Last modified: 2018-12-15 by rob raeside
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Also to expand a bit on Jenś answer to Željko's question let me add:
Michalowice was located on the borders of the totalitarian Empires
occupying Poland after the partitions.
The Riflemen's Association - "Rifleman" (Związek Strzelecki "Strzelec")
was a Polish paramilitary cultural and educational organization created
in 1910 in
Lwów ( Austrian zone of partitioned Poland) and the legal front for
underground Union for Armed Struggle (Związek Walki Czynnej - ZWC).
The Association's mission was training young Poles in military skills.
Before World War I, the Riflemen's Association provided military training
to over 8,000 people, and its trainees subsequently formed an important
part of the Polish Legion (Legiony) in World War I, fighting the Russians
on Austro-Hungarian and German side.
Members of the Association from Michalowice where the first among others
to overturn the border markers erected by the partitioning powers. It happened
on
August 6, 1914, and to commemorate it, the eagle badge of the Association
was allowed to be placed on Arms and flag of Michalowice.
One of the early organizers of the Riflemen's Association was Marshal
Józef Piłsudski, who also organized and headed the Polish Legion on Central
Powers side. He commanded the Legion in numerous battles with the Russians
and in October 1918 was asked to take an oath of loyalty to the emperors
of Germany and Austria-Hungary. He refused, was arrested and interned in
Magdeburg, but only after giving an order to his troops to start fighting
Germans.
On November 18, 1918 he returned in triumph to Warsaw and was called
to the post of Head of State of the Nation regaining its independence after
120 years of
partition and foreign occupation. Among the commanders of Polish armies
fighting to secure the borders of the reborn state and to stave off the
Bolshevik onslaught on Europe, were early members of the Riflemen's Association
and the Polish Legion: Kazimierz Sosnkowski, Edward Rydz-Śmigły, Władysław
Sikorski, Marian Kukiel, Walery Sławek, Julian Stachiewicz, Aleksander
Prystor and Włodzimierz Tetmajer.
The Riflemen's Association was revived in Poland in 1991, after the
fall of communism.
(Above text based on Wikipedia's articles).
Chrystian Kretowicz, 13 Oct 2008
Here is the flag of Michałowice commune (voj. Małopolskie, Krakow County),
as can be seen on this
website.
Jens Pattke, 13 Oct 2004
If the emblem in chief the Polish military insignia? if so, what make
the commune to wear it?
Željko Heimer, 13 Oct 2004
Eagle without crown of Shooting Association (on amazon shield) is symbol
of boundary defeat, invasive cordons on 6 Aug 1914. This honor was
awarded to Michałowice.
Jens Pattke, 14 Oct 2004