The article includes a theoretical and practical proposal for perceiving and treating material and discursive remains of using chemical weapons – wherever they still exist – as stimuli for reflection on weapons of mass destruction and as warnings. Based on the specific example of the outcomes of the archaeological and historical research conducted in the historic battlefield – the section of the Eastern Front between Sochaczew in the north and Skierniewice in the south, the following more general appeals have been formulated: – for inalienability of collecting, systematizing and interpreting source information and studies that could together make up a real and digital repository of knowledge on material and discursive remains of historical uses of chemical weapons (CW) and potentially further on of weapons of mass destruction (WMD); – for documenting, digitalising and protecting in situ remains of the past that, despite representing a challenge for contemporary people, constitute a part of important, however difficult, transnational painful heritage; – for undertaking more intense, systematic and coordinated activities to disseminate knowledge about past use of CW and about the mission and activities of individuals and organisations involved in the process of minimizing the threats of weapons of mass destruction in the modern world (such as the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons – OPCW). It is worth exploration, as well as documentation and protection (with the aid of archaeology, history, memory studies, ethnology, landscape studies, educational studies – especially on Peace Education, tourism studies etc.) e.g. by means of transdyscyplinary research and working on establishing real and virtual repositories of knowledge on CW, OPCW, outreach, education on transnational painful heritage, reflective cultural tourism, attentive travel etc. The historical gasscapes (landscape marked with gas attacks) – such as an element of the landscape of today’s central Poland, sketched in this article, that bore witness to the very first mass use of gas shells in January 1915, as well as wave attacks with poisonous chlorine (possibly combined with phosgene) in the battlefield, has been presented as particularly predestined to serve as a symbols of CW painful heritage, triggers for reflection on BMR and carriers of even though weaker and disappearing living memories. Additionally, the attention was drawn to the fact that certain activities aimed at documenting, consolidating, systematizing and disseminating knowledge about the experiences related to CW (or more broadly, WMD) should be undertaken immediately. Some disappearing material remains prove it. The area (in present days Poland) of a former battlefield, where the army of the German Empire repeatedly used chemical weapons in 1915, still conceals the bodies of – until recently – almost completely forgotten victims of CW. Hence the emphasis put on the significance of that area and other similar places as destinations for attentive travel (real and virtual) following evocative remains will not leave us indifferent and uninterested.
In the article we consider the relationship between the poor condition of material remains of the Great War on one of the former Eastern Front’s battlefield’s in the Rawka and Bzura region with the long term attitudes of the local population towards the soldiers of Russian and German armies, fighting and killed there. For this purpose, we have analyzed written sources and witnesses accounts, as well asartifacts from archaeological research. We assume that recognizing situation of the local population during the events of 1914–1915 and after the war may bring us closer to answering the questions posed herein. Thus, we suppose, that loss of property, extremely difficult conditions of everyday life, illnesses and suffering, fear of military authorities and soldiers, of epidemic factors and infectious diseases, death of lovedones also those enlisted in the armies of the occupiers – these types of traumatic experiences – conditioned the attitude of the local population towards soldiers of the Great War. Some lasting consequences of this can be observed till today – in the form of fading traces of the material heritage of the Great War. Focusing on the material and discursive dimensions, we analyze the relationships between the primary (res gestae) and consequential/secondary processes (rerum gestarum histories and narrations) and observe a kind of causative “breaking the continuity” between them. Using the methods of historical archaeology, archaeology of recent past, memory studies, history etc., creates interesting, but so far poorly used, research possibilities. Most importantly, it can contribute to shaping attitudes characterized by historical and archaeological sensitivity and the will to understand the value of a difficult heritage (including resting places of fallen soldiers) and to prompt active care for it.
Piotr Brzezinka był najbardziej doświadczonym i najwyżej ocenianym przez specjalistów minerem-pirotechnikiem w naszym kraju. Był też docenianym w kraju i za granicą bronioznawcą. W środowisku minerów-pirotechników nie było osoby, która nie znałaby "Brzozy", bo taki pseudonim nosił od młodości. Dla wielu był mentorem i nauczycielem, współpracownikiem, przełożonym, dla piszącej te słowa był przyjacielem, wybitnym znawcą i pasjonatem broni, również zabytkowej, zwłaszcza z okresu I i II wojny światowej, chętnie dzielącym się swoją szeroką wiedzą i umiejętnościami, zawsze pomocnym w interpretacjach bronioznawczych i w diagnozach badanej sprawy.
The reason for this article was the 90th birthday of Professor Stanisław Tabaczyński (born on April 1, 1930). However, at the last stage of editorial work, the sad news of his death reached us (November 28, 2020). All the more we would like to commemorate the Professor, recalling his achievements and merits, which place him among the most outstanding Polish archaeologists, including actual members of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He made a great contribution to the development of Polish and world archaeology in the area of theoretical and field archaeological research. Many of his scientific initiatives concerned the theory and anthropology of culture as well as the methodology of archaeological research and the syntheses of prehistory and the early Middle Ages. His achievements and influence on shaping the minds of archaeologists of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century cannot be overestimated.
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