steadfast defenders of Lviv, fighting for the reborn Homeland," states a resolution commemorating the 100th anniversary of the defense of Lviv, which the Sejm adopted by acclamation on Friday. The document recalls that it is 100 years since the heroic, victorious struggle of the Polish defenders of Lviv, who wanted the city to return to the reborn Republic.
"We pay special remembrance to the minor defenders, called in our tradition the Eaglets of Lviv, who, in the first period of fighting, made a significant contribution to keeping the city in Polish hands, despite the vast superiority of the enemy. A memento of those events is the cemetery of the Lviv Eaglets, which to this day is a symbol of sacrifice on the altar of the Fatherland and occupies an important place in Polish historical tradition," - it stressed. The resolution also noted the importance of good Polish-Ukrainian relations for peace and security in Europe.
A fragment of the painting "Orlęta Lwowskie" by Stanisław Kaczor Batowski from 1936.
Monument to the Eaglets of Przemyśl
