Dziennik Zygmunta Waltera, ułana Legionu Polskiego (24 X–17 XII 1914)

Zygmunt Walter (1895–1942) joined the third Squadron of the Uhlans, incorporated to the First Brigade of the Polish Legions in 1914 in Cracow. At the end of 1914 he left for the Eastern Carpathian front. His service was interrupted by an illness and at the beginning of 1915 he found himself in the Marmaros-Sziget military hospital (Sighetu Marmaţiei in Romania). After the recovery, he was sent to join the survey of the legion graves in the area of Opoczno, which was conducted by the Commission for the Conservation of the Graves of the Polish Legionnaires at the Supreme National Committee. The author registered the events which took place between 24th October 1914 and 17th December 1914 as they happened. The notebook containing this diary was donated to the Jagiellonian Library by the daughter of the author, Rita Walter-Łomnicka. The diary belongs to a group of journals kept by the legionnaires and it can be compared with the diary of August Krasicki, the adjutant and orderly officer to the generals of the Polish Legions who trained young Uhlans, including Walter, in Nagyszöllös (Vinogradiv in Ukraine). Walter’s unit moved among twenty towns (now in the territories of Ukraine), beginning with Kiárlymezö (Ust-Czorna) and ending in Köröszmözö (Yasinya). The diary mentions many well-known legionnaires, such as Józef Haller, August Krasicki and Alfred Leonhardt. It also mentions the battles of Nadwórna (Nadvirna) and Rafajłowa (Rafaynove), dressing the wounds of wounded soldiers, one of whom was the painter Józef Ryszkiewicz-Świrysz.