Marek Kuchciński, Speaker of the Sejm
In commemorating the 100th anniversary of Poland's rebirth and the contribution of the inhabitants of the Przemyśl area to this great act of independence, it is impossible to avoid several reflexions and comparisons between the period before and after the First World War. The Great War caused enormous geopolitical changes. The emergence of many nation-states in our part of Europe brought a new quality to socio-political life. The following questions arise: how these changes influenced the development of the Przemyśl area and Przemysl itself, what were their causes and effects, what influence did they have on the generational processes of transformation, what depended on nations and what was the work of individuals and who should be remembered. These questions may refer not only to history, but also to people, the formation of nations, sustainable development, cultural heritage, that is to say, to everything we deal with in the spirit of the anniversary.
The Second Polish Republic, like hardly any other state in Europe, was subject to insults (the famous "bastard child of the Versailles Treaty" - Molotov - Molotov, "economic impossibility" - Keynes, "defect of history" - Lloyd George, for the record that the current insulting of Poles by foreigners is nothing new) and policies serving the annihilation of our homeland. Shaping its independent existence in very difficult external and internal conditions, it was nevertheless very successful. After the times of partitions, economic and social backwardness, the state policy brought changes for the better to the citizens. It relieved overpopulation in the countryside and reduced unemployment in the cities. It introduced parliamentary democracy, women's suffrage, free education and legislation very beneficial to workers. Social advancement was made possible for broad social strata, which resulted in the education of hundreds of thousands of high-class specialists and millions of citizens aware of their rights and duties.
Identification with one's own country, together with a sense of strength derived from national community, became the factors that determined our national survival in the struggle against the greatest demons of the 20th century. - with nationalism and internationalist socialism.
Looking deeper into the history of the Przemyśl region, we sometimes wonder whether, from the perspective of many generations, we can see in this history a universal image of today's transformations. Can we read the forebodings of future issues in the seemingly unhurried existence of residents who like peace and quiet, seemingly absorbed in their own affairs, seemingly asleep in stability and uninterested in the changing world? How to look at Przemysl from this perspective? This "peaceful existence" can easily deceive an inattentive observer. Over the decades the inhabitants of the Przemyśl land have given the evidence of their patriotism, responsibility, sacrifice, ability to cooperate, heroism, religiousness, attachment to tradition and many other values which turned out to be invaluable both 100 years ago during the defence of Przemyśl and in the period of World War II and later - in the times of communism. These values are the foundations on which the contemporary Republic of Poland can, and even should, build. And one should always remember that such foundations are built by concrete people. The land of Przemysl, which used to give shelter to kings, insurgents, thinkers and ordinary citizens, could be a rock thanks to this strong foundation. Although it experienced periods of splendor, as in the times of the last Jagiellons, it also had long years of stagnation.
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Rev. Benedict Chmielowski, author of the first Polish universal encyclopedia New Athens, wrote that Przemyśl already existed in 758 (1260 years ago!): "PRZEMYSŁAW I, or LESZEK I, from the Goldsmith's Condition Faber Fortunae of the Poles, with gilded stumps of Hungarians and Moravians, did not so much astonish as frighten and repel Poland. He lived around 760 and founded Przemyśl under his own name". This ruler is also noted by Ignacy Krasicki in his two-volume Collection of Necessary Information. The town or the grad, as they called Przemyśl in the times of the chronicler Nestor, was the seat of the Lędzians - Lechites, which was occupied by the Ruthenian duke Włodzimierz in 881, and which in turn was recaptured by Bolesław Chrobry, probably during his victorious expedition to Kiev. In the first half of the 14th century the castle of Przemysl, built to defend the south-eastern borderlands of Poland, was one of the castles erected by Casimir the Great.
Przemyśl was the seat of the starosty and diocese. In the cathedral, in today's Drohojowski's chapel, sejmiks of nobility took place (such were the customs), during which knights took decisions important for local affairs. Among the governors it is worth mentioning Piotr Kmita and Stanisław August Poniatowski - later king of Poland.
The town was the capital of the Przemysl Land, where in the First Polish Republic general sessions of the Sejmiks of the Ruthenian Voivodeship were held in Sądowa Wisznia. The Przemysl Land at that time was vast, stretching from Stryj to Świlcza outside Rzeszów and from the Słonne Mountains to Tarnogród. It included the districts of Przemyśl, Jarosław, Leżajsk, Łańcut, Rzeszów, Mościski, Przeworsk, Sambork, Drohobycz, Tyczyn, and Stryj. Unfortunately, after World War II, as a result of the establishment of borders between the Polish People's Republic and the USSR, the historic land of Przemysl was divided. Today one part is in Poland, the other in Ukraine.
Przemyśl remembers its splendor from the Austro-Hungarian times. At that time it was one of the biggest fortresses with a garrison of over 100 thousand soldiers of almost all nationalities of the multi-ethnic empire.
Many prominent and well-known figures were connected with Przemyśl and the Przemyśl area: Stanisław Orzechowski, a writer; Ignacy Krasicki, a canon (later bishop of Warmia), the parish priest of the Przemyśl cathedral and the author of Monachomachia; Andrzej Maksymilian Fredro, the Marshal of the Sejm, a Baroque writer called the Polish Tacitus, the founder of the monastery in Kalwaria Pacławska, as well as his distant cousin, the poet Aleksander Fredro of Rudki; Mikołaj Sęp-Szarzyński, one of the most outstanding Polish poets. Among the distinguished persons are also the clergy: St. Joseph Pelczar (Bishop of Przemyśl at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart and of the Przemyśl Archdiocesan Museum), Blessed Father Jan Balicki, Cardinal Adam Stefan Sapieha of Krasiczyn, and Archbishop Ignacy Tokarczuk - our "spokesman of the nation fighting for its sovereignty and the steadfast bishop", whom, according to the decision of the Sejm, we remember in a special way this year, on the 100th anniversary of his birth. This circle of eminent persons is widened by: Cardinal's nephew Leon Sapieha from Krasiczyn - landowner, member of the Sejm of the Second Republic, soldier in the Polish-Bolshevik War and the Home Army, buried in the cemetery in Łętownia near Przemyśl; Jan Gwalbert Pawlikowski from Medyka - creator of ecology, first publisher of Słowacki's Król-Ducha; Jan Szczepanik - brilliant inventor from Rudnik near Mościsko; Henryk Jordan - physician, creator of gardens for children and young people, named after him as "Jordanskie". In addition, Drohobych-born socialist, legionary and lawyer Herman Lieberman, the initiator of the construction of the Workers' House; the remarkable Tarnawski family: Apolinary - doctor and creator of the spa in Kosovo in Pokucie (Hutsul), Leonard - January Uprising insurgent, lawyer, member of the Legislative Sejm, co-founder of the Society of Friends of Science and the Dramatic Society "Fredreum", his son Wladyslaw - English scholar, translator of Shakespeare, and at the same time founder of the first think tank - the Committee of the Eastern Territories, residing at ul. Fredreum", his son Wladyslaw - an English scholar, translator of Shakespeare and, at the same time, founder of the first think tank - Committee of Eastern Territories, residing at 4 Grodzka Street (in a beautiful building with a bay window and double coat of arms of Lithuania and the Crown); Karol Duldig - one of the greatest Australian artists, sculptor and founder of the Australian Academy of Arts; Mojżesz Schorr - senator of the Second Polish Republic, historian and orientalist; Zbigniew Brzeziński - American political scientist and diplomat of Polish descent, advisor to U.S. presidents; Andrzej Gawroński - linguist and polyglot (he knew 140 languages!), defender of Lvov in 1918; Jerzy Grotowski - theater reformer, also lived in Grodzka Street; Przemyslaw Bystrzycki - writer, secret agent; Ryszard Siwiec - Home Army soldier, heroic martyr for freedom of Czechoslovakia in 1968.
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In the past period, not only Przemyśl gathered elites, not only it was a melting pot of exchange of ideas. The heritage of generations and the national identity were built in many other cities and towns of the Przemyśl area, as well as in the surrounding villages which were then inhabited by an overwhelming majority of Poles.
Many cultural, educational, and politically oriented initiatives were born in the smaller towns. Let us recall those located to the east of Przemyśl. It is difficult not to mention the Jesuit Teaching and Educational Institute in Chyrów, which was famous throughout Europe at the time. Distinguished educators taught there. The institution boasted a rich library, its own theater and well-equipped classrooms. It was attended by young people from different social classes, which brought excellent results. Graduates of the school included: Jan Brzechwa, Kazimierz Wierzyński, Józef Garliński, Kazimierz Junosza-Stępowski, Adam Styka, Mieczysław Orłowicz, General Roman Abraham or Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski.
Rudki, a small but significant town, was owned by the Fredro family until the outbreak of World War II. Aleksander Fredro is buried there.
It is associated not only with Bruno Schulz and Borysław, where Jan Zeh and Ignacy Łukasiewicz lit the first kerosene lamp in the middle of the 19th century, but also with leading Viennese politicians such as prime minister Kazimierz Badeni and deputy Eustachy Sanguszko, as well as artists Artur Grottger, Maurice and Leopold Gottlieb, and military men such as general Stanisław Maczek and the legendary white courier Tadeusz Chciuk-Celt. Ivan Franko, one of the most outstanding representatives of Ukrainian literature, was also connected with Drohobych.
Right next to Drohobych there is Truskawiec - one of the most famous and fastest developing health resorts of the 2nd Republic of Poland (286 newly opened hotels and guesthouses in the 20-year period!). It is here that Kazimierz Pelczar, the founder of the first Polish oncology center, was born.
In Medyka, the extraordinary nest of the extraordinary Pawlikowski family, a little-known fact, there was an underground printing house in the 19th century, which, when it was revealed, forced the family of the present-day Czech conservative political scientist Alexander Tomský to leave Galicia.
In turn, in the arboretum in Bolestraszyce near Przemyśl (established in the 1970s by Prof. Jerzy Piórecki) there is still the manor house of Piotr Michałowski, an outstanding painter who was in charge of supplying armaments to the insurgents during the November Uprising.
Going back to the 17th century, it is worth remembering that the daughter of Samborsk starost George Mniszch became the wife of Tsar Dmitri. These were the only two years in Russian history when Poles ruled in Kremlin (after the earlier victory in the Battle of Klushino). Tsar Vasily Shuisky and his brothers paid homage to King Sigismund III in Warsaw, as the plaque on Sigismund's column reminds us. No one later repeated this feat.
And so, every town situated in the land of Przemyśl - its axis is the San River - there is a succession and succession of prominent figures who have had a significant impact on the life of our state and nation, and even the world. What would our reality be like without Ignacy Lukasiewicz's idea of extracting and using oil? Or what would our life be like without television or color film and photography, invented by Jan Szczepanik from Rudniki near Mościska, and dozens of his other inventions, such as the bulletproof vest?
Finally, it is a city and a land where different nations lived side by side for centuries, where different churches were active. Sometimes we may encounter the opinion about our pages that they are a melting pot of nations. This is a misleading notion, more fitting to the United States as a melting pot of various ethnic groups. In the land of Przemyśl and in the former Eastern Borderlands, nations (nations) functioned both independently and interdependently, but in a sovereign, though often competitive, manner. One can rather assume that our part of Europe was more of a "link of history" where the influences of East and West intermingled. For our status and character were shaped by the golden ages of the First Republic, which conducted its policy "between the seas" with impressive vigor. And the characteristic that has characterized us since that time - tolerance growing out of the libertarian and republican traditions - can best ensure the coexistence of different cultures in one territory. No fascism, no communism, no ethnic feuds.
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"It's to keep him warm." - These simple words said by Fr Jan Balicki, today a blessed of the Catholic Church, to a seminarian who asked him why he gave his sweater to a poor person, aptly characterize many similar attitudes. People like Fr Jan Balicki have shaped Przemysl and the people of Przemysl for centuries.
In the history of the city, in its proud and moving past, we can find many heroic uprisings, armed speeches, political declarations and self-sacrificing deeds. They led to regaining and maintaining the independence. It was here, in Przemyśl, on November 11, 1918, that the first victorious battle of the Polish arms of the Second Republic took place. However, if we want to understand our past also through the attitudes and values of people, through how they cherished in themselves and in others what was precious more than what was valued, then perhaps it is worth listening to the simple words of Fr Balicki and warm ourselves with his symbolic sweater. Fr. John was and remained a symbol of the changes leading to the regaining of independence and the preservation of humanity in those difficult times. Ordinary people remember that, for generations they have been praying at his grave in the main cemetery of Przemysl. That is where most candles are lit.
Blessed Father Jan Balicki was born on January 25, 1869 in Staromieście near Rzeszów. If we tried to look at Przemysl through the eyes of young Jan, we would see a militarized city. Although thriving economically, it had a ragged soul - a soul hidden within the walls of old buildings, churches, Orthodox churches and synagogues. This soul was also taken care of by St. bishop Józef Sebastian Pelczar.
Hundreds of thousands of Polish soldiers served in the Russian and Austro-Hungarian ranks and in the Przemyśl fortress. The invading armies took thousands of people mainly from the countryside. Thus they took away many families' dreams of a future. The Guardians of Souls understood this and brought hope and a sense of stability to the people.
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The Austrians recognized the military significance of Przemyśl's location after the 1809 expedition of the Duchy of Warsaw troops under Prince Poniatowski into Galicia. Ten years later, the city began to be encircled.
It was nothing new in the history of the town. According to sources, fortified walls protected Przemyśl at least since the 14th century. The Przemyśl Gate in the valleys of the San and Wiar rivers was for centuries a natural passage from the Sandomierz Basin to the Przemyskie Foothills, leading south through the trans-European chain of the Carpathians. It was a trade route connecting Eastern and Western Europe. In less peaceful times large armies marched along this route.
Three years before the November Uprising an Austrian permanent garrison was stationed in Przemyśl, and in the second half of the 19th century the Przemyśl "fortified camp" was transformed into a strategic and operational base for the eastern frontier of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The wreath of Przemysl's hills consisted of a dozen or so main forts and dozens of auxiliary ones.
At the beginning of the 20th century, this plan evolved into the powerful fortified Dniester-San line. At the beginning of the Great War, Przemyśl was designated as the defense center for this line.
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Throughout the 19th century, and especially the last quarter of the century, the city continued to expand. Its population exceeded 50,000 several times and reached a similar number in the 1930s, to exceed 68,000 in 1938, which is the same as today. Przemyśl was quickly becoming a military town. In the Second Republic, it was the seat of the military command of the X Corps District, which covered nearly 10% of the country's territory and nearly 3.5 million people. For its military and civilian needs (this was taken care of by successive mayors: Walery Waygart, Aleksander Dworski and Franciszek Doliński) 60 developing industrial plants were working, employing almost 5 thousand workers. In the last decade of the 19th century almost 1400 new houses were built. The army also forced infrastructural investments: electrification, telephonization, and above all, construction of roads and waterworks, indispensable in a modern city.
Hungarians still remember the service of their compatriots and fighting for Przemysl. In Budapest they commemorated the fallen with an impressive monument with the name of our city, erected in the very center of the capital (near the monument of General Józef Bem, the Hungarian hero of the times of the Spring of Nations). During World War I, the grandparents of Jozef Antall, former prime minister, and Laszlá Kövér, current head of the Hungarian National Assembly, served in the fortress. Unveiled in 2016 on Przemysl's Dominikansky Square, the new monuments to a Hungarian hussar and a Belininka lancer are highly symbolic in their meaning. Efforts are also underway to add to this group the famous Czech telegraphist Vladimír Sýkora, whose diaries from those times have been preserved in the Czech archives. And if we were to include a fellow Slovak, another symbol would be created - a common memorial for the entire Visegrad Group. And such historical policy should be conducted by our countries. The authorities of Przemyśl took care of the creation of this symbol already in advance, naming one of the squares of Przemyśl the Visegrad Square, the name of which was officially announced during the meeting of the presidents of the V4 parliaments in 2017.
War has often thwarted these age-old alliances. The Polish-Hungarian memory today, however, recalls other facts, which in principle in each century confirm the close ties between the two nations. Reaching back, for example, to the 19th century, It is worth recalling General Józef Bem and General Józef Wysocki as well as over 1.5 thousand Polish volunteers who took part in the Hungarian Spring of Nations - many of them (several hundred, including middle school students!), who enlisted in the Polish Legion, came from the Przemyśl area.Many of them (several hundred, including high school students!), who enlisted in the Polish Legion came from the Przemyśl area, including Colonel Leon Czechowski, immortalized in Wyspiański's November Night and January Uprising (he has two places of remembrance in Jarosław: a beautiful tombstone in the Old Cemetery and the wooden Szekler Column - Kopijnik, near the former synagogue). They were mentioned by the prominent Hungarian historian and diplomat István Kovács in his recently published biographical dictionary of the Polish participants in the Hungarian Spring. Among the representatives of subsequent generations, let us mention first of all - on the Hungarian side - Geza Gyóni, a sapper from the Przemyśl fortress, an outstanding poet of his time and nation, a "prisoner of poetry", who "counted his days / in the land of the Lechites / faithfully waiting / for merrier dawns", and Ferenc Molnár, the author of Chłopcy z Plac Broni (Boys from the Bronze Square), and a military correspondent from Przemyśl, among other places. It is also worth remembering the service of over a hundred Hungarians in the Second Brigade of the Polish Legions, breaking through the Carpathian Mountains to Poland during World War I. The memory of helping the Hungarians is even more vivid. Even more vivid is the memory of the Hungarian assistance (in the form of millions of rounds of ammunition) given to the Polish army fighting against the Bolsheviks in 1920; without this support the outcome of the war could have been completely different. This help came at a dramatic time for the Hungarians, when by the terms of the treaty signed at the Palace of Trianon in Versailles they were deprived of 2/3 of their territory, and 1/3 of their nation was left outside their own state. And it must be remembered that the planned Hungarian aid was much bigger, including weapons and military units; however it was stopped by other countries, reluctant towards the reborn Poland and sympathetic to the Bolshevik Revolution.
The symbol of Polish-Hungarian cooperation in the next generation (already during World War II) was the cooperation of Józef Antall and Henryk Sławik - heroes of three nations (Polish, Hungarian and Jewish), who during the occupation saved 30 thousand (!) Polish citizens, including 5 thousand Jews. Henryk Sławik was doomed to oblivion in Poland practically until the second decade of the present century, when - mainly thanks to the efforts of Mr. and Mrs. Krystyna and Mr. Grzegorz Łubczyk - publications appeared on his subject and we unveiled twin monuments (in Warsaw in 2016 and a year later in Budapest) to both heroes in the form of Antall and Sławik benches.
We also remember the uprisings in June and October 1956 in both countries, which were great symbols of solidarity. At that time, from Przemyśl to Szczecin, blood was donated for the insurgents. The most recent commemoration of another symbolic figure for Polish-Hungarian cooperation is the Polish Wacław Felczak Institute, a famous courier for the Polish government in exile, established in 2018 (in Hungary, the Institute's counterpart is the W. Felczak Foundation).
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While writing about the phenomenon of Przemyśl, it is worth mentioning some of the institutions that enriched the social and cultural life of its residents, particularly in the 19th century. It was then, in 1869, that the Aleksander Fredro Dramatic Society "Fredreum" was founded (being the oldest institution of its kind in Poland) - an incessantly operating amateur theater which had its seat at the Kazimierzowski Castle in Przemyśl.
The beginning of the Music Society was in November 1865. The first presidents of the Board were Aleksander Dworski and Walery Waygart. One of the important representatives of the world of music in Przemyśl was also Artur Malawski (born in 1904 in Władycze Street). Today, the Podkarpacka Philharmonic and the Complex of State Music Schools in Przemyśl bear his name.
The intellectual activity of inhabitants of przemyśl also found its expression in the Society of Friends of Science established in February 1909. The Society of the Friends of Science (Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Nauk) was established in February 1909. The Society was established on the initiative of, among others, the brothers Kazimierz Maria and Tadeusz Osiński, who were also among the founders of the National Museum of the Przemysl Region, and whose family house stands on Kmity Street.
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The history of Przemysl, crushed by the military burden of the Austro-Hungarian army and economically rich but without a bright future, is now behind us. In 1918, when Poland regained its independence, Przemysl was among the first to fight. Captain Jozef Panaś fueled the fighting spirit. This time against the Ukrainians. The people of Przemysl fought from the beginning of November 1918 for bridges over the San River, for districts, they made counterattacks from Zasan to the right side of the city. On November 11, Przemyśl was free! But the Poles continued to fight in Nizankowice and other localities. Representatives of all generations took part in the fight, including the Eaglets - students of the Przemyśl grammar schools (those who died were buried in the large symbolic grave of the Eaglets in the main cemetery). This would not have been possible, however, if the foundation of values for the emerging national and supranational community had not been built over the generations. For Przemyśl, like many similar cities of the Republic of Poland, was a city of Poles of various religions and nationalities, and the identity of the whole Przemyśl land was created not only by Poles, but also Jews, Ruthenians, Ukrainians, Hungarians, Austrians, Czechs, Germans and Armenians. This diversity and the layering of the heritage of generations and cultures can be seen for example in the architecture of the cathedral in Przemyśl. In its present form it bears traces of Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo and later styles. It stands on the foundations of earlier temples - Romanesque and possibly also early Romanesque from the times of Great Moravia and the Prague bishopric. Today Przemyśl is the seat of the Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church and of the Greek Catholic Church.
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From the dramatic times of the Second World War and the following decades of Przemyśl's existence, we can recall almost symbolic figures, confirming the personalistic thesis that man is a value, and the proof of this is the love of freedom. An example of this can be the attitude of twenty-year-old Stefania Podgórska, who lived on Tatarska Street (today, she has been awarded the medal "Righteous Among the Nations"). During the German occupation, she risked her life to hide 13 Jewish inhabitants of Przemyśl in her family house (in a hiding place measuring 8 m²).
It is also worth mentioning many military men, among them the ancestors of the current Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobra. His great-grandfather, Colonel Władysław Kornicki, was in the 1920s the chief of technical troops in the X Corps District Command in Przemyśl and a lecturer at the Lviv Polytechnic (he was murdered by the Soviets, his name is on the so-called Ukrainian Katyn list). His grandfather, Ryszard Kornicki, lived on Waygarta Street. During the occupation he headed the counterintelligence of the AK in the Przemyśl district, then became head of the WiN Inspectorate.
The number of families (often of many generations) involved in the independence movement was very large in the Przemyśl area. Let us remind some more members of the underground movement. The first one is the commander of Rzeszow District of WiN Major Władysław Koba, whose funeral took place only in 2016. Above all, however, we should mention the amazing, heroic Second Lieutenant Alicja Wnorowska of the Home Army Intelligence Brigades (the name says it all!), and later WiN, who lived on Matejki Street. She was arrested when she was 8 months pregnant and gave birth to her son Stanislaw (who became a Przemyśl councilman in the 1990s) on death row. Only in 2018. The Sejm passed a law ensuring children born in communist prisons (there were 40 of them) the right to compensation. It is also symbolic that this law was "piloted" in the Sejm by Przemysl MP Andrzej Matusiewicz, an experienced lawyer and defender in political trials from the communist era.
We will always remember Ms. Alicja from the antique shop where she worked in the 1970s, in the arcades of the Przemysl market square. We used to come there after school, looking for books that would help in our youthful search for heroes and their adventures. And sometimes, "quite by accident", on a long, old bookstore counter, but close at hand, as it were, an old novel by Ferdynand Ossendowski (!), Paweł Jasienica, a report by Melchior Wańkowicz or a well-preserved pre-war biography would appear. At the time, it seemed to us that these were just ordinary cases, but fascinating, because the shelves of an antiquarian bookshop seemed like a wonderland. Today we know that behind the kindness of Alicja, our next-door neighbor, there was a natural impulse to pass on to the next generation signs, symbols, and sources that are important to every young person.
Another example is the Mech family from Żurawica. Many of its members fought in the underground, first against the Germans and later against the Soviets. The grave of Szymon Mech, commander of Kedyw in Zurawica, who was denounced in the last days of the German occupation, has not been found to this day. His daughter Czesława "Niezapominajka" was a Home Army liaison officer. His son Jan was decorated with the Golden Cross of Merit by the President of Poland Lech Kaczynski for his service in WiN.
We remember (yes, we still remember, although 50 years have passed!) the unbelievably dramatic act of Ryszard Siwiec, who - crossing the limits of heroism and at the same time fully consciously - in protest against the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, immolated himself in front of tens of thousands of people on 8 September 1968 (during the national harvest festival in the stadium in Warsaw). To this day, this act is also remembered in Prague, and the Thinker, to whom a monument was erected there, has become, together with the Czechs Jan Palach and Jan Zajíc and the Hungarians Sándor Bauer and Márton Moyses, a symbol of the fight for freedom. They all chose death because they believed that in the struggle for freedom no sacrifice is too great, and only such radical protest can shake up society in defense of solidarity and spur people to action. Richard's family also became involved in the changes that culminated in the great Solidarity movement 20 years later. Let's take note of the student protests that took place a few months earlier, mainly in the universities of the biggest Polish cities, which also had their accent in Przemysl. They were formed by high school students for whom March '68 was a spark to manifest their opposition to communist power and unjust rule. Actions and protests were organized by, among others: Damian Zegarski, a student of mechanical engineering school, the initiator of various forms of protests, also at the Adam Mickiewicz monument in the Przemysl market square; Ryszard Góral, today a legal advisor, but in those days an activist of an independent youth organization emphasizing the Polish identity of Przemyśl, later associated with the underground Solidarity; or the youngest organizer of the student uprising in 1968. He was one of the founders of paratheatre in Poland in the student movement of the 1970s (at the Catholic University of Lublin) and an activist of the "Solidarity" movement in Kujawy, currently a poet, columnist, and ecologist. The aforementioned Adam Mickiewicz monument in Przemyśl remained for many years a cult place for various independent initiatives.
The already mentioned Matejki street is also an interesting example of the concentration of meanings and symbols from the history of the city recorded in the lives of its inhabitants. At its top, just below the castle, stands a lonely, tall obelisk, with its history dating back almost to the times of the last Jagiellons - a legendary symbol of the effective defense of the city against Tartar invasions. Formerly, before the war, it was called "Ptasia" and was one of the oldest streets. It is not big (in the Old Town all streets are like that), located near the castle, it has 13 numbers, but almost under each of them some important event took place or interesting people lived. Apart from the already mentioned Alicja Wnorowska, the legendary Marian Stroński - one of the greatest Polish painters of the 20th century - lived there. The neighbourhood of the castle hill resulted in many great landscapes of Przemyśl created by him, views of old streets, fragments of the castle, beautiful chestnut trees and lime trees. On the terrace of his house, the painter recorded cubist views of Zasanie. Tadeusz Cieszyński, the last president of the pre-war "Sokol", lived in the house next door; his neighbor was Zbigniew Kuchciński, the first president (and co-founder) of the Przemyśl branch of the Lvov Enthusiasts Society, and Artur Jędruch, later a provincial police chief, grew up next door. Also living on Matejki Street is Bogusław Zaleszczyk, the Chairman of the Town Council of Przemyśl and a descendant of one of Przemyśl's Eaglets. From a house on this street an independent program of the underground Solidarity radio was broadcast in 1986. Matejki Street is also home to two Christian churches of various denominations. And at the very beginning of the street, in a small house with a beautiful wooden balcony, which is leaning against the weight of centuries, lived Mr. Emil Siara, who with his family during the German occupation hid several Jewish families in Ujkowice near Przemyśl, saving them from death.
There are more similar streets, places and people here. The architecture of such an old town street, usually connected with the memory of generations of people living there, has a unique, sentimental charm of some mysterious, undiscovered past, which becomes more and more significant with time.
In fact, in each decade of the last century, events took place in Przemyśl and the former Przemyśl area that involved people in the defence of freedom, including religious freedom, independence and the fundamental rights of citizens, including the right to express one's own opinions. The street fights and barricades in defence of the Salesian Organist School in 1963 went down in history, as did the construction, without the consent of the communist authorities, of several hundred churches throughout the diocese of Przemyśl, led in the years 1965-1993 by Bishop Tokarczuk. On that occasion, committees for the defence of believers were set up, such as the one that became famous for its 'battle' for the church in Kmiecie Street in Przemysl, headed by the parish priest Adam Michalski, Stanislaw Sudol and Wit Siwiec, Ryszard's son, or the one in Stalowa Wola during the reign of the parish priest Father Edward Frankowski, who later became an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Przemysl, and after the administrative division of the Church in Poland in 1992. - Sandomierz diocese.
The activities of a small group of courageous, young people from Przemyśl who collaborated with the Committee for the Defense of Workers (KOR) were also extremely important, led by Stanisław Kusiński, who ran a contact point for this organization on Przemysłowa Street in Przemyśl in the 1970s, and who at the same time collaborated with the Movement for the Defense of Human and Civil Rights (ROBCiO), which included Janusz Czarski, a student at the Catholic University of Lublin at the time and today the director of the Cultural Center.
Since the 1980s we have had times that are better known and remembered: the times of the powerful "Solidarity", and since December 1981 - Underground activities of various circles: workers, farmers or independent culture, as well as extremely important pastoral activities in the city and in the countryside, mainly in Krasiczyn with Father Stanislaw Bartminski.
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It is from this perspective that we can better understand today's Przemysl. It is a city of freedom-loving, courageous, sometimes unconventional people, who are close to patriotic attitudes. The city of tolerant and open-minded people. The city in the history of which the whole history of Poland is reflected. It is worth remembering that only 300 years ago it was located in the south-western part of the Republic of Poland, and at that time the Borderlands were placed somewhere else. It is not a coincidence that Przemysl cemeteries (civilian and military) are distinguished by the national and cultural diversity of burials. They are monuments of history, preserving the memory of November and January insurgents, legionaries, Eaglets, soldiers of Home Army and soldiers of the so-called "unbroken" movement. Przemyśl is the city of values and possibilities, beautiful history and fascinating future. It is a city whose entire Old Town and fortress architecture deserve to be inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Przemyśl is a part of Poland and Poland is a part of Europe. Thanks to the openness of Przemyśl, initiatives such as "Europe of the Carpathians" can be born and develop there, bringing together countries which are marked by a difficult history but which have been connected for centuries. Among these initiatives there have been for years discussion meetings in Krynica, Krasiczyn and Przemysl for people who want to talk about the future of our part of Europe, about current political, economic, educational and cultural issues. They discuss problems which still constitute various barriers, such as poorly developed infrastructure or differences in the standard of living of individual countries.
We also discuss issues that are fundamental to our civilization, such as the choice of foundations on which the future of the community should be built. During these meetings a recipe is sought for the fashionable in Western Europe abandoning the system of fundamental Christian values and forcing a federalizing multiculture of people and customs in place of a Europe of solidary states.
"Carpathian Europe" is a forum for those who draw on the heritage of their ancestors and the richness of a unique space; for those who advocate sustainable development and support activities that serve the countries and peoples of all Europe; for those who have the courage to think, and think positively about the future also in such places as the land of Przemysl.
Finally, "Carpathian Europe" is a place for people and even entire families who, often in extremely difficult conditions, strengthened our sense of national consciousness and elementary decency. They built, rather than destroyed, through axiology, economic development and even the satisfaction of everyday needs. And if they fought, it was in defense of fundamental rights, passing on from generation to generation the principles and norms of life oriented toward cooperation in the diverse richness of our Republic. Some of those individuals are recalled here.
The text appeared in the book "City of Valor. Przemyśl on the 100th Anniversary of Regaining Independence", 2018
