Puławy Legion

Puławy Legion (Polish: Legion Puławski) was a Polish military formation of World War I, as part of the Imperial Russian Army. It was created in late 1914 from volunteers gathered together due to several initiatives, most notably of which was that of the pro-Russian Polish National Committee, supported by Polish National Democrats. The initiative was supposed to counteract the Polish Legions of Józef Piłsudski forming under the Austro–Hungarian Army. The formation finished organizing in January 1915; at that time it numbered about 1,000 soldiers, and constituted a battalion of the Russian Army. The formation was used in combat against the German Empire. Eventually, the Legion was disbanded in October 1915 and reorganized into the Polish Rifle Brigade.

In 1795 Poland was partitioned between the Kingdom of Prussia, Austrian Empire and the Russian Empire. In 1914, with the onset of World War I, those powers found themselves on separate sides, and all tried to recruit Poles into their ranks, promising increased autonomy after the war in return. In the Russian Empire, efforts of Witold Ostoja-Gorczyński, supported by the command of the Southwestern Front, resulted in a growing group of Polish volunteers gathering from October and November 1914 first at Chełm and Brest, and later at Puławy. This initiative, supported by the Polish National Democrats, was also aimed at countering the (eventually more successful) initiative of Józef Piłsudski, who was forming his own Polish Legions under the supervision of the Austro-Hungarian Army.

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