In partitioned Poland, nine years before The Doll, the first Polish honorary codex or book containing informal rules concerning duels (e.g. how to organise and fight them) was published. Written by Józef Naimski, it’s titled simply O Pojedynkach (On Duels). Other such publications by different authors followed, but it was only after Poland regained its independence in 1918 that one of them gained widespread popularity.
Written in 1919 by the lawyer and prospective captain in the Polish Army Władysław Boziewicz, this new hit was called Polski Kodeks Honorowy (The Polish Honorary Codex). Valued for the clarity with which it explained the intricacies of honorary issues, it quickly became the go-to publication for all those curious about how and when one ought to fight a duel. And there was no shortage of such individuals – Interwar Poland saw a surge in the number of duels, for example, caused by the very sensitive approach to the honour of officers in the newly re-created Polish Army. Despite duels being prohibited by law, in the 1920s there were over 400 annually.
So, in what ways did Boziewicz’s codex make life easier for those who wanted to risk their own and others’ lives? Well, for one thing it specified who may or may not partake in an honorary duel. Naturally, anybody of noble birth was worth fighting against, also all those who had finished school and passed their matriculation exam (that surely must’ve motivated some to get an education…). Artists were also allowed, but only if they were noted ones – the codex serves up painters and writers as examples – and anybody else ‘who raises above the normal level of an honest man’, such as a peasant elected to parliament. Excluded from this merry lot of potential opponents were women, clergymen, notorious alcoholics, and a number of other categories of people. The most notable category is probably tabloid journalists, since, like today, they were obviously at high risk of making others go into a duel-demanding frenzy.
Boziewicz’s codex also specified the rules and types of duels. You could choose between a sabre and pistol fight which would last either to first or second blood, or until a ‘complete duelling inability’ of one of the parties had been attained. In the codex’s second chapter, intriguingly titled ‘The Insult’, one can find that ‘the subject matter of every honorary case is an insult and its honorary compensation’.
Unfortunately, the insults considered worthy of a duel in the early 20th century were equally as ludicrous as throughout earlier epochs. In his paper On Duels, Boziewicz’s Codex and Men of Honour, Dr Leszek Kania writes:
The subjectively understood insults were often caricatural. The lawyer Stanisław Mianowski reminisces that when he was serving as an auditor of a court-martial in Vilnius, he was challenged to a duel by Lt Wasilewski whom he asked to leave his office when he was interrogating a witness.
Fortunately, this particular affair didn’t end with a fight as the brash lieutenant eventually reconsidered, but the anecdote does provide some insight into the curious realities of Interwar Poland.
Filthy rags & last call at the casino