The Great War in the pages of Warsaw’s “Tygodnik Ilustrowany” – the Period of the German Occupation- synopsis

Abstract

The study presents a strategy realised by “Tygodnik Ilustrowany” of informing the readers about the current war situation in the occupied by the Germans Warsaw. The analysis encompasses the issues published from the encroachment of the German army to the capital (on the 5th of August 1915) to the beginning of October 1918. The magazine resigned during that time from the naturalistic expressiveness, imagery of accounts, glaring the brutality of war, focusing the reader’s attention to the “civil” every-day life reality. The pursuit of exhibiting normality, law and order became a mode in a new strategy. Published in a pro-Russian Warsaw, the magazine could not have modelled the accounts concerning the activities of Russia on an international stage in accordance with a pattern suggested by the German-speaking newspapers; therefore it resigned from the accounts presenting the true face of the conflict. The rare publications presenting the activities regarding war are thus having even greater meaning. From a historian’s perspective, the reports from ceremonies and memoir series seem particularly important. As for the reports, the distancing signalised in the accounts caused the publications, incrusted with the texts of the notables’ speeches which re-presented the course of the official ceremonies, to allow for recreating/verifying the facts. The reportage and memoir-type documents, which noted impressions, fears and expectations of the civilians, provide a possibility for reconstructing the social atmosphere.