In its own way, the Polish-Bolshevik war was the last romantic conflict in Polish history. Never again have cavalrymen had the opportunity to cross the Ukrainian steppes with a saber in their hand, or ... sing about the theft of hens, drunkenness or raping widows.
Needless to say, the Polish cavalry created a very specific culture. Its traces can be found in sources, biographies or descriptions of battles, but there is probably nothing better evidence of uhlan identity than the Żurawiejki. In short, they were two-line chants humorously characterizing a given cavalry regiment. It's a joke, but of course there was a grain of truth in each of them.
The most famous Żurawiejka has become a kind of refrain, repeated after each other chant:
Battle lances, Sabers in hand,
Bolshevik chase, chase, chase!
Steward's heads are rolling
And indeed, there are a lot of cranberries relating directly to the Bolsheviks and the Polish-Bolshevik war. For example, the 14th Jazłowiec Lancers' Regiment sang: Where the fourteenth combat regiment, the commissar's heads are flying . The 3rd Regiment of Szwoleżerów referred to a specific battle - the clash over Służcza in October 1920: Let the descendants learn from the books how much blood was shed on the Słłucza. The lancers of the 5th regiment sang similarly, though about the battle of Zasław in September. However, it was not the fights that were the main motive of the cavalry chants, but the murders, robberies and abuses .
Never sober, always pissed
Many regiments boasted of drunkenness and rape, or at least success in all respects. 4th Zaniemeński Lancers Regiment sang: Venereal and drunk , this is the Fourth Cavalry Regiment . The 6th Regiment had a similar opinion about itself: Never sober, always wasted, the Kaniowscy are lancers. In turn, the soldiers of the 3rd Cavalry Regiment openly admitted serving the national cause not only with a saber: Who makes children in Suwałki? The cavalry regiment is the third. Of course, there was not always time for revelations, sometimes you had to drink sadly, which was sung by the lancers from the 2nd Regiment:
The conditions of a frontier war, often in chaos and with state borders only emerging, necessarily influenced the general discipline. Anyway, if we take the cranberry as proof, there was no question of any discipline in the cavalry.
Rapes virgins, rapes widows
This is best seen in the example of the 19th Volhynian Lancers Regiment, which actually led - as Witold Sienkiewicz politely put it in his book "Niepokonani 1920" - very brutal fights with the Bolsheviks and Ukrainians. Some examples:
Your rake, someone else's loot
The nineteenth is not stupid.
The nineteenth boasts this:
Smoke at village stops.
Rape virgins, rape widows
Nineteenth Plague Regiment.
Most, as is usual in history, the Jews got:
Binds Jews a millstone,
Nineteenth Volyn Regiment.
The 13th Vilnius Uhlans sang in a similar way: They looted Jews, the thirteenth regiment is not stupid. If we interpret stupidity in this way, then the members of the 5th Zasław Ułanów Regiment should also be considered "intellectuals": Who abuses the Jews? This is the Fifth Regiment since Haller.
Against this background, no one will be surprised by the addiction of cavalrymen to playing cards ( their own soul will lose at cards, the lancers' regiment is the fourth ), nor… love of good cheese:
They steal chickens, steal cheese,
Rokitnia's Chevau-Legers.
Source:
The article is based on the book by Witold Sienkiewicz, published by Demart, entitled The Undefeated 1920. The Polish-Bolshevik War.