THE POLISH PROCLAMATION
On August 15th the Grand Duke Nicholas issued, on behalf of the Tzar,
the following Proclamation addressed to all the Poles:
“POLES,--The hour has sounded when the sacred dream of your fathers
and your grandfathers may be realised. A century and a half has
passed since the living body of Poland was torn in pieces, but the
soul of the country is not dead. It continues to live, inspired
by the hope that there will come for the Polish people an hour of
resurrection, and of fraternal reconciliation with Great Russia.
The Russian Army brings you the solemn news of this reconciliation
which obliterates the frontiers dividing the Polish peoples, which
it unites conjointly under the sceptre of the Russian Tzar. Under
this sceptre Poland will be born again, free in her religion and
her language. Russian autonomy only expects from you the same
respect for the rights of those nationalities to which history has
bound you. With open heart and brotherly hand Great Russia advances
to meet you. She believes that the sword, with which she struck
down her enemies at Grünwald, is not yet rusted. From the shores of
the Pacific to the North Sea the Russian armies are marching. The
dawn of a new life is beginning for you, and in this glorious dawn
is seen the sign of the Cross, the symbol of suffering and of the
resurrection of peoples.”
This master stroke of policy was one of the most significant and
important events in the whole war. It has revolutionised the whole
outlook in Eastern Europe. This pledge to restore to dismembered
Poland her lands, her liberties, her religion and her national tongue
is the most momentous act of any Tzar since the days when Alexander
II. abolished the serfdom. With dramatic suddenness it brings to a
close one of the most terrible chapters in the history of Europe. For
generations Russia has been engaged in a ruthless and vain attempt
to force her Polish subjects to become, at least to all outward
appearance, Russians. The Poles have been subjected to the fiercest
persecution, their religion and language have been denied them, their
history has been a stream of blood. Poland has been the greatest
tragedy in Europe. Now at a stroke all is changed.
The spoliation of Poland has been a bond between Russia, Austria and
Prussia for a century and a half. The three nations combined to carry
out the crime, and as a consequence they have ever since remained more
or less united over the results of the crime. They have regarded the
Polish question as their own particular concern, and have brooked no
interference from the rest of Europe. They have vied with each other in
their efforts to crush the Polish spirit. They have made every move in
unison.
The Tzar’s Proclamation consigned the whole system to the limbo of the
past. One of the conspirators had realised the errors of his ways, and
was determined to make reparation. Of course, the decision to issue the
Proclamation was to a large extent dictated by material considerations.
But whatever the reasons, there can be no doubt as to the excellence
of the results. And by thus breaking the bond of generations Russia
proved that she realised that this war was to be fought to the death.
After this solemn pledge on the part of Russia, both Germany and
Austria must not only be beaten, but conquered. A free Poland would
mean the loss to Prussia of the whole province of Posen, and the
setting back of her frontiers to Pomerania. Austria would lose all
her territories beyond the Carpathians from Silesia to the borders of
Roumania. Both countries can be relied upon to resist such a wholesale
shrinkage of their boundaries to the utmost of their power. It would
be more than a defeat; it would be humiliation, such as no first-class
Power has yet been called upon to undergo.
The effects of the Proclamation were anxiously awaited, not only in
Russia, but in Germany and Austria as well. It was addressed to the
most sacred emotions of the Poles, to that fierce patriotism which
no violence has been able to crush. It solemnly promised them all
that they have been struggling for so bitterly. But would they forget
the past? The treatment they have received would hardly be likely to
encourage trust. Massacres and repression are not usually associated
with the “dawn of a new life.”
The Polish Deputies immediately hailed the Proclamation with joy. But
the people hesitated. It was too sudden a change to be grasped at once.
Then the leaders set the example, first one and then another came
forward. Sienkiewicz addressed a stirring appeal to his compatriots.
The people realised that the promise was genuine, that Poland was
really to be free again. Scenes of indescribable enthusiasm followed.
The Poles are the most emotional nation in Europe, and from Kalisz to
Biala and from Mlava to Stopnika they abandoned themselves to their
joy. Thereafter the Polish enthusiasm for the war vied with that of
the Russians themselves. The effect was immediately felt in the army.
In one of the early dispatches received at Petrograd from the front,
mention was made of the furious heroism of the Polish regiments. In
Russia, therefore, the results of the Proclamation were to remove the
last shreds of apathy and to weld both the subjects and the armies of
the Tzar into one pulsating whole.
But the appeal was also addressed to the Polish subjects of the Kaiser
and the Emperor Francis Joseph. It was an open invitation to them to
revolt. In the circumstances, the German and Austrian Poles who have
so often experienced Teutonic methods of stamping out rebellion, can
hardly be blamed for accepting the proposal in a cautious spirit. They
were quite unprepared for open rebellion, and at the best would have
stood but little chance of success against the armies already mobilised
in their midst. In addition, the cream of their manhood was with the
forces of the Kaiser and Emperor. Only in Austria did a Polish regiment
dare to mutiny, with the result that it was shot down to a man. For
the rest, wiser if less heroic counsels prevailed. Everything possible
was done covertly to assist the Russian advance. Both German and
Austrian commanders complained of the extreme activity of innumerable
spies, lamented that the whole population seemed to have combined in
an effort to be of every possible service to the enemy, and admitted
that fighting in Eastern Prussia and Galicia was fraught with all the
difficulties attending operations in a hostile country.
But the Proclamation, and the obvious sincerity which prompted it, have
had effects extending far beyond military exigencies and the future of
the Poles. It has done more than anything else to raise Russia in the
estimation of the world. The oppression of Poland has always estranged
the leading democracies of the world from Russia. In France it was
used as an argument against the Franco-Russian alliance, in Britain it
has caused the Triple Entente to be regarded as a potential danger to
ourselves. At the time of the war with Japan it withheld the sympathy
of the United States from Russia. Now all is changed. The Proclamation
was received with approbation by the whole world, with the exception,
of course, of Germany and Austria. It was realised by all that Russia
is indeed advancing, that the short-sighted autocratic government is
giving way to the finest ideals of democracy, and that Russia is an
ally worthy of the most ardent lover of liberty.