Włodzimierz Gierowski – freedom fighter, certified officer of the Polish Army, military historian

Abstract

Włodzimierz Gierowski (1897–1965), a future certified lieutenant colonel, was a scout activist and organiser of the paramilitary movement in Kielce in his youth. As a private soldier, he went through the entire route of the 1st Brigade of the Polish Legions in the first year of its fighting at the front. Being a keen observer of soldiers’ life, he compiled extensive diaries, which remain an extremely interesting source from the period to this day. Their value is emphasised by Gierowski’s critical attitude towards the surrounding reality of war. Having been wounded in the Battle of Jastków, he was sent to the rear for the remainder of the war. Upon the revival of Poland, he served in the artillery, the Military History Bureau and the General Inspectorate of the Armed Forces. After the invasion of Poland in 1939, he was interned in Romania; after the war, repressed by the communist government for his involvement with the resistance organisation Freedom and Independence. The aim of the article is to outline Gierowski’s military biography and present his legacy in the field, ie a manuscript on the organisation of the armed forces of the Polish Regency Council in October and November 1918. The document, which has never been published in its entirety, is deposited in the Central Military Archives of the Military History Bureau. Its analysis has been conducted in chronological and topical order, consistent with the table of contents of the work, which also includes articles published by Gierowski.