Those "whom death took from the fatherland". The image of a soldier's death in Poland in the Napoleonic era

Abstract

The Napoleonic wars greatly influenced the political balance of Europe, as well as social life, law, cultural models and mentality. For many parts of the Continent they were also a face of everyday life. The huge numbers of casualties among soldiers and civilians made witnessing death a common experience. This did not have to mean that death was trivialized but it may be supposed that the numbers of casualties as well as the image of death emerging from relations available via public communication may have made it more familiar. This regarded fi rst of all death on the battlefi eld. The article analyses several examples of speeches and songs from the times of the Duchy of Warsaw, documenting the public image of a soldier’s death in the then Polish society. This image employed the topos of the death of a brave warrior, or knight. Public speeches delivered by Poles at that time often alluded to “our courageous ancestors” — the famous hetmans of the 17th c., the time of Polish victories. In more erudite speeches we can fi nd motifs from antiquity, particularly valued in the epoch of classicism. Notably, the analyzed sources document a readiness to manifest overtly the grief and pain over losing a comrade-in-arms, also a low-rank subordinate, which followed from a fascination with the chivalric epic but also from a new type of relationship between a commander and his men developed in the Napoleonic army, in which discipline and hierarchy did not preclude close personal ties. Grief and pain could also be alleviated by accepting that a death on the battlefi eld was worthy of a true warrior, gave his deeds a deeper sense, and would be remembered beyond the changing political context, becom-ing part of the common heritage. The death and memory of a hero was also treated as an edu-cational example, especially important in the light of the assumption, widespread at that time, that the Commonwealth had fallen because Poles had ceased to cultivate the knightly virtues of their ancestors.Another striking trait in the analyzed sources is the equal praise given to the deeds of men of high and humble origin, following the assumption that a glorious death overcomes differ-ences in status and fortune, even though equality in the face of death largely remained a theo-retical postulate – a private, though respected, usually remained an anonymous hero. Neverthe-less, the conviction that dying in the defense of one’s country makes a plebeian private equal to an aristocratic offi cer proves that a new notion of service for the public weal was spreading, infl uenced by the egalitarian slogans of the French Revolution, and in Poland additionally by the idea of equality of those fighting for the country’s independence, promoted at the time of Kościuszko’s insurrection. The period of 1794-1815 initiated the changes in Polish mentality that culminated in and were fully expressed by erecting the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the Saski Square in Warsaw in 1925.