Hutsul Highlanders in Military Propaganda for the Purpose of Preparing the Society for War During the Decline of the Second Polish Republic (Selected Research Problems)

Abstract

The article discusses research findings on issues related to the preparations for defending the country taken at the end of the 1930s by the leadership of the Polish armed forces. Although the current historiography contains a great number of studies and articles dealing with this subject, the impression is that the role played by military propaganda in these preparations received too little emphasis. Propaganda for the defence of the state was intended to include as many citizens of Polish society as possible, also from ethnically and geographically diverse backgrounds. Therefore, the article contains an analysis of extensive propaganda activities, which after 1935 were implemented by the Polish military authorities in the face of the growing threat of war, carried out mainly on the basis of archives from the resources of the Central Military Archives (Centralne Archiwum Wojskowe) in Warsaw. The essence of the discussion is the question why the military authorities of that time insisted that highlanders living in the Eastern Carpathians, primarily the Hutsuls, be involved in the defence preparations of the country. In the first place, propaganda measures were considered, with the help of which the army's leadership tried to influence the civilian population. Trying to explain why the use of the most effective propaganda tools, such as the press, radio and sound film turned out to be ineffective towards highlanders living in the furthest corners of the Carpathians, among other things, the lack of a well-developed communication network in that area was indicated. It was established that in the present situation the military authorities managed to involve the Hutsuls, Lemkos and Boykos in the life of the current state only thanks to the annual organisation of the ‘Mountain Festival’. The celebrations organised in order to unite all highlanders who lived in the territory of the Polish state were also conducive to carrying out effective military activities by the armed forces against the Polish population most distant from civilisation.

            Research has shown that this type of activities was of great importance for the development of the situation in the Eastern Lesser Poland dominated by Ukrainian nationalists. Attention was drawn to the extremely valuable assets of the Hutsul region. It was an exceptionally attractive area in terms of tourism, sports and health. Thus, it had the chance to attract crowds of tourists from all over the country, which would strengthen the Polish element in the whole region. Hutsuls, however, were sceptical about the Ukrainian national movement, which made the army's leadership recognise them as an element easy to bind with the Polish state. Thereby, the inhabitants of the Hutsul region could be a counterbalance to the anti-state Ukrainian movement in Eastern Lesser Poland – an area of strategic importance! Unfortunately, advanced and properly conducted works were interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War.