Józef Dowbor-Muśnicki (Iosif Romanovich while in the

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n military; sometimes also Dowbór-Muśnicki; ; 25 October 1867 – 26 October 1937) was a Polish general, serving with the Imperial Russian and then

Polish armies Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

. He was also the military commander of the Greater Poland Uprising.

Early life

Dowbor-Muśnicki was born in the

Garbów Garbów is a village in Lublin County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Garbów. It lies approximately north-west of the regional capital Lublin. The village lies on the K ...

(near Sandomierz) in an estate in the Radom Governorate of

Congress Poland Congress Poland or Congress Kingdom of Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It was established w ...

, the part of

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

that was then a part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. His father was Roman Muśnicki, the owner of Garbów, descended from the Lithuanian Dowborów (Daubor) family ( Przyjaciel coat of arms), who settled in Sandomierz during the 17th century. Józef was the younger brother of Konstanty, also a lieutenant general. Their mother was Antonina née Wierzbicki. His family traced its roots to

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

Polish nobility of evangelical reformed denomination. Dowbor received his basic education in the Nikolayevskiy Cadet Corps (

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

Service in the Russian Military (1884–1914)

In 1884 he joined the Russian military and graduated from the 2nd ''Konstantinovskoye'' Military School (

) in 1888. After serving in the Fanagorisky Grenadiers regiment, he studied at the General Staff Academy and graduated in 1902. He served in

Manchuria Manchuria is a historical region in northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day northeast China and parts of the modern-day Russian Far East south of the Uda (Khabarovsk Krai), Uda River and the Tukuringra-Dzhagdy Ranges. The exact ...

during the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major land battles of the war were fought on the ...

as a staff officer with the First Siberian Corps. On 11 September 1906 he was appointed a senior staff adjutant of the Irkutsk Military District and on 2 March 1908, a staff officer of the Xth Corps. On 9 November 1910 he became chief of staff of the 10th Infantry Division and on 21 April 1912 he was appointed to the same position with the 7th Infantry Division.

World War I (1914–1917)

At the beginning of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Dowbor-Muśnicki was put in command of the 14th Siberian Infantry Regiment. On 3 September 1915 Dowbor-Muśnicki, by then a general, was assigned to the staff of the Russian 1st Army. On 25 February 1916 he was put in charge of the 123rd Infantry Division and on 7 November 1916 of the 38th Infantry Division. He was temporarily put in charge of the staff of the Russian 1st Army on 17 January 1917, 5 weeks before the

February Revolution The February Revolution (), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and sometimes as the March Revolution or February Coup was the first of Russian Revolution, two revolutions which took place in Russia ...

that overthrew

Tsar Tsar (; also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar''; ; ; sr-Cyrl-Latn, цар, car) is a title historically used by Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean ''emperor'' in the Euro ...

Nicholas II Nicholas II (Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov; 186817 July 1918) or Nikolai II was the last reigning Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland from 1 November 1894 until his abdication on 15 March 1917. He married ...

1917 Revolution

In the immediate aftermath of the February Revolution, Dowbor-Muśnicki continued his military career and was appointed commander of the XXXVIIIth Corps on 28 April 1917 and made Lieutenant General on 5 May 1917. In the meantime, however, the

Russian Provisional Government The Russian Provisional Government was a provisional government of the Russian Empire and Russian Republic, announced two days before and established immediately after the abdication of Nicholas II on 2 March, O.S. New_Style.html" ;"title="5 ...

's obvious weakness, its half-hearted declaration of the right of nations to

self-determination Self-determination refers to a people's right to form its own political entity, and internal self-determination is the right to representative government with full suffrage. Self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international la ...

and Germany's promises of autonomy in occupied Poland stirred up long suppressed nationalist feelings among ethnic Poles living within the Russian Empire. Roughly 700,000 of them were serving in the Russian military by 1917 and they began forming a Polish army to fight for a "united and free Poland" with the assent of the Provisional Government. In August, the newly formed Main Polish Military Executive Committee appointed Dowbor-Muśnicki Commissar of the Petrograd Military District and on August 23 (

Old Style Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) indicate dating systems before and after a calendar change, respectively. Usually, they refer to the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various European countries betwe ...

) he was appointed commander of the newly formed Polish 1st Corps in Russia. The reorganization process was complicated by the

October Revolution of 1917 The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. It was led by Vladimir L ...

, which brought

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

to power, but Dowbor-Muśnicki was able to take advantage of the new government's weakness and general anarchy to form 3 divisions in

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

by January 1918.

Against the Bolsheviks (1918)

On , Dowbor-Muśnicki refused an order by the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

government to disband the Corps, which quickly led to clashes with the newly formed

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

and Red Latvian riflemen under

Jukums Vācietis Jukums Vācietis (; – 28 July 1938) was a Latvian and Soviet military commander. He was a rare example of a notable Soviet leader who was not a member of the Communist Party (or of any other political party), until his demise during the Great ...

. After sporadic fighting in late January, on January 31 Dowbor-Muśnicki's Corps had to retreat to

Bobruisk Babruysk (, ) or Bobruysk (, ; , ) is a city in Mogilev Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Babruysk District, though it is administratively separated from the district. It is situated on the Berezina River. Babruysk o ...

and

Slutsk Slutsk is a town in Minsk Region, in central Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Slutsk District, and is located on the Sluch (Belarus), Sluch River south of the capital Minsk. As of 2025, it has a population of 59,450. Geography ...

, where he was surrounded by

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

forces. After the temporary breakdown of the Brest-Litovsk peace negotiations on February 10, Dowbor-Muśnicki joined the German offensive against the Bolsheviks on February 18 and took

Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...

. After the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty, which gave all of Poland and Belarus to Germany, Dowbor-Muśnicki's corps remained in Belarus for 3 months, regrouping and performing police duties under German occupation authorities. In May 1918, Dowbor-Muśnicki was forced to sign an agreement with Germany that led to the disarmament and effective dissolution of the Corps by July 1918, at which point he moved to Poland. The agreement was criticized by some pro-independence Polish politicians, but it preserved the core of the Polish military, which proved decisive later that year.

Against the Germans

After the

armistice An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from t ...

that ended World War I in November 1918, Dowbor-Muśnicki helped organize a new Polish army around the disbanded 1st Corps and its officers. On 6 January 1919 he was nominated by the Supreme People's Council, the temporary ruling body of the province of

Greater Poland Greater Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska (; ), is a Polish Polish historical regions, historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief and largest city is Poznań followed by Kalisz, the oldest city in Poland. The bound ...

, as the new commanding officer of all the Polish forces in the area. Two days later he arrived to

Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...

and on January 16 he officially assumed his post, replacing Major Stanisław Taczak during the Greater Poland Uprising against Germany in the disputed region. During his service as the commander in chief of the Uprising, Dowbor-Muśnicki was responsible for almost complete reorganization of what was started as a para-military partisan force. He introduced conscription and mobilized eleven classes of recruits and reformed the partisans into divisions. During his command, the Greater Polish Army grew from merely 20,000 to over 100,000 soldiers, well-armed and well-equipped. After the Battle of Ławica in which the Poles managed to capture the airfield, the Greater Polish Army was the fourth force in the world in number of aeroplanes available. Dowbor-Muśnicki focused also on political matters and strived for political neutrality of the forces under his command, which made him demobilize some of the leftist and rightist officers. He also disbanded the leftist ''soldiers' councils''. To some extent Dowbor-Muśnicki was conflicted with the Polish General Staff. Due to difficult diplomatic situation of Poland during the early stages of the Paris Peace Conference, the forces of the Greater Poland Uprising were separated from the Polish Army and were thought of as a separate entity. Because of that, he opposed drafting Poles from Greater Poland into the Polish Army and sending them to the fronts of the Polish-Ukrainian War and the Polish-Bolshevik War. Instead, he envisioned an offensive towards north which would spread the Uprising to the lands of

Pomerania Pomerania ( ; ; ; ) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The central and eastern part belongs to the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, West Pomeranian, Pomeranian Voivod ...

. However, after the area was peacefully transferred to Poland, his plans were made obsolete. Despite the conflict, on 19 March 1919 he was promoted to the rank of

Generał broni Generał broni (literally ''General of arms'', '' general of the branch'', abbreviated gen. broni) is the second highest Generals grade in the Polish Army, second only to the recently introduced rank of Generał (both in Land Forces and in the P ...

, the highest rank of the Polish forces at that time. Finally, after the end of hostilities, on 19 October 1919 the Dowbor-Muśnicki's forces were merged with

Józef Haller Józef Haller (''de Hallenburg''; 13 August 1873 – 4 June 1960) was a Polish lieutenant general and legionary in the Polish Legions during the First World War. He was a harcmistrz (the highest Scouting instructor rank in Poland), the p ...

's Blue Army and the

Polish Army The Land Forces () are the Army, land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 110,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military histor ...

while at the same time the lands of

were officially incorporated into

Retirement

Józef Dowbor-Muśnicki remained the commander of the so-called Greater Poland Front until the outbreak of the Polish-Bolshevik War, after which he resigned his post and applied to

Józef Piłsudski Józef Klemens Piłsudski (; 5 December 1867 – 12 May 1935) was a Polish statesman who served as the Chief of State (Poland), Chief of State (1918–1922) and first Marshal of Poland (from 1920). In the aftermath of World War I, he beca ...

for a new assignment. After General Stanisław Szeptycki declined to take the post of the commanding officer of the Ukrainian Front from General

Wacław Iwaszkiewicz Wacław is a Polish masculine given name. It is a borrowing of , Latinized as Wenceslaus. For etymology and cognates in other languages, see Wenceslaus. It may refer to: * Wacław Cimochowski (1912–1982), Polish philologist * Wacław Gajewski ( ...

, the post was offered to Dowbor-Muśnicki, who refused. Having no further assignments, in March 1920 he resigned all his posts in the army and settled in Lusowo and then in Batorowo near Poznań. Opposing Piłsudski's Coup d'État of 1926, he did not rejoin the army during the internal struggle. Instead, he focused on writing his memoirs, ''Moje wspomnienia'' (''My Memoirs''). He suffered a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

on 26 October 1937 and was buried at the family tomb at the local cemetery.

Family

Dowbor-Muśnicki had two sons, Giedymin and Olgierd, and two daughters, Janina and Agnieszka. Olgierd committed suicide before

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Giedymin emigrated to

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

in the 1930s, while both daughters were executed during World War II. Agnieszka, who was an active member of the Polish resistance, was arrested by the German occupiers, tortured in the

Pawiak Pawiak () was a prison built in 1835 in Warsaw, Congress Poland. During the January 1863 Uprising, it served as a transfer camp for Poles sentenced by Imperial Russia to deportation to Siberia. During the World War II German occupation ...

prison in Warsaw and then executed in the Palmiry mass murder site, while Janina Lewandowska was the only woman murdered by the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

during the

Katyn massacre The Katyn massacre was a series of mass killings under Communist regimes, mass executions of nearly 22,000 Polish people, Polish military officer, military and police officers, border guards, and intelligentsia prisoners of war carried out by t ...

Honors

Order of St. Stanislaus 3rd degree with swords and bow, 1905 * Order of Saint Anna ribbon bar

Order of St. Anne 4th degree, 1905 * Order of Saint Stanislaus Ribbon

Order of St. Stanislaus 2nd degree with swords, 1905 * Order of Saint Anna ribbon bar

Order of St. Anne 3rd degree with swords and bow, 1905 *

Order of St Vladimir The Imperial Order of Saint Prince Vladimir () was an Imperial Russian order established on by Empress Catherine II in memory of the deeds of Saint Vladimir, the Grand Prince and the Baptizer of the Kievan Rus'. Grades The order had four ...

4th degree with swords and bow, 1906 * Order of St. Anne 2nd degree with swords, 1906 *

3rd degree with swords and bow, 1913 *

Order of St. George The Order of Saint George () is the highest military decoration of the Russian Federation. It was originally established on 26 November 1769 Julian (7 December 1769 Gregorian) as the highest military decoration of the Russian Empire for commiss ...

IV class (1915, Russian Empire) * RUS Order of Saint George 4th class ribbon 2000

, 3rd class, 1915 * Golden Sword of St. George, 1915 * Order of Saint Anna ribbon bar

Order of St. Anne, First Class with Swords (1916, Russian Empire) * Order of Saint Stanislaus Ribbon

Order of St. Stanislaus First Class with Swords (1916, Russian Empire) * Commendatore OCI Kingdom BAR

Order of the Crown of Italy The Order of the Crown of Italy ( or OCI) was founded as a national order in 1868 by King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy, Vittorio Emanuele II, to commemorate Italian unification, the unification of Italy in 1861. It was awarded in five degrees for ...

, 3rd class (Italy) * Order of the Bath UK ribbon

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by King George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. Recipients of the Order are usually senior British Armed Forces, military officers or senior Civil Service ...

, (Great Britain) * EST Cross of Liberty II division ribbon

Freedom Cross, 2nd Class (Estonia) * War Cross, 2nd Class (Latvia) *

Order of the Double Dragon The Imperial Order of the Double Dragon () was an Order (decoration), order awarded in the late Qing dynasty. The Order was founded by the Guangxu Emperor on 7 February 1882 as an award for outstanding services to the throne and the Qing court. ...

, 3rd class (China)

References

*Piotr Bauer. ''General Dowbor-Muśnicki'', Poznan, Wydawnictwo Poznańskie, 1988. olish language biography*''The European Powers in the First World War: An Encyclopedia'', edited by Spencer C, Tucker, Laura M. Wood, Justin D. Murphy, Garland Science, Garland Reference Library of the Humanities, 1996, , page 223. *Konstantin Aleksandrovich Zalesskii. ''Kto byl kto v Pervoi mirovoi voine : biograficheskii entsiklopedicheskii slovar´.'', Moscow, Astrel´ and AST, 2003, 'Who Was Who in World War I'' in Russian
Online Biography (in Polish)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dowbor-Musnicki, Jozef 1867 births 1937 deaths People from Sandomierz County People from Radom Governorate Polish Calvinist and Reformed Christians 19th-century Polish nobility Polish generals of the Second Polish Republic Polish generals in the Imperial Russian Army of World War I Russian military personnel of the Russo-Japanese War Polish I Corps in Russia personnel Greater Poland Uprising (1918–1919) participants Recipients of the Order of Saint Stanislaus (Russian), 1st class Recipients of the Order of St. Vladimir, 3rd class Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 1st class Recipients of the Order of St. George of the Third Degree Honorary companions of the Order of the Bath Recipients of the Gold Sword for Bravery 20th-century Polish nobility Imperial Nikolayev Military Academy alumni