THE JANUARY UPORISING IN 1863 IN THE HISTORICAL MEMORY OF CITIZENS OF DROHOBYCH (1880 – 1939)

Abstract

In the article in detail the tradition of the honoring of the theme of the January Uprising of the Polish people in 1863 in the cultural and educational surroundings of Drohobych for the period 1880 – 1939 is considered. It is above all the organization of festive and memorial ceremonies at the level of the public companies, magistrate and parochial institutions of Drohobych. Also the potential range of the residents and natives of the Drohobych district, who actively participated in military campaigns in 1863 – 1864 is defined. Among other things, for the first time in the historiography the articles of the Drohobych journalists dedicated to the January Uprising are analyzed: the autobiographical stories about the participants in the Uprising, the obituaries, the political and publicistic essays and also the poems of initiation. The tradition of organizing a variety of celebrations on the theme of the January uprising has long been a feature of the cultural topos of Drohobych not only at the level of the educational environment of local gymnasiums and public associations, but also at the level of the official city authorities in the face of the magistrate, municipality and district councils, as well as old age groups. The serious attitude of the citizens of the city to the events of 1861 - 1863 was especially relevant in connection with the fact that in the uprising, immigrants from Drohobych and the outskirts took part in the uprising, who, on the one hand, living in the city kept "living memory" about the most dramatic episodes of the stormy events of the January uprising, and on the other hand, they were able, by way of example, to convey the symbolic meaning of their feats to future generations in order to cultivate the legitimate right of every nation to freedom.