Piotr Michalowski and Polish Soldiers Feast Day

 Salvete Omnes,

 

Today is a good day to celebrate if you are a Polish Polonian - :)  and more than 1000 years of Polish Armed Forces 

sadly, the current government felt it was  not appropriate to celebrate this Armed Forces Feast Day with a  military parade in Warsaw, with Polish Armed Forces respective representational units marching in the capital city, and hundreds or even thousands of reenactors did not march either, like they did in years prior, with yours truly in 2016.

 

So why not some beautiful art to wipe the tears of rage and disappointment - hence Piotr Michalowski's works come in handy 

 

and we reminisce about the Polish Armed Forces more then a millennium long tradition with Michalowski's painting showing our good king (then still official but a Piast prince) Boleslaw I Chrobry entering Kiev/Kyiv on August 14, 1018. 

 

Polish king came to help his son-in-law prince Sviatopolk I of Kiev against their enemy prince Yaroslav. Our king Boleslaw's Kiev Expedition was a grand success and brought lots of plunder and booty, including princes Predslava, his new wife in common. With Boleslav's entry  into the capital of Kievan Rus  comes the origin legend of our Crown sword, Szczerbiec, 

 

where Boleslav was to chip his sword against the  Kiev's Golden Gate.  Jan Matejko also painted a canvass showing this moment of Polish Piast ruler triumph.

Poland Piast realm under Boleslaw I Chrobry (the Brave)
and today is also the anniversary of the beginning of the famous battle of Warsaw 1920 and in this painting by Michalowski we have a Polish peasant on horseback. It was the peasant leader and prime minister Wicenty Witos who addressed and called upon our Polish farmers and peasants to defend the Homeland against the bolsheviks in 1920.  Thus finally Polish peasants were officially acknowledged as the defenders of Poland reborn.  The defend they did. But new Poland did not repay their defenders back, but that is a story for another day. 

Valete

Легенда о Коловрате

Salve,
I just saw this preview on youtube - u la la...
I have seen a number of Russian films on the Kievan Rus and the Mongols, including the animated Knyaz Vladimir.
I enjoyed the Russian version of the Chinggis Khan story (after the Secret History of the Mongols) and  the movie The Horde, thus it appears that  this movie Легенда о Коловрате (The Legend of Kolovrat)  is looking like an awesome adventure for many an armchair warrior  and film aficionado - :) .

The story came down to us from the old Ruthenian epic titled Повесть о разорении Рязани Батыем (The Tale of the Destruction of Riazan).

The plot takes place during the Mongol invasion of the vast Kievan Rus (this was not Russia), when the Mongol armies under Batu Khan destroyed and subjugated all of the Kievan Rus principalities between 1237-40, making the surviving principalities their vassals.

The storyline is more or less about a desperate revenge raid led by the Riazan warlord Evpaty Kolovrat, a Rus bogatyr/vityaz, who went after Batu Khan, of the Golden Horde, and his army. The culminating point or the climax of this story was the duel between Kolovrat and a Mongol champion, Khostovrul, whom Kolovrat killed but the Rus champion was also killed later on. But his heroic death led to Batu recognizing his valor and bravery, and thus making his memory persist and spirit survive amongst the conquered Rus.

artful Russian animation on the same story.
enjoy