Our life is an interesting thing. For example, you come somewhere and think that you will learn one thing, but you will learn something completely different, and even something that you would never have known about otherwise. So this happened to me last summer, when I, together with a group of tourists from Russia, found myself in the ancient Polish city of Wroclaw. Here at VO I have already talked about various interesting moments associated with visiting castles in the Czech Republic, a fortress and museums in the city of Brno, the Armory in Dresden, the city-museum of Meissen, but now it’s turn to Wroclaw. And, of course, with a bias in the theme of the "Military Review".
Painting by Jan Matejko "The Battle of Racławice".
And it so happened that … for some reason I forgot to look in advance on the Internet what exactly awaits me in this city and what sights of a "militaristic orientation" should I see there. Well, somehow it started spinning. However, I thought, driving up to Wroclaw, there will be a city tour there and at least something interesting will be shown there, and I will buy a map of the city and figure it out myself. However, everything turned out to be wrong, or rather, not quite so. That is, the rule that "God is his, and the devil is his", we should all remember without fail.
The bus dropped us off at a strange place near a huge red brick church. It was here that our excursion began, and, alas, there were no kiosks with tourist maps in the line of sight.
The very place from which "my Wroclaw" began. How many times have I told students about how the walls of medieval cathedrals were fortified with buttresses, and here … here they are right before my eyes. And the building itself is literally imbued with the spirit of the Middle Ages.
Nevertheless, nothing really terrible happened. The Pole-guide turned out to be a very pleasant and erudite person, clearly in love with his city, which turned out to be a pleasure to listen to. Note that some "just work" and I don't really like such guides. Right there, the person clearly approached the "business with a soul" and, of course, it was very pleasant.
We walked to the majestic Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, destroyed during the battles for Breslau - this was the name of this city among the Germans, almost 70%, and then past the papal faculty of theology, along the Cathedral Street and across the Tumski Bridge, we went across the Oder River (or Oder in Polish) to the city center … It turned out, and personal impressions only confirmed that Wroclaw can be safely called the most romantic and quiet city in Poland. It is also interesting because there are as many as 12 islands within the city, to which beautiful bridges lead, which makes it an amazing place for walking and relaxing.
The islands in the city are connected by such bridges.
Well, the combination of a wide variety of cultures and architectural objects gives it a completely unique and in its own way unique look. But its main advantage, in my opinion, is the small number of tourists. Therefore, Wroclaw is spared from crowds and unnecessary noise.
Cathedral of John the Baptist.
Model of the cathedral near its entrance, allowing you to see it in its entirety.
One of the buildings on the Cathedral Street …
On the way to the center, the guide told us that we would be looking for … gnomes, miniature figures of which are made of bronze and are located throughout the city in various places. I had never heard of such a sight in Wroclaw, so I listened to the guide's story with great pleasure.
By the way, there are a lot of museums in the city of Wroclaw. There is a unique palace of medal art. There is a War Museum, which, unfortunately, I did not get to, although there is a wonderful collection of helmets and many other weapons, including Polish sabers.
And this is the Prussian Royal Palace and also a museum that tells about the thousand-year history of the city of Wroclaw.
According to the guide, Poland in the 1980s was an unpleasant sight: all-consuming censorship, human rights violations, empty store shelves, the hypocrisy of politicians and a gray stifling reality. All this caused the birth of a small community of those who disagreed with the regime. But they decided to act not by force, but by the methods of the "Orange Revolution", which is why the society received the name "Orange Alternative". Since the police immediately covered up anti-communist slogans that appeared here and there on the walls, the members of the “Alternative” began to paint orange gnomes with flowers in their hands in these places.
The first orange gnome was painted on a transformer booth on August 31, 1982. And soon their images appeared on the streets of all five largest Polish cities. So people showed that they were against the authorities, but it was impossible to bring them to justice on serious charges. Well, it's like now in Catalonia, where all the transformer booths are covered with the words "Catalonia is not Spain and" Fuck polizia! " Interest in these gnomes and "Alternative" reached its apogee on Children's Day, June 1, 1987. Then the guards of the socialist law and order of the city of Wroclaw began to arrest the activists of the movement who were distributing sweets to passers-by on widnicka Street. In response to the police brutality, the crowd began to chant "Gnomes exist!" And this event went down in Polish history under the name "The Revolution of the Dwarfs". Well, when the communist regime in Poland fell, a memorial sign in the form of … a bronze gnome was erected on widnicka Street in memory of this event. And now they stand throughout the city in various places and depict gnomes engaged in a variety of affairs, and no one knows the exact number of them!
The very first commemorative gnome is a "fighter against the totalitarian regime."
But I met such a gnome. Actually, there are a lot of them, but the main topic of this article is still a military one, so it hardly makes sense to develop the topic of gnomes further. Although a couple more to show, I think you can.
And so …
And these … gnome firefighters.
And here I do not remember from what place, on the opposite bank of the river, I saw a strange cylindrical building in the avant-garde style and, of course, immediately asked the guide, what is it? “Oh, this,” he replied, apparently not very interested in such things, “is a panorama of the battle near Racławice, where in 1794 the Polish cosigners defeated the Russian troops of General Tormasov”. I did not dare to ask any more, because I was ashamed of my ignorance. It seemed that he knew the whole history of the three partitions of Poland, which lands to whom, when they departed, that the dictator of the uprising Tadeusz Kosciuszko was taken prisoner in a battle with the Russian troops, was held in custody under Catherine, but was forgiven by Paul the First, and then asked Napoleon for help, that Suvorov for the suppression of the Polish uprising he received the rank of field marshal, but he did not know anything about this battle. And I wanted to see it right there. It was a matter of a minute to find out where the bus would be waiting for us and to which hotel it would take us, after which “my women” (wife, daughter and granddaughter) went one way, and I finally bought a tourist card, found a point on it rendezvous near the opera house and ran with all his might to another - to watch the longed-for diorama. And looked …
This is what it is - this diorama, or rather - the building in which it is located. For some reason, it resembles a wicker basket.
First of all, a personal impression. Back in 1962, I first saw Roubaud's "Sevastopol Panorama", and also the diorama "Storming Sapun Mountain" and they made an amazing impression on me. Museum-panorama "Battle of Stalingrad", or rather what is painted on it, did not like it very much, but "Battle of Borodino" - the panorama is simply amazing. Diorama “Heroic Presnya. 1905”seemed to me very original. There, on the object plane, there are human figures, which, in general, is not typical for dioramas. But this diorama is also very interesting. It is not as crowded as Borodinskaya, but it is painted simply masterfully.
It was created in 1893 - 1894 by order of the council of the city of Lvov, which then belonged to Austria-Hungary, in connection with the centenary of this battle. The length of the painting is 114 m, the height is 15 m, the diameter of the diorama is 38 m.
Artist Jan Styka on the scaffolding, working on the canvas of the panorama.
Artist Wojciech Kossak at work.
Its main authors were artists Jan Styka and Wojciech Kossak. The panorama was opened for viewing on the hundredth anniversary of the battle on June 5, 1894 at the Polish general domestic exhibition, which was then held in Lviv.
The building of the Lviv panorama in Stryisky park.
In 1944, as a result of the bombing of Lviv, it was damaged by the German invaders. In 1946, she was handed over to the Polish authorities and transported to the city of Wroclaw. However, the misadventures of the panorama did not end there. They did not exhibit it, but rolled it up and hid it in the basement of the National Museum in Wroclaw.
Polish artists have repeatedly depicted episodes of this battle, and why it is so understandable. Battle of Racławice. Drawing by Michal Stakhovich, first published in 1894.
The reason was the reluctance of the then authorities of socialist Poland to once again demonstrate their "disloyalty" to Moscow, since the demonstration of a panorama glorifying the victory of the Poles over the Russians (even in the era of Catherine the Great) could well be regarded as an unfriendly act. Therefore, everyone pulled and pulled with the decision to build a new building for her. Only in 1980, during the so-called Solidarity period, did it become possible to start construction of a new building for this panorama in Wroclaw, as well as the restoration of the canvas itself, which continued until 1985, when the panorama was finally opened on June 14.
As for the history of this battle itself, after getting acquainted with the panorama complex, I wanted to get to know it in more detail. And that's what we finally managed to find out about her.
Map of the battle from the history of the Akhtyrka hussar regiment.
And it so happened that a considerable part of the Polish gentry, like the gentry of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, although outwardly expressed complete obedience to the Russian Empire, in fact was preparing to raise an uprising, meaning that France, where the revolution was on the rise at that time, would help her in fight against tyranny. The Lithuanian gentry Tadeusz Kosciuszko, who participated in the war of the American states against England for independence, was elected to lead the uprising. The uprising began with the fact that the Polish general Madalinsky refused to disband the cavalry brigade, which he commanded, after which he unexpectedly attacked the Russian regiment and seized its regimental treasury. After that, he dispersed the Prussian squadron, which was in Silesia, and moved to Krakow. Already on March 16, 1794, the inhabitants of Krakow proclaimed Tadeusz Kosciuszko a dictator, and he took a public oath to the people. The Act of Uprising, adopted immediately, endowed him with the powers of the supreme commander of all the armed forces of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and transferred all power in the country into his hands. Riots broke out everywhere in Poland and Lithuania. To which the Russian ambassador and commander of the Russian troops in Warsaw, General Igelstrom, reacted immediately and sent detachments under the command of Denisov and Τορmasov against Madalinsky; in addition, Prussian troops immediately entered Poland.
For what I have always liked panoramas and dioramas, it is the presence of a subject plan. Such great life-size mock-ups, like here, for example. Diorama "Battle of Racławice".
But this cross stood at this very place then, it stands right there and now!
One of the monuments on the battlefield, erected today.
