„National custom or political fact”? Around the 50th anniversary of the November uprising in Lvov

Abstract

The subject of this article is reflection on the issue of shaping the image of the November uprising in social imagination and in historic narration in Galicia at the period of autonomy. The problems of the 50th anniversary of the November uprising in Lvov from 1880 inscribes into wider studies on the presence of national uprisings in the cultural memory of Polish society in the 19th and 20th centuries. The discussed anniversary significantly influenced the development of the memoir literature and on undertaking historic studies on the November uprising. In the second half of the 19th century the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the 1830 uprising belonged to the most important anniversaries connected with the November uprising due to the scale of the celebrations and their political significance. The leading position of Lvov in the 50th anniversary of the November uprising was denoted by various factors of political nature, opposing the Krakow conservativists and increased activity of the Galician democrat environment for whom this anniversary was one of the factors legitimizing this environment in the ideological respect. Organization of the anniversary celebrations was prepared by the “Citizen Committee of celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the November uprising in Lvov” presided by Alfred Mlocki (1804-1882), a participant of the November uprising, immigrant, a member of the City Council and a social activist. The anniversary celebration from 1880 influenced consolidation of the environment of the uprising veterans what resulted in establishing the “Society for Care over Veterans Polish Soldiers from 1831” in Krakow in 1882. The Society had a complex organizational structure including Delegations in the area of the whole Galicia including Lvov. On the occasion of the anniversary also permanent “places of November memory” were funded in Lvov in the form of a Quarter of the “Iron Company” on the Lyczakovskij Cemetery. In years 1881- 1916 there were graves of 47 soldiers of the November uprising.