National Insignia of the Republic of Poland
According to the Constitution of 1997

© Peter Paul Bajer
 
Most European countries which pride themselves on being independent nations and which value their past, encourage the development and the use of distinctive symbols of sovereignity, such as the national coat of arms, the national flag and the national anthem. Over time, these symbols become an important element in bringing each nation together, mainly through the recognition of the shared heritage.

In the case of Poland, the White Eagle has been the most important national symbol since the 13th century. In 1995 Poles celebrated the 700th anniversary of the White Eagle as the coat of arms of the Polish State. These arms which were used in the past as a personal and familial device of the Piast dynasty and its dukedoms were raised to the rank of the symbol of the united Kingdom of Poland by Przemysł II Duke of Greater Poland. He augmentated it with an open crown during his coronation for the King of Poland in 1295.

The Great Seal of Przemysl II King of Poland, 1295

Although the shape and graphic representation of the White Eagle kept changing throughout the centuries, its symbolic meaning and its significant role in unifying the nation remained unchanged. As Stępień rightly points out in the introduction to the catalogue of the "The White Eagle Exhibition", (which commemorated the above anniversary), the crowned White Eagle always stood for the independent Polish State, the king who personified the State, and the Polish nation [1].

As it was mentioned before, as a result of Poland's turbulent history, the Eagle's appearance was constantly changing. After World War II (between 1945-1989) the Communist authorities stripped the Eagle of its crown. This was done to manifest the leftist traditions of the Polish independence movement and perhaps, more importantly, to indicate the break from the ideologically antagonistic past and the coming of a new system of constitutional order. Only a few years ago, in the wake of Poland's political changes of 1989, the Eagle in the State's coat of arms was crowned again. This was done according to the decision of Seym of 29 December 1989 and 9 February 1990 [2] and it was to indicate the end of the Communist era. The Eagle was returned its dignity and majesty. This decision was reinforced by its inclusion in the new Constitution.

In 1993 the Constitutional Commission of the National Assembly was elected and began work on establishing the new Constitution of the Republic of Poland. Between 1993 and 1997 several projects of the Constitution were issued. Each time the matter regarding the national insignia of Poland, and especially the state's coat of arms, met with strong criticism, both from historical and heraldic organisations as well as members of the public. The criticism was targeted mainly at Article no.28 of the Constitution and specifically at the type of the heraldic language it used, i.e., the word "emblem" instead of "coat of arms".

In letters addressed to the Constitutional Commission, Polskie Towarzystwo Heraldyczne (PTH - Polish Heraldic Society) on three occasions [3] pointed out various errors in the text of this article. PTH also issued written statements published in Polish newspapers [4] with regards to the changes to the Constitutional Article. In those statements, PTH emphasised the appropriateness of such changes in showing the proper respect for the most important symbol of the Polish national sovereignty.

Among other suggestions, PTH proposed the introduction of the proper name - Orzeł Biały (The White Eagle) - beginning with capital letters - for the coat of arms of Poland as following the Polish tradition of each arms having its own distinct name. The best examples of such proclamatio-arms, (as they are also called) are the coats of arms Leliwa, Topór, Lis and Jastrzębiec. Intrinsically then, the depiction of Orzeł Biały as the coat of arms of the Polish Republic would be understood as: Gules, the eagle Argent, crowned, beaked and membered Or. The introduction of the proper name would automatically allow for the omission of this longer and detailed description from the text of the Constitution and the inclusion of it in an appropriate statute. Unfortunately, the above proposal was not taken into consideration by the Constitutional Commission.

The Constitutional Referendum held on 25 of May 1997 approved the new Constitution of the Republic of Poland. Article no.28 was, therefore, accepted without any changes. As a result, the following text currently appears in this article:
§1. Godłem Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej jest wizerunek orła białego w koronie w czerwonym polu.
§4. Godło, barwy i hymn Rzeczpospolitej Polskiej podlegają ochronie prawnej.
§5. Szczegóły dotyczące godła, barw i hymnu określa ustawa. [5]
which, in English translation, reads as follows:
§1. Crowned white eagle, upon a red field shall be the official emblem of the Republic of Poland.
§4. The emblem, the colours and the national anthem of the Republic of Poland shall be subject to legal protection.
§5. Details concerning the emblem, the colours and the national anthem shall be specified by the statute.

While this translation may sound very crudely and awkwardly heraldic-wise, it was my intention to follow the original text as closely as possible. This was done solely to reflect its true meaning, especially because the official translators of the Constitution use heraldic terminology which is absent from the original Polish version. This is how the same excerpt in Polish was translated by the official translators:
§1. The image of a crowned white eagle upon a red field shall be the coat-of-arms of the Republic of Poland.
§4. The coat-of-arms, colours and national anthem of the Republic of Poland shall be subject to legal protection.
§5. Details concerning the coat-of-arms, colours and national anthem shall be specified by statute. [6]

It is worth noting that in all three paragraphs of Article no. 28 translators mistakenly used the term "coat of arms" which in Polish is equivalent only to the word herb [7]. The word godło in the Polish-English dictionaries is always translated as the symbol, emblem or sign; the words godło paźstwowe is thus translated as national emblem, and used in the Polish Constitution [8]. In the heraldic sense, the word godło or plural godła means also the charges. This is precisely why PTH not only pointed out the errors in the article but also proposed the introduction of some crucial changes to its text. If one can blame the official translators for their lack of precision in turning the text of the Article into English, one should certainly agree that their way of thinking was more logical (in using the term coat of arms) as compared to that represented by the members of the Constitutional Commission, (who have neither  acknowledged nor accepted the criticisms of the original Article in the Polish language issued by PTH).

I am sure that many readers will find it disturbing that this article of the Polish Constitution, which after all describes the most important national symbols, not only lacks logic but also ignores the correct heraldic terminology and the basic heraldic rules. Sadly, the mistakes in Article no. 28 have already been repeated by the various Polish publications, e.g., recently published Nowa Encyklopedia Powszechna PWN [9].

The stand of the Polish Government on the above issue, its total dismissal of any comments and criticisms is truly puzzling, and it can be explained in various ways [10]. One thing is certain - governments have come and gone, but since its appearance as a national symbol, the White Eagle has not been eradicated from the minds and hearts of the Polish citizens for over seven hundred years. It has withstood wars, the loss of independence, occupations and political indoctrination. Let us hope that one day Polish officials will acknowledge this fact by reshaping the current Constitution, thus returning the Eagle its proper respect. 

[1] Stępień, Grażyna, The White Eagle in the Collection of the Jagiellonian Library, Kraków:
Biblioteka Jagiellońska, 1995, p.18.

[2] ibid., p.20.

[3] Letters dated: 23 April 1993; 8 March 1995; 4 December 1996.

[4] Życie Warszawy of May, 7, 1993, and Polska Zbrojna of May, 5, 1993.
[5] Konstytucja Rzeczpospolitej Polskiej z dnia 2 kwietnia 1997 roku, in Kronika Sejmowa, Warszawa: Biuro Informacyjne Kancelarii Sejmu, Nr. 162 (285) II Kadencja, 2 kwietnia 1997, p.13.

[6] The Constitution of the Republic of Poland as adopted by the National Assembly on 2 April 1997 (document-on-line) [The official web-site of the Trybunał Konstytucyjny (Constitutional Tribunal), accessed 25 July 1997]; available from: http://www.trybunal.gov.pl/Eng/TEXTS/Nk.htm.

[7] Jan Stanislawski, The Great English-Polish Dictionary, Warszawa: Wiedza Powszechna, 1990, vol.1, p.137 (coat of arms); Jan Stanisławski, The Great Polish-English Dictionary, Warszawa: Wiedza Powszechna, 1990, vol.1, p.285 (godło);  similarly a pocket dictionary by Janina Jaślan & Jan Stanisławski, Kieszonkowy słownik angielsko-polski, polsko-angielski, Warszawa: Wiedza Powszechna, 1988, p.435.

[8] Jan Stanislawski, The Great English-Polish Dictionary, vol.1, p.261 (emblem); Jan Stanislawski The Great Polish-English Dictionary, vol.1, p.285 (godło); similarly Jaslan & Stanislawski, Kieszonkowy, p.428.

[9] Nowa Encyklopedia Powszechna PWN, 6 vols., Warszawa: Wydawnictwa Naukowe PWN, 1996, vol.5, p.5.

[10] I, myself, am not surprised by the reluctance of the Constitutional Committee of the General Assembly to give any thought to the coat of arms of Poland. After all, forty out of fifty-six members of the Commission (including forty-six representatives of Seym and ten of Senate) reflected the left of the political spectrum. They were members of parties such as: Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej (Democratic Left Alliance) which derives its origin from the dissolved communist party - Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza (Polish United Worker's Party); Unia Pracy (Labor Union) which is often characterised as the extreme-left; and Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe (Polish Peasants Party) also having ex-communist roots. While SLD has ideological motives (e.g., it is renown for tirelessly fighting against the Catholic Church in Poland - the same institution that through centuries proved to be the unifying force in the Polish history and which brought about the fall of SLD's communist predecessors); members of PSL are often described as ignorant and stubborn as mules. I have a deep suspicion that for them the difference between an emblem" and a coat of arms is too dismal and thus uncomprehensible. Any further attempts to persuade its members of the importance of any changes to Article no.28 should be made using the example of straw and hay, or a scimitar and a sickle. To all of those parties raised on the ideas of the communist internationalism, the very notion of a nationhood, historical heritage or symbols of national sovereignty is probably too far fetched and sounds almost alien.
It is here that I should perhaps point out that the remaining twenty members of the Constitutional Committee, among whom some derive their origin from the old Polish aristocratic families and who should be well aware of the importance of such devices as coat of arms, to my knowledge, did nothing to oppose the acceptance of Article no.28 in its present form.

Bibliography:

Herb, a nie godlo, in Zycie Warszawy, Warszawa, 1996.

Jaslan, Janina & Stanislawski, Jan, Kieszonkowy slownik angielsko-polski, polsko-angielski, Warszawa: Wiedza Powszechna, 1988, p.435.

Konstytucja Rzeczpospolitej Polskiej z dnia 2 kwietnia 1997 roku, in Kronika Sejmowa, Warszawa: Biuro Informacyjne Kancelarii Sejmu, Nr. 162 (285), II Kadencja, 2 kwietnia 1997.

Nowa Encyklopedia Powszechna PWN, 6 vols.,Warszawa: Wydawnictwa Naukowe PWN, 1996, vol.5.

Pudłowski, Leszek, Z najnowszych dziejów Orła Białego, in Kuczynski, Stefan K. (ed.) Orzeł Biały herb państwa polskiego: Materiały sesji naukowej w dniach 27-28 czerwca 1995 roku na Zamku Królewskim w Warszawie, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo DiG, 1996.

Stanisławski, Jan, The Great English-Polish Dictionary, 2 vols., Warszawa: Wiedza Powszechna, 1990.

Stepien, Grażyna, The White Eagle in the Collection of the Jagiellonian Library, Kraków: Biblioteka Jagiellonska, 1995.

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