The author was inspired to write this article by finding in the “Chronicle of the Bartosz Głowacki State Gymnasium in Tomaszów Lubelski” a photograph from a bicycle trip in November 1928, which shows the Independence Monument, also known as the White Eagle Monument, in Krynice in all its splendour. The monument has not survived (the author cites three hypotheses regarding its destruction) and has so far only been known from a single photograph dating from the 1930s. The monument, which stood on a knoll between the monument dedicated to the soldiers of the Peasant Battalions and the parish church, was erected thanks to the efforts of Krynice’s inhabitants and landlord, Grzegorz Lipczyński, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Poland regaining independence. The plinth features an eagle with a closed crown topped by a cross, established as Poland’s national emblem in 1919. This was not the only manifestation of the local community’s patriotism. At that time, political and social organisations, such as the “Siew” and “Wici” unions of rural youth, the Riflemen’s Association, the Volunteer Fire Brigade, and the Polish People’s Party “Wyzwolenie” were developing dynamically in the Krynice commune. Similarly, Grzegorz Lipczyński was involved in many undertakings, such as buying a church in Horyszów Polski, moving it to Krynice, and reassembling it there (1920). The author brings to the reader’s attention the fact that in 1925 Lipczyński built a burial chapel in Krynice for his son Stefan, a soldier of the 7th Uhlan Regiment, who had been killed during the fighting near Lida, Lithuania in 1919.
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