The following is a list of the Polish military oaths, both historical and contemporary.

Contemporary

This oath is in current use in the Polish Armed Forces. Last line is optional.

Historical

1788 Oath

In 1788, the State Defence Commission of the Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania issued this following military oath to all military personnel of the Commonwealth armed services. This is the oath spoken in Polish.

Polish text

English Text

Kościuszko's Uprising (1794)

The Oath of Tadeusz Kościuszko, sworn in the old town market of Kraków on 24 March 1794, at the outbreak of the Kościuszko Uprising.

Polish text

English translation

Polish Legions in World War I

The oath was prepared by the German authorities and on July 3, 1917 presented to Gen. Hans Beseler, then the German governor of Warsaw and the highest authority of the planned Polnische Wehrmacht military formation. He invoked in swearing to the loyalty of the Polish Legions with it, thus putting them under direct German command. However, the Polish Legions were already enraged with the German and Austro-Hungarian plans to place limits on Polish independence. In addition, they were angered by and also the Austro-Hungarian's dismissal of Józef Piłsudski, who was the Legions' leader. Therefore, most of the soldiers of the Legions declined to swear allegiance to a non-existent king of Poland or to a foreign government, which led to the so-called Oath Crisis.

Polish text

English translation

The Polish Army in France (1918)

Oath written by General Józef Haller and the Polish National Committee in 1918. It was used by the units of the Blue Army, that is the Polish Army formed in France at the end of the First World War.

Polish text

English translation

Greater Poland Uprising (1919)

To avoid an open conflict with Germany, the forces fighting in the Greater Poland Uprising formally declared the existence of a separate state, and those forces were then considered separate from the Polish Army. Hence the oath of the armed forces of Greater Poland was different from that used by other Polish units elsewhere.

Polish text

English translation

Second Polish Republic (1924)

During the interwar period, the unified Polish Army introduced three distinct oaths to accommodate the diverse religious beliefs of its soldiers. These oaths were established by the Basic Duties of a Soldier Act on July 18, 1924, and later reaffirmed by an order from the Ministry of Military Affairs on July 15, 1927.

Polish text

English translation

Armia Krajowa (WWII)

Since the Armia Krajowa was formed of various smaller resistance organizations, initially the words of the oath used by the Polish underground varied. The following is the text for the Christians serving in the Home Army. Other denominations used different variations of it.

Polish text

English translation

Polish Armed Forces in the East (1943)

This oath was first taken on 15 July 1943, in Sielce, at the Oka River. It was used by the Soviet-backed military of Poland until the end of the Second World War and afterwards.

Polish text

English translation

Polish People's Army 1944

Polish text

Polish People's Army oath (1947 variant)

Polish text

English

Polish People's Army oath (1952-1988)

Polish text

English

1988

Polish text

English

1989

Following the establishment of the Third Polish Republic in 1989 and changing the name of the state: Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa to Rzeczpospolita Polska, the oath was changed, esp. the reference to "socialist Polish state" has been deleted from old text.

Polish text

English

Modern oath (since 1992)

In 1992 the oath was changed again and significantly shortened. There is only one oath for all denominations, although each soldier can omit the last line according to their own beliefs.

Polish

English