Tadeusz Miczka About the role of myth in shaping of Polish identity (O roli mitu kawalerii w kształtowaniu polskiej tożsamości)

Myths have an important integrating role in life of every community. They pass so called “sacred knowledge” and “ canons of values” from one generation to another. They strongly influence understanding of history and current affairs, just like facts do. Scientific research shows without any doubts that mythical thinking is durable and important part of human consciousness which shaped holistic visions of the world. The process does not depend upon the level of social development of particular communities or spreading of rationalistic attitudes and materialistic viewpoints. Other social structures, such as national identities, are based on these holistic visions.

It is justified to introduce notions of strong and weak identity. In the history of mankind strong, or essential, identities were dominating. They are internally coherent, they integrate all the components and are based on constant fundaments. Weak identities, which are nonessential, are internally incoherent, they are constantly liberating from restrictions of tradition, culture and rules of social life. They were mainly theoretical constructs, artistic visions or fantasies and dreams of rebellious individuals. National identities, which are interesting for me, obviously start processes of identifying oneself and other people in the course of interaction, which connects elements of different types according to the rules typical for strong identities. National identities have been usually treated as objectively existing beyond control of an individual, they are derived from ready, universal and hard to undermine formulas, are strongly determined by historical conditions (their nature is to continue the past), they make us perceive an individual and its surroundings through the prism of defined centre, which authorizes excluding “not-us , in other words “others”.

Still today in the era of globalisation and convergence of multimedia, which means increasing intensification of integrating and unifying processes, and on the other hand intensification of personalising and subjectifying processes. National identity is shaped in an increasing tension with different forms and variants of weak identities. More and more often it is possible to treat identity as provisional and ambivalent facts, which are not based on centres but on networks, “instant realities” replace the past.

1

In other words national identities are nowadays going through violent transformations, they become components of higher ranks identities for example European identity or global identity. At the same time they strongly articulate separate national qualities and they demand from other communities respect for their uniqueness and separateness. I would like to take a closer look at this phenomenon analysing evolution of the most durable and definite component of national identity, which is a myth. As far as Polish identity is concerned it is a myth of cavalry, which has shaped thinking of all generations of for at least the last four centuries.

The myth of cavalry, which in the past existed in all cultures, was based on the presumption those warriors use weapon requiring unique personal courage. As Roger Caillois writes: “Together with it the formation died, the last one in which a warrior fought with his own quality and own energy, without any help of external power, abstract and more powerful than he is” (R. Caillois quoted in M. Janion, M. Żmigrocka Romantyzm i historia, Warszawa, 1978, p. 284). In Polish culture romanticism of war was exceptionally strongly enrooted and practically never stopped acting as culture-creating factor. As researchers state, cavalry myth was an essential building material of Polishness till the end of romantic epoch, preserving “fascinating colour of individuality - noble autonomy of personality, both of a trooper and his horse” (ibid). sentiments were particularly strongly revived by the memories of Polish cavalry which had won over the Turks at Vienna, of the 18th century, uhlan victories in the . They did not disappear with the end of romanticism, it was the epoch when the Polish a few times started an uprising against the invaders. The idea of rebirth of was often connected with the myth of Polish .

When in 1918, after a century and a half of captivity, Poland revived, the myth of cavalry became one of the symbols of this revival. The next elements which contributed in further popularisation of the myth were: , Polish-Soviet War in 1920 and a special attention of society for the parades of uhlans in the 20s and the 30s. This kind of weapon had a special privileged place in national consciousness, and what is a natural result, in Polish culture. Ksawery Pruszyński described it: ” Cavalry was for the Polish as important as Royal Navy for the British, bistro for the French, pasta for Italians, part of national life. [...] this agricultural nation, living on a plain, loved, appreciated and understood horses. Even the long line of wars of independence was finished on a horseback. The whole dynasty of Polish painters specialized in those Polish horseback victories: Kossak father, Kossak son, Kossak

2 grandson (K. Pruszyński, Czarna brygada. Wspomnienia normandzkie, Kraków, 1994, pp. 15-16)

The apotheosis of this myth took place in September1939, at the beginning of the Second World War, when fascist Germany attacked Poland. Poland mobilized 11 brigades of cavalry, which fought with the enemy usually on foot, just like infantry. It was the time when the myth of cavalry was enriched with such event as uhlan on German tanks. In reality in tragic September there were a few charges like that, historians do not agree whether there were 2 or 6. In historical consciousness two of them are strongly preserved: one in Pomerania which took place on the 19th of September, when artillery of German armoured vehicles attacked frantic horses and the uhlans lost half of their possession, the other took place near on the same day when the 14th of cavalry tried to get to the capital city surrounded by the enemies (See C. Leżeński, Zostały tylko ślady podków..., Warszawa, 1984). The charges of Polish uhlans are confirmed not only by the statements of the Polish, but also by German soldiers and an Italian war correspondent.

Those events in the statements of Polish witnesses were described in a solemn way and transformed into artistic legends, but in the statements of foreign witnesses they were treated as examples of anachronism and nonsense bravery, which is understood as total contempt for death. Fascist propaganda created a stereotype of Polish madness not only in published works, but also in the cinema, for example in the film by H. Bertram Battle Squadron Lützow (Kampfgeschwader Lützow 1941, in which a charge of Polish cavalry on German armoured troops was presented (J. Piekałkiewicz, Polski wrzesień. Hitleri Stalin rozdzierają Rzeczpospolitą, Warszawa, 1999, p.95). After the Second World War this motive became a basis of national stereotypes created by communist authorities and at the same time it became an attractive motive of Polish literature, art and film.

The evolution of the myth of cavalry in Poland is a educational example of intertwining of historical events and mythical thinking and ideological struggle, it is an example of double influence of a myth. As it is known, mythical narrations, which are highly symbolic and synthetic, are usually treated as useful forms of social life, but their huge possibilities of destructive influence upon individuals and communities are also emphasised. Through fading of differences between abstracts and concretes, between signs and objects, myths easily deform reality or even remove it from social memory. They become dangerous, as Leszek Kołakowski proved “through its tendency for limitless expansion, myth can grow like a

3 cancer, may try to replace positive knowledge, the law, may try to take over almost all the fields of culture, may grow with despotism, terrorism and lies” and that is why, according to Kołakowski, in every culture there should be such “a division of work which attributes some with the one-sided dignity of myth guards and others with the one-sided dignity of its critics. [...] mythology [...] can be socially fertile only when it is constantly suspected, always closely watched, which disables its natural tendency for changing into a drug” (L. Kołakowski, Obecność mitu, Paris, 1974, pp. 103-104). I agree with Kołakowski but through analysing of concretization of the cavalry myth in Polish art I will try to prove that some myths, especially those which do not spread like malicious cancer growth, successfully escape both their guards and critics, thanks to ambitious artists trying to force them simultaneously in both orders of cultural interpretation and still function in national consciousness in spite of their anachronism.

The image of Polish cavalry in 1939 went through a gradual and distinct evolution (it was precisely described by S. Zabierowski in the book Wojna i pamięć, Katowice, 2006, pp.21- 45). In the 50s of the 20th century this military formation was strongly criticized and ridiculed as a symbol of rejected by communists traditional Polishness. When so called social realism finished at the end of the 50s, in the 60s and in the 70s the cavalry myth appeared in art where this kind of weapon was presented in rather positive way. For example this stereotype of charging tanks with was transposed and even evoked social admiration as a specific ethos of universal struggle through exposing its aesthetical values.

This ancient myth became in communist Poland in the 20th century a complicated and ambiguous myth about the birth of a nation. This birth was understood as revival after many years of captivity, this myth did not deformed history and did not remove it from social memory. It was mainly caused by the film by Andrzej Wajda Lotna (Lotna 1959), made in 1959, based on a short story by Wojciech Żukrowski, written soon after the war. It can be stated that this film was defeated by the cavalry myth, because it was generally perceived as a work of average value in career of this outstanding director, who wanted to be both its guard and critic. Still Lotna made a change in historiography, historical journalism and art dealing with this problem.

Wajda who was educated as a painter, directly referred to tradition of Polish painting of the 19th century, in which the main subject were uhlans and their horses, treated as signs of Polishness. He introduced this myth to the screen with all its controversies, treating it as a

4 sing of the end of an epoch in history of Polish nation and historical meanders in which Poland was involved (motive of no-way-out situation, motive of tragic destiny of Poland, motive of the lack of perspectives etc.) The repertoire of artistic symbols is easily understood by the audience, because not only the title white mare - Lotna is shown, there are also horses on pictures in chambers of the mansion, white china horses standing on furniture, there is also a nobleman right from the paintings by Jan Matejko, statues of ancient heroes standing in the garden and on the meadows and headless statues on the battlefields. The most memorable are over-anesthetised pictures showing stylish mirror cracking during an air raid, fishes by the stove, farmers with scythes, red apples on coffins, a girl praying at the cross, a sword crossed with a barrel of a tank, wedding veil eternally unwoven on a tree, cobweb and a fiddler. Especially the last scene fascinates with its picturesque composition showing a road to nowhere, a windmill and scenery of a battlefield with willows.

Although we can criticize the fact that Wajda failed to produce a homogeneous style of the film and he failed to present a particular story in a convincing way, still it seems that he managed to universalize the cavalry myth as a sign of Polishness. It is proven by numerous foreign interpretations of the film. For example Pierre Pitiot in his book on “cinema of death” and “baroque” film form dedicated much attention to this film. In his opinion the vision of the world presented in the film is a concretization of some ideas coming from baroque philosophy: idea of multiplied death, idea of agony of a man connected with the vision of the end of the culture and idea of the dusk of the society (P.Pitiot, Cinema de mort, Esquisse’d un baroque cinematographique, Fribourg, 1972, pp.16- ). He proves convincingly that Wajda, just like baroque artists, is interested in the past and its symbols and attributes dying in the present, and he shows sorrow connected with that. What is more, Pitiot thinks that the subject of Lotna is condition of society hanging in the void, the caesura is created by the beginning of the Second World War, which caused division of the society and disappearance of such social and professional classes as aristocracy and uhlans, The agony is symbolized by the white mare, which is present all the time on the screen and cannot be tamed. His analysis of the last .sequence of the film is particularly interesting. The main character crosses the border avoiding death but the audience does not know what kind of border it is. According to the interpreter the border post was put on the screen to symbolize trespassing, it is the motive of trespassing to the new world.

The director created the time of the September campaign as a picture of Polish orbis interior, as an open space, in which the troop of uhlans marks its presence but its borders constantly

5 change due to military actions. According to another interpreter in Wajda’s film “ the white horse Lotna takes over the duty of constructing the space of the universe. At the same time it became a symbol of axis mundi (M.Krośnicka, Sacrum według Wajdy. Przestrzeń sakralna w filmach: Lotna, Kanał, Popiół i diament, in E. Nurczyńska-Fidelska and B. Stolarska (ed), Szkoła polska – powroty, Lódź, 1998, p. 101). The interpreter notices the Lotna is a lethal motive. The characters a few times mention its negative power. In other words it acts as a go- between in two screen realities: sacred and profane . “The fate of the troop is connected with the destiny of Lotna. Lotna breaks her leg and gets shot by the sergeant major and the lieutenant. Above her symbolic grave (she is covered with green fir branches) the lieutenant breaks his sword. In the film gestures are a metaphor of the pre-war world ‘aristocratic Poland’ and Wajda tried to preserve in his film the values of this world” (ibid, s.104).

Myths, which are strongly connected with so called “Polish charms” or national “intoxication with Poland”, are most influential when artists simultaneously strongly defend them and strongly criticize them (motives of death). In such situations they change hermetic nature of national idiom, they put national cause in a more dramatic historical context and time and space of some film over-realism. It is proven by the reaction of the audience, both in Poland and abroad, to Lotna and to earlier films by Wajda such as: Canal (Kanał 1957) , Ashes and Diamonds (Popiół i diament 1958), in which, in spite of great intensification of artistic expression, facts weaken the influence of the myth. It is also proven by the reception of The Wedding (Wesele 1973), which was made later and is a real masterpiece of screenpainting, and of course Lotna, because they also contain criticism of Polish myths based on demonstrating those contents, forms and mythical meanings, which are elements of cultural mediatisation. They are understood by foreigners or similar to their thinking about their own identity.

The proposition of Wajda who became both a guard and critic of cavalry myth and showed remarkable awareness presenting its destructive power, divided opinions of Polish historians and artists in the next decades about the stereotype of Polishness. It is particularly visible in literature works which belong to so called current of antiquarianism in the late 80s. They concentrated on detailed information concerning organization of uhlan life and cavalry manners and first of all cavalry ceremonies. It is interesting that after the change of social and political system (1989) for a short time cavalry motives became more popular in literature, culture and Polish tradition. After negative stereotypes of Polish madness were imposed by fascist Germany, after socrealistic approaches contrasting cavalry with infantry (Marxian

6 motivated difference, because infantry was the weapon of people and cavalry was the weapon of aristocracy) after activity of creators sneering at romantic legend and after its questioning by Wajda, the myth of Polish uhlan seemed to be discredited and forgotten. It turned out to be different because of several reasons.

Firstly, the myth was deeply enrooted in Polish literary and artistic culture, and in film, in which it was strongly articulated in both orders of cultural interpretation: positive and negative. Secondly, cavalry was the kind of weapon which had special aesthetic values and they are durable, thirdly, what is most important, cavalry is one of the icons of Polishness which became an expression of Polish national mind which appreciate heroic gesture. In the last years, when the multicultural feeling becomes stronger and there are different forms of so called post-history, myth of cavalry loses its meaning and turns into more and more classic myth in art rather than in history. It becomes a beautiful historic icon and fascinating artistic ornament. Its expansion seems to be limited. Or maybe it is just an illusion....

7