46 Bal Polski Celebrating:

2018 r. Rok Jubileuszu 100-lecia Odzyskania Niepodległości

The 100th anniversary of Poland Regaining its Independence

ENG This year’s Polish Ball is honoured to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Poland’s restored independence, 123 years after the country disappeared from world maps, having been fully partitioned between the Russian, Prussian and Austrian empires.

This anniversary also commemorates and honours the efforts of all those who fought throughout this dark period to maintain the Polish spirit, language and culture, in spite of attempts by the occupiers to minimise or even forbid these activities, often violently.

 

Although it was a gradual road to full independence from 1918 onwards, Poland celebrates 11 November as the day that Marshal Józef Piłsudski, released from German captivity, assumed full authority over the new Polish state and formed a centralised government, calling parliamentary elections soon after. On that day, the dream of generations of Poles came true: the Polish state was reborn, throwing off the shackles of a nation partitioned and 123 years of serfdom. After great uprisings, free Poland was reinstated on the map of the world.

We commemorate those who remained unyielding not only on the battlefields but also the everyday effort to preserve the spiritual and material substance of the nation and the everyday endurance of Polish families.

We honour the work of every individual over the years since, who helped to re-establish the new Poland as an independent, strong European nation.