The Oath crisis ( pl, Kryzys przysięgowy) was a
World War I political conflict between the
Imperial German Army
The Imperial German Army (1871–1919), officially referred to as the German Army (german: Deutsches Heer), was the unified ground and air force of the German Empire. It was established in 1871 with the political unification of Germany under the l ...
command and the
Józef Piłsudski-led
Polish Legions.
Initially supporting the
Central Powers against
Imperial Russia
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...
, Piłsudski hoped for the defeat of one of the
partitioning powers—Russia—with the help of the other two partitioning states,
Austria-Hungary and
Germany. However, after the Russian defeat in 1917 it became clear that the
Central Powers were in no position to guarantee the independence of
Poland. Despite the
Act of November 5th of 1916 and the creation of
Kingdom of Poland, it was apparent that the newly created state would be little more than a puppet buffer-state for Germany, a part of its
Mitteleuropa plan.
At this point, Piłsudski decided to switch allegiances to gain the support of the
Entente
Entente, meaning a diplomatic "understanding", may refer to a number of agreements:
History
* Entente (alliance), a type of treaty or military alliance where the signatories promise to consult each other or to cooperate with each other in case o ...
, particularly France and the United Kingdom, for the cause of Polish independence. A good pretext appeared in July 1917, when the Central Powers demanded that the soldiers of the Polish Legions swear allegiance and obedience to the Emperor
Wilhelm II of Germany. Persuaded by Piłsudski, the majority of the soldiers of the
1st and
3rd
Third or 3rd may refer to:
Numbers
* 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3
* , a fraction of one third
* Second#Sexagesimal divisions of calendar time and day, 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute''
Places
* 3rd Street (d ...
Brigades of the Legions declined to take the oath. In the end, soldiers who were citizens of
Austrian Empire (roughly 3,000) were then forcibly drafted into the
Austro-Hungarian Army, demoted to the rank of private and sent to the
Italian Front, while those born in other parts of occupied Poland were interned in
prisoner of war camps in
Szczypiorno
Szczypiorno is a municipal neighbourhood of the city of Kalisz, Poland, located in its south-western part. Formerly until 1976 a separate village at the outskirts of the city, it is best known as a seat of a World War I and Polish–Soviet War pr ...
and
Beniaminów. Approximately 7,500 soldiers (mostly from the
2nd Brigade of the Legions) remained in the rump
Polish Auxiliary Corps, part of the
Polnische Wehrmacht. Piłsudski himself and his Chief of Staff
Kazimierz Sosnkowski were arrested on 22 July 1917 and interned in the German fortress of
Magdeburg.
See also
*
Polish Army oaths
References
{{reflist
1917 in Europe
Polish Legions in World War I
Germany–Poland relations
1917 in Germany
1917 in Poland