“That these efforts are one and the same; that we represent a bridge between the past and the present. . .”¹ is a fragment from Maria Wittek's speech delivered at the Extraordinary General Congress of the Przysposobienie Wojskowe Kobiet “PWK” (Female Military Training) Movement, held on 26 March 1939. This congress was a bitter-sweet success for the PWK, being the culmination of years of struggle for both recognition and the right to serve the nation.² Both manifestations came about only when the inevitable specter of war loomed. Women who had volunteered to fight for their homeland during World War I, and who had participated in both the border battles (1919–1920) and the Polish-Bolshevik War (1920), had for almost twenty years constituted a specific group of women soldiers who could only serve the state and society within a social movement. During this inter-war period, however, as a female military cadre they would spearhead defense training and shape civic attitudes among girls and young women.

In 1918, after 123 years of partition, Poland regained its independence. Throughout the years of partition, especially following the January Uprising of 1863, women took part in armed uprisings. They made meaningful contributions to civic and educational initiatives, and played formative roles in emerging political movements, especially in the socialist movement. Women also served on various fronts during World War I. Women's involvement grew with each uprising, and with that, acceptance of the landed classes for their greater participation in matters of a national liberation character.³ Young people from the landed gentry and intelligentsia were brought up in a patriotic spirit, sustained by stories from their fathers and grandfathers about the independence uprisings. These stories not only fired the imagination of boys, but also influenced girls, who were ready to sacrifice themselves for the fatherland. Social changes, greater access to education, and women's social and political activities also meant that there was increasing consent for women to become more involved in the independence movement. The advantages of women's participation in the underground movement were also recognized; women were less likely to attract the attention of the police and their clothing was suitable for carrying forbidden material, such as reports or ammunition. In the early twentieth century and during World War I, women from both conservative nationalist and socialist backgrounds were involved in underground activities and supported the Polish army.⁴ Patriotic sentiment inspired women to cross the proverbial home front, a trend that ultimately saw them working in intelligence roles and as couriers circulating between armies. Such activities led to the post-war formation of the Women's Volunteer Legion, which played a central role during the battles for Poland's new borders and during the Polish-Bolshevik War.⁵

The end of hostilities did not eliminate the feeling of threat from neighboring countries. Already in 1922, Poland was described as a saisonstaat, a “seasonal country,” by the German Chancellor Josef Wirth. And there was a widespread belief among European and Polish military authorities, and indeed politicians, that the peace treaties were unstable and that there existed the threat of an outbreak of war and communist revolution. This point of view was shared by women veterans of both World War I and the Polish-Bolshevik War, informed as they were by their own experience of frontline service in the east, their contact with the communist system, and their participation in the uprisings in Silesia.⁶ In the early 1920s, however, the economy of the emergent state was weak, and Poland could not afford to maintain a large army, let alone undertake its modernization, particularly when virtually all spheres of life (and infrastructure) required reconstruction and reconstitution. Across Europe in the aftermath of World War I, armies fell under governmental control, which in practice meant reductions and cuts.⁷

Members of the Women's Volunteer Legion, which had been dissolved in 1922, together with legion intelligence officers, looked for new opportunities to continue their pro-defensive activities outside of the ranks of the standing army; at the time such outlets were limited to women's associations. These women's associations attempted to drum up financing and drew on their contacts from among politicians and military leaders. During this period, men's military training developed in Poland, coordinated by the Department for Reserve Troops of the Ministry of Military Affairs. Drawing on this model, women veterans created an organization to train girls and young women in military basics and facilitate an auxiliary force in the event of war. The commander of this organization, eventually called the PWK,⁸ was Maria Wittek—a courier and intelligence officer, who distinguished herself greatly during the Polish-Bolshevik War. Wittek had regularly participated in the committee meetings of military training associations, and so had remained within the circles of expert practitioners and theoreticians, not to mention decision-makers.⁹

Women's military training involved preparing women to perform auxiliary activities in the army during wartime, as well as work in civilian defense to deal with potential gas attacks and partake in anti-aircraft defense. The training was conducted during summer camps that lasted 6–8 weeks. Girls also received training as part of their high school curriculum. Such training encompassed sanitary and medical, educational, communication, and administrative activities. In addition, girls were taught general military knowledge in areas such as civil defense, command structure, shooting, and ordinance. Apart from core basic training, the summer camps were intended to forge bonds, teach cooperation and the ideas of supporting one another, and, of course, nurture discipline. Practical classes were accompanied by theoretical lectures on the history of Poland, and in particular the struggle for independence, which also featured the involvement of women. Also important was the fact that the next generation of instructors also received training on the summer camps.¹⁰

Female commandants and instructors regarded their work as pioneering, with one of them writing that it was a movement “with avant-garde characteristics.” The civil “female military staff,” as Halina Piwońska described her fellow female colleagues, commanders, and instructors, were well-trained military auxiliaries that were not part of the army, but civilian-based and drawn from women's organizations. In the case of junior instructors, their involvement came with no form of remuneration.¹¹ Some of the female commandants, having provided distinguished service in past wars, enjoyed extraordinarily high levels of esteem, with young women composing poems and songs about them. Indeed, the commander-in-chief even rose to the rank of the female equivalent of Marshal Piłsudski. Such distinguished commanders oversaw the entire training process, created programs, and, until they trained younger cadres, conducted practical classes.¹²

Participation in the movement was voluntary—in this way the PWK could attract women who were ready and willing to participate in the defense of the state. It was only due to the approaching war that, in the late 1930s, compulsory training for girls in anti-gas and anti-aircraft defense, and also medical training, was carried out in schools. Special camps were organized for women with higher education—academics, journalists, and doctors—where they also gained the kind of experience that would allow them to work in underground organizations during World War II.¹³

Following the May Coup of 1926 and the establishment of the State Office of Physical Education and Military Training in 1927, the military training of young people, previously conducted within the units that coordinated reserves in the Ministry of Military Affairs, became part of the official defense policy. A women's military training unit was established under the command of Maria Wittek. Since only one coterie in Poland conducted this type of activity until 1934, there was little to hinder the coordination and oversight of the organization as a whole, and to include the unit issuing teaching programs. Such oversight extended to the regulation of training. A situation emerged where the Office of Physical Education issued guidelines and regulations prepared by both the legislators and their recipients. Moreover, prior to the establishment of the Office of Physical Education, women's organizations submitted training programs to the Ministries for approval, because there were no appropriate experts on women's issues at the state level. The military authorities, when establishing military education programs for girls, therefore had to draw on the knowledge and experience of women activists from social organizations. This was all the more so because women's paramilitary organizations protested from the outset against the imposition of male superiors over them.¹⁴

The idea for the creation of a women's unit within the Office of Physical Education was said to have come about through the cooperation of female representatives of organizations with similar paramilitary backgrounds and experiences. In 1927, for example, Maria Wittek went to Helsinki to learn about the work methods of the Finnish Lotta Svärd¹⁵ and the Estonian Naiskodukaiste (Women's voluntary defense organization); she also journeyed to Latvia, where she familiarized herself with the civil-defense organizations.¹⁶ Women from these countries had shared a similar experience of fighting for their country's independence and political system after the end of World War I, when the Soviet Union threatened from the east. In contrast to the smaller Baltic countries, who had to supplement their military potential by training civilian populations, Poland's paramilitary organizations were dispersed and, despite traditions of independence, had less status compared to the standing army. There was a strong cult in Poland of Piłsudski's Legions, a volunteer army from World War I, whose members entered politics in the Second Republic, both as civilians and as senior officers in the Polish army.

One of the guiding ideas of the PWK was to create the model of a new female citizen, one who was aware of her rights and duties with respect to the state. This ideal female citizen would be hard-working and punctual, modest and filled with the ideals of dedication and self-sacrifice. She would also project sporting prowess. Indeed, as part of the project to modernize society, the organization offered girls the opportunity to engage in physical activity. In the 1920s and 1930s, many people still believed that women should not play sports, that they should not exercise during physical education classes in shorts, or in general engage in strenuous activity. Referring to new theories and research in this field, the head command of the Office of Physical Education emphasized the importance of physical development as a support for the intellectual development of young women; and as a way of improving their general health.¹⁷ The activities proposed as a part of military training included principally team games, but swimming, shooting, and skiing were also to be included. Beyond general fitness, class considerations played some part in these initiatives. After all, the exercise was intended not only to improve physical fitness, orientation, and group work skills, but also to prepare for the physical work that women might encounter during wartime—clearly such strenuous activity would have been more burdensome for sedentary intellectuals than workers. From the perspective of today's feminist researchers, the promotion of physical exercise—especially competition and the art of shooting—is not only a matter of health and a question of the modernization of customs, including approaches to the female body, but it is also a process and manifestation of the militarization of society in peacetime.¹⁸

Defense and physical education were accompanied by a state education that envisioned the model of a new woman-citizen.¹⁹ Therefore, the women's military movement tried to become part of a feminist conversation that had been taking place since 1918, when women had received the right to vote in Poland, and when women's causes received a further impetus in the way of the May Coup.²⁰ In Poland, women's success in obtaining civil rights was closely related to women's involvement in the underground and independence movements. The activists themselves, countering arguments against the opponents of equal rights, referred to the widespread activities of women during the war. However, by demonstrating their usefulness during armed conflict, they became a part of the long process of the militarization of women's citizenship, a process that can still be seen today in other countries, particularly where conflict is ongoing.²¹ The female commanders of women's military training went a step further, showing that the militarization of women could occur during peacetime on a voluntary basis, and that this could be a part of modernizing and civic processes. In interwar Poland, modernization processes were taking place in all areas of political and social life. The regaining of independence also raised questions about the duties of the new citizens to the young state and society. Even in women's circles, in women's rights organizations, there were discussions about the tensions in society over women's right to vote, to be elected to parliament, to obtain academic degrees, and to enter professions previously reserved for men. For the ideologues of the PWK movement, the ideal female citizen was aware of her rights and obligations toward her homeland, proud of that which is best in her nation (chauvinism most certainly not being included), whilst recognizing national flaws. She would also be appreciative of the achievements of other nations. To this end, the PWK program included classes in history and geography. Among the reading recommendations were the classics of Polish literature, as well as sociological works on Polish peasants and emigration, as well as labor law.²²

With Poland on the verge of becoming an independent state, feminists looked to emphasize that equal rights did not mean uniformity; and that women and men had different areas where they could pursue interests and predispositions. Uniformed women in the Second Polish Republic remained an intriguing novelty; they also gave rise to a sense of outrage in some quarters, sometimes even provoking acts of violence.²³ Despite the progressive nature of women's military training, the PWK did not pursue emancipatory slogans, and did not agitate for specific organizations to promote women's rights, choosing instead to cozy up to the ruling camp while supporting civic and veterans’ associations. As the specter of war loomed in the 1930s, the PWK directed more of its efforts toward peasant and rural populations. PWK students taught the children, offered help on farms when peasant women were away at holiday field camps, and provided childcare (both on the farms and in the summer camps). What is more, rural communities received training in anti-aircraft defense and the organization of army field kitchens.²⁴ They also received medical training that allowed them to tend to the wounded. With the increasing threat of war, in 1938 the PWK was entrusted with the task of organizing the National Moral Emergency Service among Polish women. This initiative aimed to galvanize women for the struggles that lay ahead. It was intended to send a signal to Poland's neighbors that Polish women encapsulated the kind of strength and power “that our neighbors respect and fear.”²⁵ The army directed PWK members to conduct street collections for the national defense fund—again, despite their professional training for much more demanding tasks, they were supposed to lift morale—showing men that even women were ready to fight for their homeland, while encouraging women to work more responsibly and meaningfully on behalf of the homeland.

In Poland, the terms militarization and militarism have negative connotations, being mainly associated with the Third Reich and fascist Italy. Even at the end of the 1920s, PWK instructors rejected accusations of militarism, explaining to critics the misunderstood notion of pacifism, in which, as a country, Poland could not afford to indulge, particularly given its geopolitical location. It seems to me that we should consider to what extent the ideas of a new citizen, modest and self-sacrificing, supported by a militarily trained society, were not visions of this disliked militarism; the utopia of a uniformed, modest, and hard-working society that rejects the life of freebooter remained far from the manifestations of Poland's totalitarian neighbors. PWK's position very much reflected the vision articulated by Maria Wittek: to serve as a bridge between generations, between conspiratorial work during the partition—work that was intuitive and born out of necessity—and organized female military personnel, who were physically, morally, and ideologically prepared for the next armed conflict. With their pro-state stance, PWK's attitude differed from the pacifist sentiments dominant among international women's organizations. They did not propose emancipatory slogans, but instead they strove to achieve their “military” dreams. In this way, the organization expanded the space for women's societal engagement, both as practitioners and expert-theoreticians. This notion also led to a greater involvement on the part of women in the underground army during World War II.

In the 1930s, there was no place for public discussion about the possibility of sexual violence during warfare or within the ranks of the army. Female soldiers who fought in men's disguise on the front of World War I tended to write about the gallant attitude of their colleagues,²⁶ or that when men teased them by saying, “they say you are supposedly a woman,” they probably replied, “they say the same about you.”²⁷ We do not know from the memoirs whether the suspicions were not limited to questions, whether the soldiers ever decided to dispel doubts by divesting the suspect of their uniform. However, modern research on the safety of women serving in the army presents alarming data on the violence suffered.²⁸ During the fight for independence, did a noble cause make men become more gallant toward women who were regarded as comrades in arms?

PWK instructors were acutely aware of the pioneering nature of the solutions they proposed. Maria Wittek believed that she and her companions could work better for the defense of the nation and the shaping of its spirit if they were not at loggerheads with the state itself over women's right to work in the army or in other state institutions dealing with military training. What is extraordinary was the PWK's emphasis on self-reliance, and this notion could be found in many programmatic articles: the notion of working for the state while not asking for anything in return.

Perhaps this determined self-reliance could be explained by a fear that the army would withdraw the right for women to run their own affairs if they seemed to be too in need of help and assistance. Until the outbreak of World War II, the PWK campaigned for legislation governing the training of a women's reserve force in the event of war, and for regulating women's military ranks. In the 1930s, however, Polish society was not ready for such a bold initiative. The military did not see the need for such a policy either from an organizational or a financial perspective. Nor was the military psychologically prepared for such an undertaking. This idea was also not met with any great sense of enthusiasm on the part of Polish women. Nevertheless, just over twenty thousand women and girls trained in PWK camps, and the PWK recruited over a thousand instructors at various organizational and competence levels, plus another thousand instructors remaining in reserve.

In 1934, a Decree of the President of the Republic of Poland, which had the force of a statute, finally included a provision that women who had previously undergone training could also be called up for women's auxiliary military service. During the 1937–38 school year, compulsory military training was introduced for boys and girls in secondary schools. In 1938, the new General Military Obligation Act included a provision that women who received peacetime training were subject to general military service. In addition, guidelines were issued that specified the cooperation of the army with the organization of military training of women both for auxiliary services in the army as well as the training of non-affiliated women for civil defense. Of course, in practice, before the outbreak of the war, no final guidelines were issued that would allow women to serve in a full capacity. Nevertheless, on the eve of the outbreak of war, the PWK commandants achieved a moral victory after years of social engagement when they were included in the military command meetings that discussed defense and education.

Despite the inclusion of women in civil defense and military units, the PWK's flagship slogan and guiding principle remained that of sacrifice—a character trait stereotypically assigned to women, most often associated with low earnings in feminized professions such as nurses, caregivers for the elderly, or teachers. Indeed, women generally funded their own participation in defense work. Only a few instructors received remuneration for their efforts. Undertaking a course meant devoting time to the organization and imparting exclusive knowledge. They bought their own uniforms, and young girls bought the apparel required for classes during camps or field trips. They also subscribed to the magazine Dla Przyszłości (For the future), which generated funding for the organization as well as providing educational and practical information. These sacrifices were not only part of a forced activity, but also an idea passed on to young people, for example, through social work camps during which girls were supposed to fix things where the state was seen as failing, such as by teaching village children or even taking care of them while other girls helped on the farm. The organization treated this activity not as charity, but as drawing on one's own resources: “service for fellow citizens is service for the state, i.e. the fulfilling a social obligation as an expression of civic solidarity,” as one of the members of PWK, Wacława Zastocka, wrote.²⁹

In 1939, the organization appealed to unaffiliated women: “There is an age-old custom in our country—to stand ready when the homeland calls. Poland's defense requires the active participation of women.”³⁰ The female commanders of the organization called for women to register for anti-gas, aviation, medical, and economic self-defense training, which would support the state and military administration in helping and protecting the civilian population. The PWK, in effect, trained women for civilian war—caring for women, children, and the elderly—people who would be left without aid when men went to the front.³¹

“We must prepare so that even in the event of war, life in Poland will continue on in a normal fashion,” the PWK admonished.³² World War II on the terrain of Poland took on a different dimension, and the experience gained by the women participants during camps and trainings was co-opted in the official activities of the clandestine civil and military structures of the Polish underground state.

The society of interwar Poland was not ready for the inclusion of women in the army. Despite the efforts of women veterans of World War I to use their wartime experience to build up the army of the newly formed state, a woman in uniform was a cause for concern, a reminder of what people would like to forget. Female soldiers had to limit their paramilitary aims to social organization, focusing not only on building their military competence but also on their ability to organize aid to civilians in the event of war. Involvement in Poland's modernization project steered the ex-soldiers toward helping children and young adults from the people's classes. This seems like a good symbol of the victory of the Polish Mother-figure over the heroic female soldier.