Topic: First steps towards independent statehood. Polish organisational and military efforts

Target group

7th‑grade students of elementary school

Core curriculum

XXVI. Polish case during the First World War. Pupil:

1. characterizes the relations between the partitioning powers and the Polish cause on the eve of and after the outbreak of war;

2. evaluates the Polish armed and diplomatic effort, lists state‑building work during the war.

General aim of education

Students get acquainted with the relations of the partitioning powers to the Polish cause on the eve of the outbreak of war and with the armed effort of Poles in the first years of the war of 1914‑1918.

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• to characterize the political and military environment in which the Poles had to operate;

• to describe the different attitudes of the partitioning powers towards to the Poles;

• to exchange Polish military initiatives.

Methods/techniques

• activating

  • discussion.

• expository

  • talk.

• exposing

  • film.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• notebook and crayons/felt‑tip pens;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

1. The teacher asks students to analyze the address of Józef Piłsudski to the I Cadre Company, which is available in the e‑textbook.

Introduction

1. The teacher explains the students the purpose of the lesson and the criteria for success.

2. The teacher presents to the students the position of Russia, Austria and Germany on the Polish issue in the years 1914‑1916, with particular emphasis on the problem of war mobilization. Students read the source text and do Exercise 1. The teacher checks the correctness. Then the students look for similarities and differences in the policy of the invaders. They share their thoughts with the teacher.

Realization

1. The teacher asks students to do Task 1. Students analyze the map presenting battles with the participation of Polish troops in the years 1914‑1918. They answer the question of the circumstances in which the Russians left the Kingdom of Poland in 1915. The teacher talks about the situation of the Kingdom of Poland in the end of Russian rule and under the rule of central states.

2. After organizing information about the political and organizational conditions of the military activity of Poles, the teacher passes to the case of Józef Piłsudski's activity. He presents students the genesis of the Polish Legions and the Polish Military Organization during World War I.

3. Students will learn about the history of the Legions on the example of the First Brigade. They do Exercise 2 and Exercise 3: they complement the text correctly and assign events to the illustration. The teacher takes care of the feedback provided to the students during solving exercises and executing tasks.

4. At the request of the teacher, students search in English‑language materials on the Internet for information about fights near Kostiuchnowka in Wołyń in July 1916. The teacher asks volunteers to present the results of the search. He asks them about the military and political consequences of the battle. Asking questions, he remembers that they are to be formulated as the key questions.

Summary

1. Students do Exercise 4. They mark in the text passages defining the borders and the system of the future Polish state.

2. The teacher gives students evaluation surveys in which they evaluate their own work during the lesson, the work of the teacher and colleagues.

Homework

1. The teacher sets homework (it is not an obligatory part of the script): Students write a report / prepare a presentation on one of the selected topics: the role of POW during the World War I; military and organizational activity of women in the troops organized by Józef Piłsudski; persons of both sexes decorated with the Virtuti Militari commendation during the First World War.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

First steps towards independent statehood. Polish organisational and military efforts

Following the outbreak of the war, Józef Piłsudski was given permission from the Austrian authorities to mobilise riflemen units in Galicia. His aim, known to the Austrians, was to initiate an uprising in the Kingdom of Poland. Polish riflemen associations became the core of the Polish Legions formed in 1914. They fought against the Russians. The Commander‑in‑Chief of the Russian Army, Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich, published a manifesto calling for a joint fight alongside Russia and promising the reunification of the Polish lands under the Tsar's rule and the freedom of religion and language. However, the manifesto did not go beyond generalities. There was no hint of any future independence for Poland. Pro‑Russian supporters such as Zdzisław Lubomirski or Roman Dmowski, who adopted a passive attitude to the attempts at getting them involved in collaboration with the occupant German and Austrian administration, were called Passivists. Those politicians who supported collaboration with the Central Powers were called Activists. Józef Piłsudski was one of them. In November 1916, the Poles received a general manifesto from William II of Germany and Franz Joseph II of Austria‑Hungary promising the establishment of a Polish state. A reborn Poland was to become one of Germany's future dependent states (under the Mitteleuropa Plan). This was the so‑called Proclamation of 5th November. Neither Józef Piłsudski, nor Roman Dmowski found its message acceptable.