Zygmunt Jan Rumel (22 February 1915 – 10 July 1943) was a Polish poet and, during World War II, underground officer of the Bataliony Chłopskie partisans in the Wolhynia Region of the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 7 October 1918 and 6 October 1939. The state was established in the final stage of World War I ...

. Rumel's poetic talent was acknowledged by renowned Polish poet Leopold Staff ''See also:'' Tadeusz Szyma (2005), "Dwie biografie – dwie drogi służby". KINO, nr 04, pp. 12–13. Recenzja filmu (film review). and dramatist

Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz Jarosław Leon Iwaszkiewicz (; also known under his literary pseudonym Eleuter; 20 February 1894 – 2 March 1980), was a Polish writer, poet, essayist, dramatist and translator.Bartłomiej Szleszyński, Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz. 2003 Culture.plJ ...

.Barbara Olak
"Petruniu, ne ubywaj mene"
29 July 2007. No. 30 One of his poems entitled "Dwie matki" (''Two mothers'') in which Rumel described his love of Poland and Ukraine, was published in a popular '' Płomyk'' magazine in 1935 (issue No. 28). Antoni Serednicki
"Wychowankowie Liceum Krzemienieckiego".
/ref> He was killed by the

Ukrainian Insurgent Army The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (, abbreviated UPA) was a Ukrainian nationalist partisan formation founded by the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) on 14 October 1942. The UPA launched guerrilla warfare against Nazi Germany, the S ...

during the

massacres of Poles in Volhynia The Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia (; ) were carried out in Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), German-occupied Poland by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), with the support of parts of the local Ukrainians, Ukrainian popu ...

in 1943.

Life

Rumel, whose talent was often compared to the one of

Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, (; nom de guerre: Jan Bugaj; 22 January 1921 – 4 August 1944) was a Polish poet and Home Army soldier, one of the most well known of the Generation of Columbuses, the young generation of Polish poets, of whom several ...

, was born in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

during World War I, and grew up in

Krzemieniec Kremenets (, ; ; ) is a city in Ternopil Oblast, western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Kremenets Raion, and lies north-east of the Pochaiv Lavra. The city is situated in the historic region of Volhynia and features the 12th-ce ...

in the Wołyń Voivodeship province of the

. The exact location of his birth has not been confirmed. He came from a military family, his father Władysław, an agricultural engineer, was also an officer of the

Polish Army The Land Forces () are the Army, land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 110,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military histor ...

who fought in the

Polish–Soviet War The Polish–Soviet War (14 February 1919 – 18 March 1921) was fought primarily between the Second Polish Republic and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, following World War I and the Russian Revolution. After the collapse ...

and was awarded the Cross of

Virtuti Militari The War Order of Virtuti Militari (Latin: ''"For Military Virtue"'', ) is Poland's highest military decoration for heroism and courage in the face of the enemy at war. It was established in 1792 by the last King of Poland Stanislaus II of Poland, ...

. Some time in the 1920s, the family settled in Volhynia as military osadniks. The Rumels lived in the countryside near Krzemieniec, in a manor once belonging to the family of

Juliusz Słowacki Juliusz Słowacki (; ; ; 4 September 1809 – 3 April 1849) was a Polish Romantic poet. He is considered one of the " Three Bards" of Polish literature — a major figure in the Polish Romantic period, and the father of modern Polish drama. Hi ...

. His parents were avid readers and their son inherited it from them. At home, he read Polish classics of Słowacki and

Adam Mickiewicz Adam Bernard Mickiewicz (24 December 179826 November 1855) was a Polish poet, dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator and political activist. He is regarded as national poet in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. He also largely influenced Ukra ...

. Zygmunt graduated from a renowned Liceum Krzemienieckie and went to Warsaw to continue his education at the

Warsaw University The University of Warsaw (, ) is a public research university in Warsaw, Poland. Established on November 19, 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country, offering 37 different fields of study as well as 100 specializat ...

. Leopold Staff once said to his mother Janina (née Tyminska): ''Keep an eye on this boy, he will be a great poet one day''. While living in Warsaw, in the second half of the 1930s he was actively involved in social life of Volhynian Poles. Rumel was a member of Volhynian Association of Village Youth, and cooperated with People's University in the village of Rozyn, where he probably met senator Kazimierz Banach '' (pl)''. He was a publicist of the ''Droga Pracy'' magazine, writing about history and society. Rumel supported the idea of multinational Poland, and cooperated with a bilingual (Polish and Ukrainian) magazine ''Młoda Wies – Molode Selo'', which was published in Krzemieniec.

War years and death

In 1939, resulting from the joint

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

by Nazi Germany and Soviet Union, the province of Volhynia was incorporated into the Ukrainian SSR in the atmosphere of terror. Rumel, an artillery colonel, took part in the September 1939 campaign. Captured by the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

, he presented himself as a private, and was released. Two years later, in June 1941 eastern Poland was overrun by Nazi Germany during

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and several of its European Axis allies starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. More than 3.8 million Axis troops invaded the western Soviet Union along ...

. Rumel remained in Volhynia, where in late 1939 he joined Polish underground organization formed by activists of the peasant movement. In January 1940, Rumel and Pius Zalewski were sent to the

General Government The General Government (, ; ; ), formally the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region (), was a German zone of occupation established after the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, Slovak Republic (1939–1945), Slovakia and the Soviet ...

territory under the German occupation, to get in touch with former

voivode Voivode ( ), also spelled voivod, voievod or voevod and also known as vaivode ( ), voivoda, vojvoda, vaivada or wojewoda, is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe in use since the Early Mid ...

of Volhynia, Henryk Jozewski. They failed to cross the border, and returned to

Lutsk Lutsk (, ; see #Names and etymology, below for other names) is a city on the Styr River in northwestern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of Volyn Oblast and the administrative center of Lutsk Raion within the oblast. Lutsk has a populati ...

, where they were met by envoys of the

Union of Armed Struggle The Union of Armed StruggleThus rendered in Norman Davies, ''God's Playground: A History of Poland'', vol. II, p. 464. (; ZWZ), also translated as the Union for Armed Struggle, Association of Armed Struggle, and Association for Armed Struggle ...

(ZWZ), Tadeusz Majewski and Jerzy Potapow, who came to Volhynia to build the organization. In February and March 1940 Rumel twice travelled from Volhynia to Warsaw, as a courier of the ZWZ. At the same time, the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

managed to destroy the organization in his native province, arresting, among others, Rumel's brother, Bronislaw (murdered by the Soviets in 1941). Zygmunt survived because he remained in Warsaw, where he married Anna (née Wojciszkiewicz), and together with another brother, Stanisław, ran a hardware store in the

Ochota Ochota () is a district of Warsaw, Poland, located in the central part of the city's urban agglomeration. It is Warsaw's most densely populated district and home to the scientific campus of the University of Warsaw. The biggest housing estate ...

district. All the time he actively participated in the Polish resistance movement, his

nom de guerre A ''nom de guerre'' (, 'war name') is a pseudonym chosen by someone to use when they are involved in a particular activity, especially fighting in a war. In Ancien régime, ''ancien régime'' Kingdom of France, France it would be adopted by each n ...

was ''Krzysztof Poreba''. In the spring of 1943 he returned to his native Volhynia and became a commandant of the Bataliony Chłopskie's VIII District covering the area. In early summer 1943, when the

(UPA), together with local Ukrainian nationalists, began a campaign of massacres of Polish civilians in Volhynia, Rumel, who spoke Ukrainian fluently, was assigned to get in touch with leaders of the UPA and start talks, which would bring an end to the massacres. The order was issued by Kazimierz Banach, chief of staff of the Bataliony Chłopskie and a delegate of the

Polish government-in-exile The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile (), was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Poland of September 1939, and the subsequent Occupation ...

in Volhynia. On 7 July 1943, Rumel, together with officer Krzysztof Markiewicz (aka ''Czort''), both dressed in military uniforms, aided by guide Witold Dobrowolski, contacted the Ukrainians. They were officially representing the Polish government. However, instead of peace talks, a different fate awaited them. Michał Klimecki, Zbigniew Palski
IPN Report at www.ipn.gov.pl
, 13 May 2002. Both were brutally tortured for three days. Then, on Saturday 10 July, Rumel was tied to four horses and his body ripped apart.Ks. Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski
"Diament rozerwany końmi"
, 13 May 2008. Dr Lucyna Kulińska
"Dlaczego Polacy tak mało wiedzą o Kresowych zbrodniach 1939–1947?"
Markiewicz and Dobrowolski were killed in the same manner in the village of Kustycze, near the Volhynian town of Turzyska.Feliks Budzisz

The next day, Sunday 11 July 1943, was the bloodiest day yet of the Volhynian massacres, when armed Ukrainians attacked Polish settlements and churches, killing thousands of people, including infants, women, and the elderly.

, upon hearing of Rumel's death, wrote in his diary: "He was one of our diamonds, with which we shot at the enemy. This diamond could have shone..."

Works

The First Rumel's poems were published in 1934 in a school bulletin. He kept most of his work to himself, and did not aspire to have them published. Manuscripts of his poems were kept by his wife, who was a nurse in the

Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising (; ), sometimes referred to as the August Uprising (), or the Battle of Warsaw, was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from ...

and survived the war. The first publication of selected works of Rumel, edited by Anna Kamienska, was issued in 1975, and was highly praised by

who wrote: "Rumel had a mind and talent on an original scale". According to Polish literary critic Bozena Gorska, Rumel's poetry was strongly influenced by the works of

and

Cyprian Kamil Norwid Cyprian Kamil Norwid (; – 23 May 1883) was a Polish poet, dramatist, painter, sculptor, and philosopher. He is now considered one of the four most important Polish Romantic poets, though scholars still debate whether he is more aptly descr ...

. He rarely drew inspiration from the works of Polish avant-garde poets, but in some of his poems influences of Leopold Staff and Boleslaw Lesmian can be found. Rumel felt close to the Volhynian folk culture, and frequently used Ukrainian and Russian words. He also wrote about Polish historical subjects, best exemplified in his poem "The Year 1863".

Legacy

In 2004, Polish film director Wincenty Ronisz produced a documentary ''Poeta nieznany'' (''Unknown poet''), which describes the life and death of Rumel. Rumel is also the patron of several clubs of young Polish poets. However, he remains little known to the majority of Polish people. On 10 February 2011, a Public Library in Warsaw's borough of Praga-South was named after him. Also, there are streets named after him in

Gdańsk Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdań ...

and

Legnica Legnica (; , ; ; ) is a city in southwestern Poland, in the central part of Lower Silesia, on the Kaczawa River and the Czarna Woda. As well as being the seat of the county, since 1992 the city has been the seat of the Diocese of Legnica. Le ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rumel, Zygmunt 1915 births 1943 deaths People from Kremenets Home Army members University of Warsaw alumni Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia 20th-century Polish poets 20th-century Polish male writers Resistance members killed by Nazi Germany Genocide deaths People killed by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army