Talk:Grey Ranks

Monument
The SZARE SZEREGI Monument

In memory of 10,000 polish scouts killed during Warsaw Uprising in 1944 and also for those murdered in concentrated camps in occupied Poland from 1939-1945. This monument was built on the 50-th anniversary of Warsaw Uprising and was uncovered to the public on July 9, 1995.

This monument was erected by the polish-Canadian Community to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising and to endorse the memory of the young scouts and guides, known as the SZARE SZEREGI (Gray Ranks) who fell during the uprising or lost their lives in Nazi concentration camps during the occupation of Poland (1939 - 1945)

SZARE SZEREGI" consisting of 10,000 scouts and 1,100 guides who without regard for their own safety, took an active part in all aspects of the resistance. Two Battalions, Zoska and Parasol distinguished themselves through their outstanding bravery and valor. One of the youngest armies in the world, the power of the Polish nation, has written itself into the annuls of history in gold letters. Over half of them fell fighting to free Poland. Through their deeds they have proclaimed to the world that Poles value a free homeland above all.

With the words of the great visionary poet Juliusz Slowacki (1809 - 1849) from his poem "My Testament" we dedicate this monument to the patriotic and selfless youth known as the "SZARE SZEREGI".

And so I cast the spell- let the living keep hope And carry the torch of wisdom before the nation And when necessary, go to death one by one Like stones cast by God onto barracks

History of the "Szare Szeregi" ("The Gray Ranks")
"Szare Szeregi" - "Gray Ranks" - Clandestine Underground Resistance Scouting Organization, aiding the military organizations in fighting the occupant (transporting weapons, messages, preparing for active combat, sanitary/nursing and other duties).

The Gray Ranks, a secret organization of scouts and part of the Polish Underground called "Polska Walczaca" or "Poland at War" was formed on Sept. 27, 1939 while Warsaw was still under siege by Hitler's armies. This was an event without precedent in world history, symbolizing one moment in an era. It was part of a bigger movement which swept through Poland from the western side toward the east, even as the Polish Forces were forced out toward the east. Everywhere where the flame of a free Poland was extinguished, a dismal time of occupation began, and simultaneously the Scouts' work and the work of the Polish Underground was set in motion.

Location SZARE SZEREGI" MONUMENT
At Old Barry's Bay Road and Vistula Rd. Near Kaszuby, Ontario, Canada.

Take highway 62 North to just past Comberemere, Make a right turn onto Old Barry's Bay road you will also see a sign to Crooked Slide Park, continue on Old Barry's Bay Road for about 7 Km, the monument is on the right hand side of Old Barry's Bay Road and Vistula Rd.

Canadian Kaszuby

What actually are the Canadian Kaszuby? This is a region of beautiful lakes: Wadsworth, Gun, Kuiack, Half-way, Dam and many others smaller lakes scattered between Combermere, Wilno and Barry's Bay. Kaszuby were first discovered in the early 1950's by a Polish priest named Rafal Jan Grzondziel. The permenent residents of Kaszuby are few. They are mainly farmers and retired citizens. However in summer this place becomes exceptionally lively. These grounds are popular for scouts, youth camps, camping and also for people who have their cottages. This place is not only known for its clean air, crystal spring water and coniferous forest, but foremost for its unique Polish atmosphere. This atmosphere comes so close, that one can say this is a part of Poland itself in Canada.

For more information on Canadian Kaszuby check http://www.kaszuby.net

Monument to Jan Kilinski
Completed in 1936 by Stanislaw Jackowski this monument honors Jan Kilinski, a hero of the 1794 Kosciuszko Insurrection. Originally a cobber, Kilinski became a colonel in the army. During the insurrection he led a succesful attack on Morsztyn Palace which was then the Russian ambassador's residence. Originally erected in Krasinki Square, the monument was removed in 1942 by the Nazis and hidden in the vaults of the National Museum. Graffiti soon appeared on a wall of the museum, painted by a member of the scouts of the Szare Szeregi division of the Resistance, saying: "People of Warsaw, I am in here, Jan Kilinski." Reconstructed in 1945, the monument was moved to its present site a few years later.

I can't read polish but some (if not all) of these fighters are scouts
http://www.zhr.pl/powstanie/katalog.php?id_txt=powst_zdjecia


 * Polish "harcerz" means "scout". "ZHP" - "Związek Harcerstwa Polskiego" means "Polish Scouting Association". It seams to me that the Scout Movement in the West was a bit harder characterized by religious and for personal development, and harcerstwo is typically patriotic. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.184.121.129 (talk) 13:58, 21 February 2013 (UTC)

Mistake!
The additional oath line was wrongly translated (I pledge to you that I shall serve with the "Szare Szeregi", I shall keep the secrets of the organisation, obey the orders and wouldn't back off sacrifying my own life). In oryginal (Ślubuję na Twoje ręce pełnić służbę w Szarych Szeregach, tajemnic organizacyjnych dochować, do rozkazów służbowych się stosować, nie cofnąć się przed ofiarą życia) they vow to be ready for self-sacrifice...

Please change it, if you can.


 * Fixed it. Rlevse 11:27, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

Attention tag
External jumps need to be converted to cite format. Rlevse 12:52, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

Translation issues
I don't want to change anything without discussion, but there are some serious issues concerning translation of Polish scouting terms or even some ideas. Specifically: SzSz units: These codenames were rarely used in further practice apart from Pasieka and Ul.
 * Dziś, jutro, pojutrze indeed means "Today, tomorrow, the day after", but precise idea behind that is: Today we prepare for future fight (conspiration); Tomorrow we fight for freedom (open fight); The day after we rebuild our country. These were more than just ideas, that was whole training program implemented for all scouts (age-dependently).
 * chorągiew, hufiec, drużyna: these terms lack a reference - this is official nomenclature of ZHP (and most of scout organizations in Poland till today):
 * chorągiew - meaning rather "standart" than flag (historically: a squadron of cavalry), ZHP organizational unit containing 10-20 units of the hufiec. A chorągiew typically covered an area of a voivodship.
 * hufiec - "regiment", containing 10-20 of drużyna, covered an area of small town or a big city district
 * drużyna - "troop", "team", basic scout unit consisting of 15-30 members
 * zastęp - a small division of drużyna, 5-10 scouts
 * There was separate codename for the headquarters: Pasieka (apiary)
 * Ul => (bee)hive, rój => swarm
 * Zastęp => pszczoła (a bee), not bees
 * In the "Structure" section English term "banner" is used without explanation or reference. "Chorągiew" should be appropriate here or, if we must translate, we should do it consistently and put "banner" or "standart" everywhere

I think this article needs a serious rewrite. Rudzielec 14:32, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

B-class review failed
This article is not up to B-class standards for WP:POLAND. To start with: little if any inline referencing. --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; talk to me 06:50, 26 November 2011 (UTC)

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merge Zawisza (Szare Szeregi) to Gray Ranks
It's been an uncited content fork for 8 years, it's time to merge it back here--Kintetsubuffalo (talk) 15:58, 24 November 2017 (UTC)
 * It will have to be text-merged, not history-merged. Anthony Appleyard (talk) 09:51, 9 December 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
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Apiary
Someone has replaced the term "apiary" (for the Polish pasieka) with "bee yard". According to Wiktionary, "apiary" is the principal term for what my Webster's dictionary defines as "apiary", from apis (Latin for "bee"): "a place where bees are kept for their honey:  it generally consists of a number of hives."

My Webster's does not even list "bee yard" as a synonym for "apiary".

I propose we go back to rendering the Polish pasieka by "apiary".

Thank you.

Nihil novi (talk) 21:26, 28 June 2018 (UTC)

Move (Gray Ranks -> Grey Ranks)
This was moved per a request at WP:RM/TR based on an informal discussion (permalink), saved below: ASUKITE  17:36, 5 May 2023 (UTC)


 * RMassist/core | 1 = Gray Ranks  | 2 =  Grey Ranks  | discuss = yes | reason = British vs US spelling, British spelling is much more popular than US spelling in scientific literature. The disambiguation page should also be removed, as the name of the organization itself overrides the name of the RPG based on the history of the organization (the RPG, by the way, uses the British spelling of the name) | sig = Marcelus (talk) 20:19, 4 May 2023 (UTC) | requester = Marcelus}}
 * The requested target, Grey Ranks, is a disambig page. This may require moving that disambig page too, and/or renaming the article about the paramilitary unit. ---  DOOMSDAYER 520 (TALK&#124;CONTRIBS) 13:39, 5 May 2023 (UTC)
 * I think that disambig page should be moved to Grey Ranks (disambiguation) Marcelus (talk) 13:47, 5 May 2023 (UTC)
 * I tried that and it didn't work for some reason, so I figured I'd bring it up here before I messed something up even worse. ---  DOOMSDAYER 520 (TALK&#124;CONTRIBS) 13:50, 5 May 2023 (UTC)
 * This likely merits a fuller discussion. Note that the article was created with the title Szare Szeregi which was moved to 'Grey Ranks' 15-Jul-2007 and was quickly moved back on 17-Jul-2007. It was then moved to 'Gray Ranks' on 9-Jul-2009 where is has resided since. I do not see any discussion for any of the prior moves. older ≠ wiser 14:54, 5 May 2023 (UTC)
 * Much as I prefer British spelling myself, I'm not convinced this move can be regarded as Uncontroversial. MOS:RETAIN is fairly clear that we don't change English varieties, unless there's some overwhelming reason to do so, or clear ties to a particular location where a particular variety of English is spoken. In this case, being a Polish topic, it doesn't particularly have ties to any English-speaking locale (unless one takes the view that the whole of Europe is under the UK umbrella, but I don't think that's something that's ever been agreed). As for the Redirect, I have retargeted that now, the disambiguation page isn't really needed any more as there is only one other topic and WP:TWODABS applies. Cheers  &mdash; Amakuru (talk) 15:00, 5 May 2023 (UTC)
 * UPDATE - actually, on further inspection I see that the oldest version of this article (which was titled in Polish, as noted by above) was written in British English, with the term "Grey Ranks" used as well as other British spellings. As such, I've changed my mind and I think this move should go ahead - MOS:RETAIN says we use the earliest stable version where there's doubt about which variant is active. Not sure an RM is really needed, unless anyone actively thinks we should return to the Polish name for this?  &mdash; Amakuru (talk) 15:09, 5 May 2023 (UTC)
 * I don't have strong feelings about the title. I only suggest some record of a discussion be kept on the talk page to show whatever title is selected was not just some random idea to change the title. older ≠ wiser 16:31, 5 May 2023 (UTC)