General Fieldorf „Nil” as a personal model in upbringing towards maturity

Abstract

The outbreak of war between Ukraine and Russia motivates us to consider how to preserve dignity in situations where life is under threat. Such a question is particularly relevant in the context of the war’s proximity to Poland, a bordering nation to both Russia and Ukraine. War means human tragedies, so it becomes important to have behavioural models for extremely dramatic situations. It is worth being reminded of heroes who had stayed true to their ideals even in the face of death. August Emil Fieldorf „Nil”, a leader in the Polish anti-Nazi resistance movement, was one such hero as he had been killed by the Soviet regime’s collaborators after WWII. The General was a Polish patriot who sacrificed his life for his homeland. What is most striking in his biography is his heroism. This qualifies him as a perfect personality model in upbringing towards higher values. In this paper it has been shown that August Emil Fieldorf, a Steadfast Soldier, is a mature personal model, which can motivate the young generation to follow him. Maturity has been defined with a personality approach according to Zdzisław Chlewiński, using the three following criteria: considering a man as a person, autonomy in thinking, ability to assess own motivations. It has been analysed how to motivate the youths to follow the General regarding the maturity. It has been demonstrated that the General’s example may motivate if we use one of the three following upbringing strategies proposed by Marian Nowak: dissonance, witnessing, stimulation.The author has used Fieldorf’s biographies. It has been emphasized that the process of forming his personality had been very dynamic and lasted his whole life. The author claims that the Chlewiński’s concept may be used to select the next mature personal models.