Primum non nocere…? Tożsamość zwolenników orientacji austro-polskiej w okresie pierwszej wojny światowej

The aim of the article is to analyze the national identity of the Polish politicians active in a self-governing Galicia who were supporters of the so-called Austro-Polish solution. This political idea was based on a plan to reconstruct Polish sovereignty in cooperation with the Habsburg monarchy. The majority of followers of the Austro-Polish solution were members of one political party: the Cracow conservatives. After the outbreak of World War I the idea was promoted by the Supreme National Committee, an organization that was created as a political and logistic background of the Polish Legions, the semi-independent Polish troops that fought as a part of the Austro-Hungarian military. The research is primarily focused on the question whether it is possible to describe the identity of these politicians as Polish or Austrian, or was it a kind of combination of the two? The paper analyzes the attitude of Władysław Leopold Jaworski, Leon Biliński and Michał Bobrzyński, three politicians who, between 1914 and 1918, played a crucial role in all attempts to realize and promote the Austro-Polish idea. Their dilemmas were precisely examined on the basis of memoires, spe¬eches and historical studies as well as the archives. The author claims that the attitude of the three politicians towards the Austro-Hungarian Empire undoubtedly contained an emotional component. It means that describing these politicians as Austro-Polish patriots seems to be absolutely justified.