Documents

• 1

  A copy of the information sent to various entities by the "3^rd May Anniversary Celebration Committee" about the plan to organize a march (along with the handwritten reply from an unidentified organization on 25^th April),
  21^st April 1916, Warsaw
  AGAD, Zb. z Muzeum Narodowego, 1198, s. 695

• 2

  The reply of the National Board of Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania to the Committee organizing the celebration of the anniversary of the Constitution of 3^rd May, in which they inform that they will not be taking part in the march,
  18^th April 1916, Warsaw
  AGAD, Zb. z Muzeum Narodowego, 1198, s. 58

• 3, 3a,

  The reply of Aleksander Manczarski, president of the Deaf and Blind Institute in Warsaw, to the "3^rd May Anniversary Celebration Committee", in which he informs them of the plans for pupils and teaching staff to participate in the ceremony,
  27^th April 1916, Warsaw
  AGAD, Zb. z Muzeum Narodowego, 1198, s. 621-622

• 4

  The reply of Piotr Ambroziewicz, head of the Warsaw Printers' Assembly, on behalf of the guild authorities, addressed to the "3^rd May Anniversary Celebration Committee", in which he informs about the participation of members of the Assembly in the march on 3^rd May 1916,
  28^th April 1916, Warsaw
  AGAD, Zb. z Muzeum Narodowego,1198, s. 489

• 5

  A photo of a group of members of the Christian Association of Commercial and Industrial Officials in Warsaw taking part in the national march on 3^rd May 1916,
  3^rd May 1916, Warsaw
  AGAD, Zb. z Muzeum Narodowego, 1198, s. 773

• 6, 6a, 6b, 6c, 6d,

  A copy of the special issue of Echo Pragi. This weekly paper for Praga [district] and its suburbs from 3^rd May 1916 was devoted entirely to the celebration of the anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution of 3^rd May,
  3^rd May 1916, Warsaw
  AGAD, Zb. z Muzeum Narodowego, 1198, s. 696-703

• 7, 7a, 7b, 7c, 7d,

  A fragment of the satirical magazine Diabeł (Devil) [no.10 of 3^rd May 1916], containing a reference through the figure of Wojciech Bartos [Wojciech Bartos-Głowacki] to events from the time of the fall of the First Polish Republic (the Commonwealth) and the national march of 3^rd May 1916, at the same time showing the ideological profile of the magazine.
  3^rd May 1916, Warsaw
  AGAD, Zbór Ewangelicko-Augsburski 583, s. 464

The months following the occupation of Warsaw by the Germans in August 1915 saw the rapid development of the Polish-language press, with the consent of the new occupiers. In addition to serious commentary from numerous newspapers on the developing situation in Poland and around the world, satirical magazines were also gaining popularity. One of these was Diabeł [Devil] launched in 1916. It was a satirical and entertainment magazine in which Russia and its supporters, the National Democrats, were mocked, while praising the advantages of the German army. The main figure associated with the magazine was Wacław Pobóg-Pabudziński. It also devoted a special edition to the events of 3^rd May 1916, although the tone of the content was different to that of other newspapers; referring to a "cultural pattern" commonly recognized by Poles . Diabeł was an ephemeral magazine. Its name referred to the weekly magazine Diabeł Warszawski [Warsaw Devil], launched in 1913, which was also a satirical and humorous magazine edited by Adam Witold Koszutski.
• 8, 8a, 8b, 8c, 8d, 8e, 8f, 8g, 8h, 8i,

  A brochure with the text of the sermon entitled "1791-1916. Hello Poland, Hello!", delivered in the Evangelical-Augsburg Church in Warsaw on 3^rd May 1916 on the 125^th anniversary of the Constitution of 3^rd May by Fr. Feliks Gloeh [printed with the permission of the German censor],
  11^th May 1916, Warsaw
  AGAD, Zb. z Muzeum Narodowego, 1198, s. 716-730

• 9, 9a

  A report by Stanisław Śliwiński sent to Stanisław Patek, in which he describes the order in which the political parties appeared and marched in the ceremonial march on 3^rd May 1916 (along with a plan of the ranking of the parties on the streets of Warsaw's Old Town),
  12^th May 1916, Warsaw
  AGAD, Zb. z Muzeum Narodowego, 1198, s. 75-77

• 10, 10a

  A report sent by the Office of the Chief of the City Militia of the Capital City of Warsaw to Stanisław Patek, describing the participation of the Militia's honourary platoon "in the ceremonial national march to celebrate the 125^th anniversary of the Constitution of 3^rd May,
  25^th May 1916, Warsaw
  AGAD, Zb. z Muzeum Narodowego, 1198, s. 67-68

• 11

  A photo of Prince Franciszek Radziwiłł in the uniform of the Head of the City Militia of the capital city of Warsaw, published in the weekly magazine Świat, issue 19, devoted almost entirely to the 125^th anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution of 3^rd May,
  6^th May 1916, Warsaw
  AGAD, Zbór Ewangelicko-Augsburski 583, s. 489

The City Militia of the Capital City of Warsaw was a paid, professional Polish police force armed with slashing weapons, officially established on 1^st February 1916. It was created out of the Civic Guards established under Russian rule at the end of July 1915, which operated as an honorary, free security service. Prince Franciszek Radziwiłł was active in the Command of the Guard from the outset. The swift installation of German police authorities in occupied Warsaw caused a sharp reduction of the original importance of the Civic Guards. The German authorities tried to completely eliminate the formation, but Prince Radziwiłł (descended from a line related to the German Hohenzollerns) suggested that Governor Beseler transform it into a professional City Militia. This service was established "to ensure the safety of the capital and its inhabitants," and Prince Franciszek Radziwiłł became its head. The service consisted of about 2,000 officers. They received uniforms modelled on those of lancers and sabres as weapons.
Even though the City Militia only acted as an auxiliary body for the German police and military authorities, it became the principal source of officers for the State Police established in independent Poland in 1919.
• 12, 12a

  A letter from the Main Board of the National Workers' Union to the Board of the Museum of Industry and Agriculture in Warsaw, informing that they were sending a copy of the organization’s badge used during the march held on 3^rd May 1916 (including the badge),
  no date, Warsaw
  AGAD, Zb. z Muzeum Narodowego, 1198, s. 795-796

The National Workers' Union (NZR) was a political organization of Polish workers founded in 1905 in the territory of the Kingdom of Poland under Russian rule. Although it came from the national-democratic movement, as a result of differences in attitudes towards Russia and reluctance about the tactical alliance of the National Democrats with Russia, its activists broke off their cooperation with the national-democratic movement. In 1908, NZR activists clearly spoke out against Russia, which pushed them to cooperate with other anti-Russian parties and political groups (the so-called Polish irredentists) before the outbreak of World War I. In 1911, the National Workers' Union became a member of the Polish Confederation political platform and, in 1912, a member of the Provisional Committee of the Confederated Independence Parties (KSSN), grouping all political parties from the Kingdom of Poland and Galicia willing to act jointly against Russia and counting on the outbreak of a pan-European armed conflict. This agreement was followed by paramilitary organizations: the Riflemen's Association, the "Strzelec" [Rifle] Society and the Polish Rifle Teams. The road to independence was seen in the armed struggle against Russia undertaken at the time of the conflict between the partitioning powers (at the end of 1913, the name "Provisional" disappeared from the name). However, each of the political organizations had full independence in the implementation of social programmes within the KSSN. Before the outbreak of World War I, the NZR activists became the co-architects of a temporary agreement between two independence movements: the socialist and nationalist. After the outbreak of war in 1914, the activists of the National Workers' Union actively participated in political independence activities, both those undertaken in Galicia and, above all, in the Kingdom of Poland (Łódź, Warsaw, Zagłębie Dąbrowskie) as part of the Supreme Committee of the United Independence Parties (from August 1915). Finally, after the entire territory of the Kingdom of Poland was taken over by German and Austrian troops, the National Workers' Union became part of the Central National Committee, a grouping of left-wing independence supporters formed in Warsaw in December 1915.
The most significant NZR activists during the First World War were Marian Rapacki, Władysław Malangiewicz and Jan Stanisław Jankowski (who was a Government Delegate for Poland during World War II).
• 13

  Pennant-badge with the slogan "Freedom-Entirety-Independence" belonging to a member of the National-Radical Party taking part in the march on 3^rd May 1916,
  no date, Warsaw
  AGAD, Zb. z Muzeum Narodowego, 1198, poz. X

The National-Radical Party was a political grouping of intelligentsia from the territory of the Kingdom of Poland created before World War I. Even before the outbreak of the war, it criticized the national democrats (NDs) who focused on cooperation with Russia. However, after the outbreak of war in 1914 and the establishment of the Union of Independence Organizations in the Kingdom of Poland, (a political representation of groups cooperating with Polish activists from Galicia), its activists decided not to support the Supreme National Committee in Krakow against Russia unequivocally. The National-Radical Party co-created the so-called the Centre Bloc which, despite the emerging military superiority of the Central Powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary) over Russia, considered it premature unequivocally to take their side. Accepting the idea of joint political representation of the Russian partition, the National-Radical Party, however, did not want to speak out against Russia. It was only the occupation of Warsaw by the German army in August 1915 and the full clarification of the new political situation that prompted National-Radical Party activists to seek agreement with the left independence (organized as part of the Supreme Committee of the United Independence Parties). However, it was only after the march of 3^rd May 1916 that the National-Radical Party established greater cooperation with the Central National Committee in Warsaw.
The most significant representatives of the National-Radical Party were Stanisław Patek and Eugeniusz Śmiarowski.
• 14

  The bow of a participant in the national march on 3^rd May 1916, belonging to a member of the authorities of the Emergency Medical Aid Society [in the centre of the bow a silver token in the shape of a six-pointed star with a cross in the centre is missing],
  no date, Warsaw
  AGAD, Zb. z Muzeum Narodowego, 1198, poz. I