‘My Military Service’. Recollections of the Reverend Jan Twardowski, a soldier of the 13th ‘Guidobald Starhemberg’ Galician Infantry Regiment, called the ‘Cracow Children’

Recollections of all sorts constitute an important supplementary historical source. The authors of this article, historians – Dr hab. Ewa Danowska and Piotr Świątczak – have edited the interesting recollections of the Rev. Dr Jan Twardowski from the period of his service in the Austro-Hungarian army from 1894 to 1895. They form part of his voluminous legacy deposited in the Special Collections Department of the Scientific Library of PAU and PAN in Cracow. They are very illuminating.
Having completed his education at the Austro-Hungarian Higher Gimnazjum (Secondary School) in Bochnia, Jan Twardowski served in the army for one year as a volunteer in the 13th ‘Guidobald Starhemberg’ Galician Infantry Regiment stationed in Cracow. He was quartered in the Archduke Rudolf barracks.
The hero of the present paper has left behind a comprehensive characterization of this period of his life. He describes in detail the course of his service in the partitioner’s armed forces and his adventures at that time; he also shares with posterity his private experiences and reflections and depicts the relations between the officer cadre and the rank-and-file soldiers.
These recollections form part of Jan Twardowski’s memoir written down late in life. He writes, among other things, about his childhood (he was born in 1873), his schooldays, his studies at the Jagiellonian University, and his work as a catechist and teacher in a secondary school; we can also learn about a suspension imposed on him, his struggle for the right to his pension, and the later fate of Jan Twardowski as a mature man. The paper additionally discusses the general question of military service for Poles from Galicia in the Austro-Hungarian army.

Recollections of all sorts constitute an important supplementary historical source. The authors of this article, historians – Dr hab. Ewa Danowska and Piotr Świątczak – have edited the interesting recollections of the Rev. Dr Jan Twardowski from the period of his service in the Austro-Hungarian army from 1894 to 1895. They form part of his voluminous legacy deposited in the Special Collections Department of the Scientific Library of PAU and PAN in Cracow. They are very illuminating.
Having completed his education at the Austro-Hungarian Higher Gimnazjum (Secondary School) in Bochnia, Jan Twardowski served in the army for one year as a volunteer in the 13th ‘Guidobald Starhemberg’ Galician Infantry Regiment stationed in Cracow. He was quartered in the Archduke Rudolf barracks.
The hero of the present paper has left behind a comprehensive characterization of this period of his life. He describes in detail the course of his service in the partitioner’s armed forces and his adventures at that time; he also shares with posterity his private experiences and reflections and depicts the relations between the officer cadre and the rank-and-file soldiers.
These recollections form part of Jan Twardowski’s memoir written down late in life. He writes, among other things, about his childhood (he was born in 1873), his schooldays, his studies at the Jagiellonian University, and his work as a catechist and teacher in a secondary school; we can also learn about a suspension imposed on him, his struggle for the right to his pension, and the later fate of Jan Twardowski as a mature man. The paper additionally discusses the general question of military service for Poles from Galicia in the Austro-Hungarian army.