Pochodzenie i kompetencje językowe oficerów rzeszowskiego 40. Pułku Piechoty „Ritter von Pino” w przededniu Wielkiej Wojny

The paper examines the origins and language skills of the officers and cadets of the 40th Infantry Regiment “Ritter von Pino” on the eve of World War I. The research was based on the regiment’s seniority list from 1 July 1914. Additionally, more detailed personnel documents such as qualification lists (Qualifikationslisten) were used to shed light on interesting cases, including officers struggling with the Polish language and those proficient in it but ascribed to distant, German-speaking crown lands of Austria-Hungary. The paper focuses on the ratio of Polish-speaking officers to men, over 90 per cent of whom were Polish. Most officers and cadets (both career and reserve) stemmed from Czech lands. Those from Galicia constituted 23 per cent of the entire cohort. As far as language skills are concerned, most career officers demonstrated at least basic proficiency in Polish. Some officers lacked proficiency in any official language beyond German, indicating potential communication challenges. The paper concludes by emphasising the significance of language proficiency within the regiment and its implications for communication, especially during the war. High losses among career officers meant that the importance of reserve officers grew, but most of them knew no Polish.