Page 197 - Ciancia, On Civilization's Edge

So-called soldier houses (domy żołnierza), which featured small libraries and hosted

meetings of cooperatives and choirs, also provided sites in which border guards could come into

contact with the surrounding civilian population. 116 Local KOP officials in Volhynia argued that such

spaces were particularly helpful in the fight against the illiteracy, ignorance, and boredom that

unfortunately characterized village life in Volhynia. As early as 1927, the deputy commander of the

eleventh battalion of KOP’s first brigade, which was stationed in Mizocz in Zdołbunów county,

submitted an article to the organization’s yearbook in which he argued that amateur theater

constituted a significant tool in the cultural uplift of the village. Since the “poor, crowded, far-flung

villages of Volhynia have had too little time to create and construct buildings for public use,” it was

the KOP soldier, he argued, who “must arrive with help.” The creation of a soldier house, the deputy

commander went on, would transform “the bored monotony of village life” into something more

culturally dynamic. 117 All of these efforts were of geopolitical significance too. By improving the

day-to-day life of the peasantry, border guards aimed to ensure that the “psyche of the borderland

population” would become “immune to the foreign actions of propaganda.” 118

Could KOP carry out a civilizing mission while avoiding the stigma of the arrogant

colonizer? Its supporters argued that it could. In a 1934 pamphlet that was produced to commemorate

the tenth anniversary of KOP’s foundation, the Sanacja official Jan Dec stated that the rural

backgrounds of KOP recruits gave them a natural affinity with local people. “A large percentage of

KOP soldiers are the sons of farmers who come from the western areas of Poland,” Dec claimed,

meaning that “they know how to behave in relation to the village; they also have a lot of knowledge

116 Marek Jabłonowski, Formacja Specjalna: Korpus Ochrony Pogranicza, 1924-1939 (Warsaw, 2002/2003), 120-
121.
117 “Budowa ‘Domu Żołnierza K.O.P’. w Mizoczu,” ASGwS 541/71/23.
118 “Wytyczne pracy społecznej K.O.P.” (Warsaw, 1937), ASGwS 541/551B. See also, “O czem musi wiedzieć
żołnierz KOP?,” Kalendarzyk Korpusu Ochrony Pogranicza (1933): 31-37.

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