After Pilsudski's political camp carried out the
May Coup, organizations were set up at the Jan Kazimierz University promoting slogans in support of
the sanation in their programs. Among them, there was the Legion of the Young
(pol. Legion Młodych),
created in Warsaw in February 1930. Its aim was to prepare future statesmen.
The first structures of the newly formed organization arose in Warsaw and Wilno
(Vilnius); later the association also started its activities in Lviv, Lublin,
Krakow and Poznan. In Lviv, the Academic Union for the Polish National Idea functioned
from November 1929. Its participants were several young activists whose aim was
to educate young people after the model established by Marshal Piłsudski. In 1930 this small group decided to join the Legion of the Young
— the Academic Union of Labor for the State" (as the Lviv regional branch).
According to the founders, the activities of the organization were supposed to
be counterbalance to the All-Polish Youth (pol. Młodzież Wszechpolska), but as early as March 1932, at the second
congress of the organization, left-wing views became noticeable, which were
actively developing in the subsequent years. They were supported by a group
centered around Zbigniew Zapasiewicz, the Chief Commandant. In 1934 the Lviv
Legion of the Young was split: some members joined the ranks of the nationalist
National Radical Camp (pol. Obóz
Narodowo-Radykalny).
In their ideological declaration, the Legion of
the Young referred to the liberation movements of the time after the division
of Poland; the name of the organization was to allude to the traditions of the
Polish Legions. The organization provided absolute support to Marshal Piłsudski, who was attributed all the merits in the reconstruction of the
independent Polish state. For the members of the Legion of the Young, a value,
around which all work and effort was to be concentrated, was the state. They
wrote: "The people without the State — as we have experienced during the
years of bondage — are deprived of the living pulsation of blood, being a
formless and helpless mass spoiled by the most diverse forces; the noblest
political impulses, cultural or economic intentions must endure losses and lead
to ever greater passivity and dotage." The organization members believed
that only the state could provide citizens with a holistic social and cultural
development. They were also convinced that the pledge of the independence of
both the state and the people was a strong army. Often, they repeated that
"the state is built by labour and protected by blood." They also
believed that only a man of labour and a soldier could be a full-fledged
citizen of Poland. They adhered to freedom of conscience and religion,
advocating the position that no religious unions should take part in political
activities. The Legion opposed both capitalism and communism. They were
resolute opponents of the endecja (National
Democracy) and supported understanding between national minorities and the
state in the spirit presented by Tadeusz Hołówko.
According to the founders' concept, the Legion
of the Young was first of all to counteract the influence of the endecja in higher schools. Young people,
concentrated in the Lviv national camp, tried to draw attention to the
organization’s links with socialist or communist movements. In May 1934,
activists distributed propaganda leaflets emphasizing the fact that, on the
occasion of the May Day, a red flag was hung out over the house where the
Legion was located, on Piłsudskiego street (now the beginning
of Ivana Franka street). The nationalists tried to prove that the Legion of the
Young opposed the Church. At the Jan Kazimierz University, there were conflicts
between members of the both organizations. On 2 March 1935 a few members of the
All-Polish Youth attacked Antoni Batorski, a member of the Legion of the Young,
in the university corridor and beat him up. The fact that the Legion supported
Janusz Jędrzejewicz's legislation on higher education (1933), which significantly
restricted university autonomy, was not much liked either.
The activities of the Legion and other
organizations supporting the sanation policy were approved by the professors of
the Jan Kazimierz University, who were on the side of the Non-Party Bloc for
Cooperation with the Government (a pro-sanation political organization,
established in 1927 by Walery Sławek, who worked closely with Józef Piłsudski). Among the academics sympathizing
with the Legion of the Young at the Jan Kazimierz University, there were, for
example, prof. Stanisław Zakrzewski, prof. Konstanty Chyliński, prof. Zygmunt
Czerny. The latter was the organization curator.
One of the most famous members of the Legion of
the Young at the Jan Kazimierz University was Jan Kozielewski (later known as
Jan Karski). Among other Lviv chairmans of the organization, there were Marian
Chirowski, Erazm Kostołowski and Marian Bartoń.
