Władysław Wielhorski. Dziennik: 1915–1917

Abstract

Władysław Wielhorski’s (1885-1967) diary is a unique testimony about the German occupation in Samogitia during World War I. It consists of five hand-written notebooks covering the period from spring 1915 to summer 1917. The first notebook is dated 23 April – 23 May, 1915, the second – 19 May – 27 August 1915, the third – 30 August 1915 – 2 March 1916, the fourth – 11 March – 19 November 1916, and the fifth – 6 (19) November 1916 – 23 July (5 August) 1917. The diary was written in Polish on the Lewoniewski’s family manor in Balčiai (Stulgiai parish, now eldership of Nemakščiai, Raseiniai district). The diary was a souvenir to Wielhorski’s wife, Celina Wielhorska née Lewoniewska, whom the author married shortly before the outbreak of WWI. The writing of the journal also coincided with the birth of their first daughter, Anna Wiktoria. The diary serves as a local chronicle showing the occupation of Samogitia from landowner’s perspective. It contains descriptions of military activities, as well as relations with the occupation administration. The author, a graduate in agriculture at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, also writes about economic affairs, analyzing the impact of occupation on the economy, both of the manor and the entire country. With a more stable situation on the front and regained access to the press, initially German from East Prussia and later from other regions of Germany, and Polish, Wielhorski’s attention drifted towards political journalism. The author became a well-known journalist in the early 1920s, when he regularly wrote to the Polish press in Kaunas.[...]