Mazurek Dąbrowskiego: history of the Polish anthem, curiosities, and myths

“Poland has not yet perished, as long as we live” – these words are known by every Pole, both in the country and abroad. However, few know that the song was created in July 1797 in Reggio nell’Emilia, Italy, at a time when Poland was not on the map. It was written by Józef Wybicki for the Polish Legions of General Jan Henryk Dąbrowski, and the author of the melody remains unknown to this day. For almost one hundred thirty years, the song existed without the status of a national anthem, during uprisings, in emigration, and under partitions, before it became a national anthem in 1927.

In this guide, we tell the entire story of “Mazurek Dąbrowskiego”: who Józef Wybicki was, how and when “The Song of the Polish Legions in Italy” was created, what the original text sounded like and how it changed, who might have composed the melody, and where the myth about Michał Kleofas Ogiński came from. We show how the song traveled through the 19th and 20th centuries and inspired other nations, how it became an anthem, what the regulations say about it today, and how one should behave during its performance. Finally, we discuss the most common mistakes, myths, museums, and curiosities. Where sources differ or something could not be confirmed, we state it directly.

Where “The Song of the Legions” came from

To understand why the Polish anthem begins with the words that Poland has not yet perished, one must go back to the autumn of 1795. On October 24 of that year, the monarchs of Russia, Prussia, and Austria agreed on a treaty, through which they carried out the third and final partition of the Commonwealth. A month later, on November 25, King Stanisław August Poniatowski abdicated in Grodno. The common state of Poles and Lithuanians disappeared from the map of Europe. For many people of that era, it simply meant that Poland was no more. The poem that was created less than two years later was a response to this belief: the state has fallen, but the nation lives, “as long as we live.”

Emigrants, Napoleon, and the Legions

After the defeat of the Kościuszko Uprising, some Polish politicians and soldiers moved to the West, primarily to Paris. They hoped for France, which was at war with two of the three partitioning powers. In April 1796, the young general Napoleon Bonaparte began his first Italian campaign, defeating the Austrians and securing northern Italy for France. It was there, not by the Vistula, that an opportunity opened for Poles to have their own army.

Two people played a key role: General Jan Henryk Dąbrowski and Józef Wybicki. Wybicki, who had been in Paris since March 1795, corresponded with Dąbrowski and urged him to come. The general arrived in Paris on September 30, 1796, and began talks with the French Directory. He received letters of recommendation to Bonaparte, who was stationed in Milan. The only thing missing was money for the journey. Wybicki recalled that “neither Dąbrowski nor we had money for this expedition to Italy.” The solution came in the form of a donation of 1,000 red zlotys, which Wybicki received from Dominik Dziewanowski back home. Part of this sum was allocated for equipping the general.

Dąbrowski arrived in Milan on December 2, 1796. Bonaparte was initially reluctant to create a Polish army, but eventually agreed. On January 9, 1797, Dąbrowski signed an agreement with the government of the Lombard Republic to establish the Polish Legions in Italy. Commands were issued in Polish, and on the epaulettes was the Italian inscription “Free men are brothers.” By May 1797, there were already about 7,000 soldiers in the ranks of the Legions. Many of them were prisoners from the Austrian army, Poles from Galicia, who had been forcibly conscripted into the imperial army and captured by the French.

Who was Józef Wybicki before he wrote the anthem

Today, we remember him almost exclusively as the author of the anthem's words, but in 1797, Józef Rufin Wybicki was nearly 50 years old and had a life that could fill several biographies. He was born on September 29, 1747, in Będomin in Kashubia, into a moderately wealthy noble family. He studied at the Jesuit college in Stare Szkoty near Gdańsk, which he later recalled as “a true hell.”

At just 20 years old, he became a deputy to the Sejm from the Kościerzyna district. This was the so-called Repnin Sejm, which convened under the pressure of the Russian envoy Nikolai Repnin, who ordered the abduction and removal to Kaluga of two bishops and a hetman, among others. On February 27, 1768, in the presence of the king and Repnin, the young deputy protested, saying that he did not see a free Sejm, “but only Moscow's violence and oppression.” His speech is considered one of the last attempts at a positive use of the liberum veto. He then joined the Bar Confederation, and after its defeat, fled to Holland. On October 10, 1770, he enrolled in studies of law, philosophy, and natural sciences in Leiden under the assumed name Josephus Enkler.

In the following years, he co-created with Andrzej Zamoyski a code known as the “Collection of Judicial Laws,” published in 1778, and wrote “Patriotic Letters,” in which he criticized the arbitrariness of the magnates and demanded the replacement of serfdom with rents. He was also a writer: he wrote comedies, tragedies, and opera librettos. During the Kościuszko Uprising in 1794, he sat in the insurgent authorities. It was then that his friendship with Dąbrowski began. The general was accused of treason and brought to trial, and Wybicki, as he wrote, worked all night on his case and prepared a resolution declaring him innocent. Later, as a government representative, he accompanied Dąbrowski's corps on the expedition to Greater Poland. After the uprising's fall, pursued by Prussian wanted notices, he reached Paris on March 27, 1795.

Reggio nell’Emilia, July 1797

On July 7, 1797, Wybicki arrived in Reggio nell’Emilia, a city located between Parma and Modena, where Dąbrowski was quartered with his soldiers. The general's headquarters was located in the center, in the palace of the Bishop of Reggio, Francesco Maria d’Este, at what was then Piazza del Duomo, which today is called Piazza Camillo Prampolini. Wybicki was greatly impressed: throughout the city, Polish uniforms were visible, and the Polish language could be heard.

On July 16, 1797, the city authorities organized celebrations to mark Reggio's joining the Cisalpine Republic, established a few days earlier, on July 9, in place of the Lombard Republic. After a reception at the town hall and a mass at the cathedral, a parade passed through the streets, which also included Polish troops. According to most researchers, it was in these circumstances that the words of the song were created.

We do not know the exact date, and historians still argue about it today. The most frequently cited is Wojciech Podgórski, according to whom “between July 16 and 19, 1797 – under the influence of the first emotion that overwhelmed Wybicki at the sight of Polish uniforms, eagles, and banners – the stanzas of the soldier's confession of faith were created: Poland has not yet died.” Jan Pachoński dated it similarly. However, Bronisław Biliński believed that the song must have been created earlier, between July 10 and 15. He referred to the 19th-century researcher Wojciech Sowiński, who wrote that Wybicki sang the “Song” at a special meeting of the legion's elders in July 1797. According to Biliński, this meeting could have taken place on July 14 or 15, on the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille. An article published by the IPN provides a range from July 15 to 21. Therefore, it must be honestly stated: we know that it was July 1797 and that it was Reggio, but the exact day cannot be determined today.

The first performance, or several versions of one scene

Even less certain is when and how the song was performed for the first time. Historian Juliusz Willaume believed that it could have happened as early as July 16, during the parade. Other researchers point to July 20. On that day, the city authorities, Bishop d’Este, and the residents unexpectedly gave Dąbrowski a ceremonial farewell, as the next day, July 21, the general was leaving for Milan. He was asked to plant a tree of freedom, which he personally planted on Piazza Piccola, at what is now Piazza San Prospero. The date of July 20 is given by the Museum of Polish History and the portal dzieje.pl as the day of the first performance.

Who sang it first? We do not know. Accounts say that it was performed by Józef Wybicki himself, either alone or with a group of soldiers. The National Institute of Polish Cultural Heritage Abroad POLONIKA lists two possibilities: either the song was secretly sung by legionnaires who had learned it, marching in the parade on Piazza Piccola, or Wybicki himself sang it accompanied by a military orchestra, for example, in the evening at the “Caffè dei Luterani,” among Polish officers and townspeople. Some Italian sources mention a serenade under the bishop's palace on the night of July 10 to 11, but this version has not been confirmed in historical works. One thing is certain: the song was immediately embraced. On August 29, 1797, Dąbrowski wrote to Wybicki from Bologna: “The soldiers are increasingly fond of your song.”

“The Song of the Polish Legions in Italy,” or the original text

Wybicki did not call his work a mazurek. The manuscript bears the title “Pieśń Legionow Polskich wwłoszech,” which in today's spelling is “The Song of the Polish Legions in Italy.” The name “Mazurek Dąbrowskiego” came later, from the rhythm and the general's name in the refrain. The original had six verses and a refrain repeated after the first five. Below is the text in the spelling of the manuscript, according to the facsimile transcription in Wikiźródła, with slashes indicating line breaks:

The Song of the Polish Legions in Italy

Poland has not yet died, / As long as we live / what foreign power has taken from us, / we will reclaim with the saber.

march march Dąbrowski / to Poland from the Italian land / Under your command / we will unite with the nation.

As Czarniecki returned to Poznań / crossing the sea / to save the homeland / after the Swedish partition. / march march et

We will cross the Vistula, we will cross the Warta / we will be Poles / Bonaparte set an example for us / how we should win / march march et.

the German and the Muscovite will not settle, / when they take the saber, / the motto of all will be unity / and our homeland. / march march et

Already there, father to his Basi / says weeping. / listen only, our people / are being beaten. / march march et

to this all one voice / Enough of this captivity / We have the Racławice Swords / God willing, Kościuszko.

The Museum of Polish History and dzieje.pl publish the same text in modern spelling: “Poland has not yet died, as long as we live. What foreign power has taken from us, we will reclaim with the saber.” A slight difference between the sources concerns the fourth verse: the manuscript and the Museum of Polish History have “will not settle,” while dzieje.pl has “will not settle.” In the manuscript, the general's name is written as “Dąbroski,” the father of Basi is “father,” and the surname Kościuszko uses the old letter “ſ,” known as the long s. Below the last verse, the transcription notes the word “salwy” separately. The sources we used do not explain what it meant.

What changed along the way

Today's anthem has four verses and differs from the original more than most of us assume. We have gathered the most important differences in the table:

When did “not died” change to “not perished”? The sources are not consistent here. Studies referring to the work of Stanisław Russocki, Stefan Kuczyński, and Juliusz Willaume from 1978 mention a variant from 1798 that introduced this change and reversed the order of the refrain. The portal dzieje.pl, when discussing Małgorzata Strzałkowska's book, connects the change of rhymes “not died – taken” to the announcement of the anthem's text in 1927. However, it is known for certain that the form “not perished” was in common use much earlier: in “Pan Tadeusz,” published in 1834, Jankiel plays “Triumphal March: Poland has not yet perished.” At least in the case of the first line, the form was officially established in 1927, which Poles had been singing for a long time. As for when “what foreign violence has taken from us” was sung, we could not determine.

The disappearance of two verses had its political reasons. According to the literature cited, the verse about the German and the Muscovite was removed after the Franco-Russian alliance was concluded in Tilsit in 1807, and the verse about Kościuszko because the Chief did not trust Napoleon and refused to support him. According to the discussion of Strzałkowska's book, both verses were no longer present in the first national publication of the text, which appeared as a “Patriotic Song” in the “Patriotic Pocket Calendar for the Year 1807.” The first print appeared even earlier in Italy: according to available studies, in February 1799 in Mantua, in the legion's newspaper “Dekada Legionowa.” Sources give different titles for this publication: the IPN writes about “Legion Newspaper,” while dzieje.pl mentions “Legionary Decade.”

A separate issue is the two words that many of us sing incorrectly. The popular “as long as we live” does not appear in either Wybicki's manuscript or the official text. The correct phrase is “as long as we live.” Jerzy Bralczyk explains that “when” originally meant “if” here.

The fate of the manuscript

Many readers assume that the original anthem lies in some national treasury, for example, in the Jagiellonian Library. This is not the case. None of the sources we checked indicate an institution that would hold Wybicki's autograph. All those that mention it consistently state that the manuscript was lost during World War II, and today we only know it from facsimiles.

The manuscript remained in the hands of Wybicki's descendants. His daughter Teresa married Florian Rożnowski in 1806, and sources link the further fate of the autograph with the Rożnowskis. According to available studies, in 1886, the poet's grandson, Edward Rożnowski, made 24 facsimiles of the manuscript and handed them over to Polish libraries. It is thanks to these copies that we know the exact appearance of the text today. As for the manuscript's disappearance, sources provide two different versions. According to available studies, the manuscript was lost in February 1944 in the home of Wybicki's great-grandson, Johann von Roznowski, in the Berlin district of Charlottenburg during Allied air raids on Berlin. The study “Independence Songbook” states, however, that in early 1944, Johann Rożnowski deposited his entire collection in the Reichsbank in Berlin, and in May 1945, after the bank was captured by the Red Army, its contents were taken to the Soviet Union. According to the same source, in 1992, the Association of Lovers of the Tradition of “Mazurek Dąbrowski” asked President Lech Wałęsa for help in locating the manuscript, and the matter was included in Polish-Russian talks, without results. Which version to believe cannot be determined today. Both agree that the trail of the original ends in Berlin in 1944.

Who Composed the Melody

The author of the lyrics has been known since the beginning. The author of the melody remains unknown to this day. In popular descriptions of the anthem, the entry in the "composer" section simply states "unknown," while the "Songbook of Independence" notes: "Music: author unknown, based on a mazur motif." This is one of the most intriguing and contentious threads in the entire history of the song.

Folk Mazur

The most frequently repeated answer is: Wybicki set the words to a folk melody he was familiar with. The Museum of Polish History states that he wrote the text "to a folk melody of a mazur he had heard." An article published by the IPN specifies that it referred to a melody known in Podlasie and Pomerania as early as the mid-18th century. The musicologist Józef Reiss also wrote about a folk song from Podlasie in "A Short History of Music." It is worth recalling that Pomerania is Wybicki's homeland, where he grew up in Kashubia.

Studies clarify the name of the dance: the melody is based "on motifs of the folk mazur (properly, mazura)."

Michał Kleofas Ogiński and the Confused March

For a long time, Prince Michał Kleofas Ogiński, a composer and politician, was considered the author of the melody, traditionally credited with the famous polonaise "Farewell to the Homeland" as well. By the way: according to an article by Agnieszka Leszczyńska in the 2023 quarterly "Music," this polonaise was actually written by someone else, Kacper Napoleon Wysocki. How did this idea arise? Ogiński indeed sent a piece to General Dąbrowski for the Legions in 1797. However, it was a "March for the Legions," not a mazur. The similar name and, probably, the refrain "March, march, Dąbrowski" led to the confusion between the two compositions. According to studies citing the work of Russocki, Kuczyński, and Willaumé from 1978, the matter was resolved with the discovery of Ogiński's march sheet music in 1938. It turned out to be completely different music than the anthem's melody.

However, the thesis about Ogiński has not completely died out. Andrzej Załuski, a descendant of the Ogiński family, in books published in London, including "The Riddle of the Dąbrowski Mazurka" from 1999 and in his biography of Ogiński from 2003, attempts to demonstrate that the prince was the author of the melody. This position is isolated and has not changed the main stream of research. Some Italian sources still list "Józef Wybicki or Michał Ogiński" as the author of the music.

Other Hypotheses

There are also researchers who completely reject the term "folk melody." Wacław Panek, author of the book "Polish Anthems" from 1997, reminds us that in the 18th century, the mazur was a noble dance in Poland, not a peasant one, fashionable among the nobility and wealthy burghers, and its dance figures were also shaped by the theatrical stage. Wybicki wrote librettos for the theater and, as Panek notes, he also composed himself. Panek believes that "the closest to the truth is the assumption that Józef Wybicki, for the needs of his text, (...) himself developed melodic threads he was already familiar with, combining them into a formal whole."

The POLONIKA Institute adds another possibility: that the melody of the song was "most likely" the result of Wybicki's collaboration with the conductor of the legion orchestra stationed in Reggio. This is also a hypothesis, not a finding based on a document.

What Researchers Say Today

The most honest summary of the state of knowledge was provided by Prof. Janusz Górski, the scientific editor of the album "Mazurek Dąbrowskiego. Images, Words, Notes," in an interview with PAP: "To this day, there is actually no full agreement among scholars as to what exact melody is the source of the anthem." Górski pointed to the monograph by musicologist Prof. Maciej Gołąb, dedicated to the musical layer of the anthem and its complicated sources. It is noted that authors of songbooks and scientific works most often write "folk melody," and some add a cautious question mark to this. Such a question mark is today simply the most honest answer.

The Oldest Musical Notations

The song lived in the mouths of soldiers for the first years, not on paper, so the oldest musical notations are later than the text. The first composer to use the melody in an artistic work is usually considered to be Karol Kurpiński. In 1821, he composed a fugue for piano or organ titled "Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła" ("Poland Has Not Yet Perished"). On January 1, 1831, during the November Uprising, this fugue in orchestral version was performed under his baton by the Warsaw Opera Orchestra. Wojciech Sowiński arranged the melody for piano, and his arrangement with Polish and French text was published in Paris in 1829. According to the description from the National Hymn Museum in Będomin, there are sheet music and text of the anthem published in Paris in 1826 in Polish and French. It has not been determined whether this refers to a different edition or a discrepancy in dating the same print.

In April 2026, TVN24 reported a discovery made at the Raczyński Library in Poznań that may shift this chronology. Dr. Magdalena Komosa from the Special Collections Department and composer Mariusz Matuszewski, analyzing theatrical materials entrusted to the library by the Polish Theater, came across the score of the play "Kościuszko nad Sekwaną" ("Kościuszko on the Seine"). In one of the numbers, they recognized the melody of "Mazurka Dąbrowskiego," although with completely different words than Wybicki's. The notation likely dates back to 1821, the year the play was staged. Dr. Komosa called the find "the first complete manuscript notation of 'Mazurka Dąbrowskiego' along with the text" and added that until now, the first notation with words was considered to be the print from 1829, in which the words were also not Wybicki's. The library announced the premiere of the play on November 10, 2026, and intends to showcase the manuscript that day. We currently know about the discovery from press reports; we have not been able to find a scientific publication on the subject.

Music Box and Harmonizations

When it became necessary to establish how the melody actually sounds after regaining independence, a surprising source was consulted. According to an article published by the IPN in 1921, a special commission found a music box from the time of the Duchy of Warsaw in the Museum of the Polish Army and deemed the melody recorded in it to be the prototype of "Mazurka Dąbrowskiego." We have not been able to confirm this account in a second, independent source. In "Pan Tadeusz," the hero, upon returning home, pulls the string of an old clock, "To hear the mazur of old Dąbrowski."

Two names are associated with the harmonization, or arrangement of the melody for voices and instruments. It is known that on April 2, 1927, the Ministry of Religious Denominations and Public Enlightenment approved the sheet music of the anthem. The portal dzieje.pl and biographies of Feliks Konopasek (1860–1930) consistently state that the harmonization of this composer and conductor was approved then. The Polish Music Library records among his works "Polish National Anthem in Various Arrangements" published in Warsaw in 1927. Today, the official interpretation of the anthem's sound is considered to be the harmonization by Prof. Kazimierz Sikorski, and its sheet music and model recordings are made available by the Ministry of Culture. Dzieje.pl notes that the text and sheet music in Sikorski's harmonization were approved by the Sejm in the act of January 31, 1980, on the coat of arms, colors, and anthem. Legal details are described in further parts of the guide.

Finally, a musical detail. A common mistake is singing two equal notes where the first should be three times longer than the second, that is, dotted eighths and sixteenths. This characteristic, "bouncing" rhythm occurs, among other things, on the syllables "Je-szcze," "Kie-dy," "Co nam" and "Z zie-mi."

Curiosities from the Beginnings

The history of the anthem's creation has become surrounded by anecdotes. Below we have gathered those that can be confirmed in sources, and for those that are only hypotheses, we state this directly.

• Who Actually Cried? We usually imagine a tearful father, as the text states: "Already there, the father speaks to his Basia, tearfully." However, linguist Prof. Roman Kaleta pointed out that in many dialects, the ending "-ej" was pronounced and written as "-y." Prof. Katarzyna Kłosińska from the University of Warsaw wrote in the PWN Language Advisory that "it is almost certain" that the form "zapłakany" refers to Basia: the father was speaking to the tearful Basia. Similarly, in the refrain of the manuscript, "z ziemi włoski" simply means "from the Italian land."
• Is Basia Dąbrowski's Future Wife? A popular story claims that Basia from the anthem is Barbara Chłapowska, daughter of Ksawery Chłapowski, who became the general's second wife in 1807. The "Songbook of Independence" presents this as a view held by some researchers. However, a discussion of Małgorzata Strzałkowska's book on dzieje.pl reminds us that the general met Barbara long after the song was written, and considers Basia and her father to be anonymous figures, symbols of families waiting in the homeland. There is no evidence to identify Basia with Chłapowska, so this story should be treated as unconfirmed.
• Czarniecki Did Not Return by Sea. According to the discussion of Strzałkowska's book, Stefan Czarniecki, a later hetman, was summoned from Denmark by Jan Kazimierz to fight against Russia and returned to the country overland. Historians believe that Wybicki was referring to his famous feat on December 14, 1658, when the Polish cavalry swam across the Als Sund strait and recaptured the Danish island of Als from Swedish hands.
• The Refrain That Ends Abruptly. In the manuscript, after the last stanza, the one about Kościuszko, there is no longer the refrain "March, march, Dąbrowski." According to the literature cited, Wybicki may have counted on Kościuszko coming to Italy and leading the Legions himself. According to the same sources, Wybicki did not yet know that Kościuszko had gone to America. This is an interpretation by researchers, not a record from the period.
• Tablet in Reggio. On the building of the historic town hall in Reggio nell’Emilia, between the windows of the first floor, there hangs a stone tablet placed in 1977, on the 180th anniversary of the song's creation, by the Polish Academy of Sciences and the city authorities. The inscription is in Italian. In translation, it states that in the nearby bishop's palace ("palazzo vescovile"), Józef Wybicki wrote "Mazurka Dąbrowskiego" "Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła" in July 1797, which, first intoned within the walls of Reggio, became the Polish national anthem. It is worth noting that the tablet quotes today's "nie zginęła" ("has not perished"), not "nie umarła" ("has not died") from the manuscript. According to the POLONIKA Institute, there is also a street named after Wybicki in Reggio.
• The Anthem and the Italian Flag from the Same City and Year. Six months before the song's creation, on January 7, 1797, in the town hall's meeting room in Reggio, the congress of the Cispadane Republic adopted a green-white-red banner at the proposal of Giuseppe Compagnoni. This banner is the origin of today's flag of Italy, and the room is now called Sala del Tricolore. Next to it is the Museo del Tricolore.
• Poland in the Italian Anthem. Italy reciprocates in its anthem. The fifth stanza of "Il Canto degli Italiani" by Goffredo Mameli from 1847 speaks of the Austrian eagle, which, along with the Cossack, drank the blood of Italians and Polish blood, "but it burned his heart." Italian studies explain that this refers to the partitions and the bloody suppression of the Polish uprising in 1846.
• The Author of the Anthem, a Judge and Advocate of Divorces. On November 25, 1817, Wybicki became the president of the Supreme Court of the Kingdom of Poland. In the Legislative Deputation, which prepared new codes, he advocated for the maintenance of the institution of divorce, which put him at odds with the Church. At the end of 1820, he requested his resignation, officially due to health reasons, and on September 4, 1821, he was relieved of his duties. He died suddenly on March 10, 1822, in Manieczki near Śrem.
• The Author of the Lyrics and the Hero of the Refrain Rest in the Same Crypt. Wybicki was modestly buried near the Church of St. Catherine in Brodnica near Śrem. On October 11, 1923, his remains were exhumed and on October 14, they were laid to rest in the Crypt of the Distinguished Greater Poland Residents under St. Adalbert's Church in Poznań. Since 1997, an urn containing the heart of General Dąbrowski, whose body rests in Winna Góra, has also been kept in the same crypt.
• The First Such Museum in the World. In the family manor of the Wybicki family in Będomin, the National Hymn Museum, a branch of the National Museum in Gdańsk, was opened on July 17, 1978. The Museum of Polish History calls it the first national anthem museum in the world. Among the exhibits is a music box shaped like a small chapel with a cross, made by Czech craftsman Józef Kolinka. To hide the forbidden melody, after winding it up, it first played another folk melody and only then the measures of "Mazurka Dąbrowskiego."

The Song That Wandered

We have previously discussed how in July 1797, in Reggio nell’Emilia, Józef Wybicki wrote the "Song of the Polish Legions in Italy," where its melody came from, and how quickly it was adopted among soldiers. Here, we focus on what happened to the song afterward. According to available studies, by early 1798, it was known in all three partitions, and in 1799 it was published for the first time in Mantua. For 130 years, before it became the official anthem, it was sung, adapted, censored, and banned, while other nations borrowed it for themselves.

The Napoleonic Era and the Duchy of Warsaw

The legions did not return to the country by the route they sang about, but the song returned with Dąbrowski and Wybicki. When they entered Poznań in the autumn of 1806, the residents greeted them with the "Mazurka." The most commonly cited date of their arrival is November 6, 1806 (as noted by PAP in the dzieje.pl service and in the brochure of the National Anthem Museum), but some studies, following a guide to Poznań, state November 3. In 1807, the song was sung in Silesia to welcome Frederick Augustus, the ruler of the newly established Duchy of Warsaw. The Institute of National Remembrance states that from that moment, the song "began to play the role of a national anthem."

However, it was not made the official anthem of the Duchy. A brochure about the anthem prepared by the National Anthem Museum in Będomin offers an interesting explanation: Napoleon appointed Prince Józef Poniatowski as the supreme commander, not Dąbrowski, so the song praising a rival for that position became politically inconvenient. This is the interpretation of the authors of the brochure, not a record from the era. The song did not lose its popularity. According to available studies, it was sung, among other occasions, in Warsaw during the celebrations of the victory at Friedland in June 1807, in Kraków when it was occupied by the troops of Prince Józef Poniatowski in July 1809, and in Poznań on December 25, 1810, when Dąbrowski and Wybicki led a mazurka to its melody. We discuss how Napoleonic politics influenced the text itself above, and about the clock with a carillon from "Pan Tadeusz" also in the section about the melody.

The November Uprising and the Great Emigration

In the Kingdom of Poland, established in 1815 under the tsar's rule, "Mazurka" was not allowed to be played at official ceremonies. The authorities promoted the song by Alojzy Feliński, known today as "God, Thou Who Saved Poland." The more it was forbidden, the louder "Mazurek" rang out when the uprising broke out in November 1830. It was sung in battles at Stoczek, Olszynka Grochowska, and Igani. The text became almost plastic: according to available studies, at least 16 adaptations were created during the uprising. Dąbrowski's name was replaced with the names of generals Józef Chłopicki, Józef Dwernicki, and Jan Skrzynecki. The "Mazurek of Skrzynecki" was popular with the words "March, march, brave youth, Skrzynecki leads us."

After the uprising's fall, German composers moved to the melody: Richard Wagner in the overture "Polonia," Albert Lortzing in the stage work "Der Pole und sein Kind." We discuss an earlier fugue by Karol Kurpiński in the section about the melody.

The Great Emigration carried "Mazurek" to Germany, France, and Great Britain. In the German states, emigrants were welcomed with sympathy, and the song circulated as "Noch ist Polen nicht verloren." The German poet Ludwig Uhland used these words in a poem dedicated to Mickiewicz (the National Anthem Museum brochure dates it to 1833), and the phrase "noch ist Polen nicht verloren," meaning "not everything is lost yet," entered colloquial German. According to available studies, the text was known in 17 languages. The song even reached Samogitia: according to the work of Dionizy Wawrzykowski-Wierciochowa, in 1831, the "Song of the Samogitians of the Telsiai County in the War of 1831" was created, consisting of seven verses in Samogitian to the melody of "Mazurek," starting in Polish translation with the words "Poland has not yet perished, as long as Samogitians live."

The January Uprising and "March of Polonia"

The brochure from the National Anthem Museum states that when in January 1863 the tsarist authorities ordered conscription into the army, the youth who fled to the Kampinos Forest composed the song "To Kampinos": "Poland has not yet perished, as long as we have come out unscathed." During the January Uprising, a version was also born that was so far from the original that it had a different melody: "March of Czachowski," named after the insurgent commander Dionizy Czachowski, with the refrain "March, march, Polonia, our brave nation, we will rest after our work in our homeland's yard." According to available studies, by the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, it gained popularity as "March of Polonia," and according to others, it particularly spread among Polish emigrants in both Americas. However, the name is sometimes used ambiguously: the National Anthem Museum brochure refers to another emigrant song to the melody of "Mazurek," which we discuss below.

Slavic Relatives of "Mazurek"

According to available studies, during the Springtime of Nations in 1848, "Mazurek" was sung in the streets of Vienna, Berlin, and Prague. The most interesting trace that the song left outside Poland is, however, the songs of other nations created in its pattern. In popular texts, it is easy to exaggerate, so we indicate where the connection is certain and where it is only suggested.

"Hej, Slováci" and "Hej, Slované." This is the most well-documented case. In 1834, in Prague, Slovak Lutheran pastor Samo Tomášik wrote a song starting with the words "Hej, Slováci." He noted in his diary that an old Polish song "Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła" came to his mind and that the new piece was ready in an instant. The song was sung to the melody of "Mazurek Dąbrowskiego." Soon it was expanded to all Slavs as "Hej, Slované." Sources differ on the details: the National Anthem Museum brochure states that Tomášik immediately wrote in Czech "Hej, Slované," and the All-Slavic Congress in Prague in 1848 recognized it as the official Slavic anthem. English-language studies are more cautious and refer to it as the unofficial anthem of the movement, so we treat the formal resolution of the congress as uncertain. It is certain that the song became the anthem of the Sokol movement.

The Anthem of Yugoslavia. During World War II, Yugoslav partisans chose "Hej, Slaveni" instead of the royal anthem that praised the king and the kingdom. From 1945, the song served as the national anthem, though for a long time without a legal basis: the law from 1977 called it a temporary anthem, and it gained constitutional status only on November 25, 1988. It survived the breakup of Yugoslavia as the anthem of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and then Serbia and Montenegro, which failed to agree on new symbols. It was last officially performed at the football World Cup in 2006. The Yugoslav version is slower and has several altered notes, but it is still our "Mazurek." Between 1939 and 1945, "Hej, Slováci" served as the anthem in the Slovak Republic, although sources differ on whether it was an official anthem.

The Croats. In 1833, Ljudevit Gaj wrote, and Ferdo Livadić set to music the song "Još Hrvatska ni propala," meaning "Croatia has not yet perished." The lyrics refer to the Polish model, but the melody is different. The song became the unofficial anthem of the Croatian national revival and was publicly performed for the first time on February 4, 1835, at the theater in Zagreb.

The Lusatians. According to studies citing the work of Stanisław Russocki, in 1845, Upper Sorbian poet Handrij Zejler wrote a song modeled after "Mazurek" titled "Hišće Serbstwo njezhubjene," meaning "The Lusatians have not yet perished." Note the common mistake: this is not the Lusatian anthem. The anthem of the Sorbs is "Rjana Łužica," a poem by Zejler published in 1827, with music composed by Korla Awgust Kocor in 1845. It was first performed on October 17, 1845, in Bautzen.

Ukraine. The words "Szcze ne wmerła Ukrajina" ("Ukraine has not yet died") were written by ethnographer Pavlo Chubynsky in the autumn of 1862, and the music was composed in 1863 by Greek Catholic priest Mykhailo Verbytsky. Historians, including Yaroslav Hrycak, believe that the Polish song influenced the text. Historian Bohdan Klid cites a witness's account that Chubynsky wrote the poem spontaneously after listening to Serbian students singing a Serbian patriotic song. Thus, Polish influence is likely and indicated by researchers, but it was not the only one.

Hatikvah. It is sometimes mentioned because the refrain of the Israeli anthem begins with the words "Our hope has not yet perished." Some studies about the Polish anthem include it among songs inspired by it, but descriptions of Hatikvah itself only state that some compare this verse with the Polish and Ukrainian anthems and indicate a possible reference to the biblical vision of Ezekiel. The melody of Hatikvah has no connection to "Mazurek." We treat this as a comparison, not a documented influence.

Under the Partitions: Bans and Sentences

The more the song was loved by Poles, the less it was liked by the partitioning powers. In the Austrian partition, authorities in Kraków reported frequent singing of the "revolutionary Dombrowskischer Marsch." In Prussia, in 1850, Polish patriotic songs were banned, and according to available studies, between 1873 and 1911, German courts issued 44 sentences for singing them, of which 20 concerned "Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła." In the Russian partition, public performances often ended with police intervention.

There is also a story from the opposite side. According to an article by Marta Sankiewicz published by the IPN, during the Prussian-Austrian War of 1866, in one of the battles, the Prussian command ordered a regimental orchestra to play "Mazurek" to rally the Poles in the Prussian ranks. We have not found a second source for this account or the name of the battle, so we treat it as an interesting anecdote based on a single account. The same author states that during the Civil War, the volunteer Polish Legion marched into battle on the Union side with "Mazurek" on their lips. The unit existed (this was the name of the 58th Infantry Regiment from New York, commanded by Colonel Włodzimierz Krzyżanowski), but we could not confirm that they sang "Mazurek" in a second source.

World War I and the Legions

The Great War again changed the text. In the Polish Legions, they sang "Mazurek Piłsudskiego" with the refrain "March, march Piłsudski, lead us into bloody battle, under your command we will enter Warsaw." According to the IPN, "Mazurek" was sung by all Polish formations participating in the war, and in November 1918, the song accompanied the disarmament of the Germans in Warsaw and the takeover of power from the Austrians in Kraków.

Rivals: "God, Thou Who Saved Poland," "Rota," "Warszawianka," "First Brigade"

After regaining independence, "Mazurek" was not the only candidate for the anthem. The most serious rival was the song "God, Thou Who Saved Poland" by Alojzy Feliński from 1816. It was created as a song for the king's prosperity, who in the Kingdom of Poland was the tsar, and in the early 1860s, its last verse was adapted from a request for the king to a request for the return of a free homeland. According to a letter published in 1998 in "Palestra," supporters of this song argued that the mazurka melody is too lively for an anthem, and a religious song is more dignified, and Gabriel Narutowicz supported it. We could not confirm Narutowicz's involvement in this dispute in a second source. Polish Radio Lublin reminds us that "God, Thou Who Saved Poland" was intoned by Marshal Wojciech Trąmpczyński when he opened the first Sejm of the reborn Republic.

The second candidate was "Rota" by Maria Konopnicka with music by Feliks Nowowiejski. The poem was created in 1908 as a protest against Germanization, and the song was publicly performed for the first time in 1910 during the celebrations of the 500th anniversary of the Battle of Grunwald. Professor Marian Marek Drozdowski pointed out that in the early years of independence, in many regions, especially in Greater Poland, "Rota" or "God, Thou Who Saved Poland" was considered the anthem. The IPN also lists "Warszawianka of 1831" among the candidates.

And what about the "First Brigade"? During World War I, it was the most important legion song and often appears in texts as a "candidate for the anthem." However, we have not found a reliable source showing that it was formally proposed as a national anthem between 1918 and 1927. Polish Radio Lublin even states that it was the Piłsudski supporters who adopted "Mazurek Dąbrowskiego" as the anthem.

How "Mazurek Dąbrowskiego" Became the Anthem

Many of us assume that "Mazurek" became the anthem in 1918, along with the regaining of independence. Meanwhile, for over eight years, the reborn Republic did not have an officially established anthem. The emblem and colors were regulated in 1919, while the anthem waited. The March Constitution of 1921 did not mention it. Moreover, the act that made "Mazurek" the anthem was not a law.

An Anthem Without Papers: 1918–1926

In practice, "Mazurek" served as the de facto anthem from the beginning, and the first regulations came from the military. On March 22, 1921, Minister of Military Affairs General Kazimierz Sosnkowski issued order no. 221, which mandated honors to be rendered during the playing of "Mazurek Dąbrowskiego" and the anthems of allied states. However, this applied only to the military. According to a letter from Jerzy Kejna in "Palestra" from 1997, in October 1921, a regulation was issued regarding the performance of the anthem during military ceremonies, with an official musical notation, signed by order of the minister by the Chief of the General Staff General Władysław Sikorski and published in the weekly "Żołnierz Polski" on October 9, 1921.

We discuss the music box from the time of the Duchy of Warsaw, which a special commission was supposed to find in 1921, in the section about the melody. According to a letter from Stanisław Woźniewicz in "Palestra" from 1998, the dispute over the anthem continued, with even demands for a nationwide competition being raised, and emotions subsided only after the May Coup in 1926.

Circular of February 26, 1927

The decision was made in two steps, each time outside the Sejm, by means of a circular. On October 15, 1926, the Ministry of Religious Denominations and Public Education announced a four-verse text "binding henceforth in schools." On February 26, 1927, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, led by Felicjan Sławoja Składkowski, issued circular no. 49 to all voivodes, which declared "Mazurek Dąbrowskiego" the national anthem. On April 2, 1927, the notes and harmonization by Feliks Konopaszek were approved, which we discuss in the section about the melody.

It is worth emphasizing this, as many texts mix these acts. The decision of February 26, 1927, was the responsibility of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, not the Ministry of Education, whose circular was over four months earlier and concerned schools. When Professor Drozdowski once wrote that the anthem was made by the Ministry of Education's regulation from June 1926, it was pointed out in a polemic in "Palestra" that that act did not constitute the anthem of the state.

The official text from 1926–1927 had four verses out of the six recorded in Wybicki's manuscript. We discuss which verses were omitted and how the words changed in the section about the song's origin. The matter was not closed forever: according to the aforementioned letter from "Palestra," at the turn of 1933 and 1934, the dispute over which song should be the anthem flared up again.

From the Constitution of the Polish People's Republic to the 1980 Law

After the war, the communist authorities did not change either the anthem or its text. Here is an interesting fact that shows how easily errors can be repeated. In many texts, including PAP dispatches, it can be read that the mention of the anthem appeared in the Constitution of the Polish People's Republic of July 22, 1952. We checked its text in the Journal of Laws: the chapter on symbols was titled "Emblem, Colors, and Capital" and did not mention the anthem. The sentence "The anthem of the Polish People's Republic is 'Mazurek Dąbrowskiego'" was added only by the amendment to the constitution on February 10, 1976, and in the consolidated text from 1976, it was included in Article 103, paragraph 3. This is also confirmed by the brochure from the National Anthem Museum and the study from the Polish Music Center at the University of Southern California.

The first law about the anthem was the law of January 31, 1980, on the emblem, colors, and anthem of the Polish People's Republic. Paradoxically, therefore, the most important legal act regarding the anthem was passed by the Sejm of the Polish People's Republic. The law is still in effect today, having been amended multiple times. In February 1990, after the name of the Republic of Poland was restored, the ideological preamble was removed from the law, and the eagle was given back its crown. However, this change did not affect the provisions regarding the anthem. The current Constitution from 1997 confirmed the status of the anthem in Article 28, and the provisions of the law on the performance of the anthem were amended in 2004. We discuss these provisions, the statutory musical notation, and the rules of conduct in the section on applicable law.

The Failed Change of Verses

The loudest proposal in recent years was the draft law on state symbols, which the Ministry of Culture, National Heritage, and Sport presented in the autumn of 2021. It proposed, among other things, swapping the second and third verses, so that the second would start with the words "As Czarniecki to Poznań." The author of this proposal was Przemysław Rey, curator of the National Anthem Museum in Będomin. He explained to PAP that this was a return to Wybicki's logic: Dąbrowski's plan involved crossing the Adriatic to the Balkans, marching to Galicia, and from there through the Vistula and Warta to Greater Poland. According to Rey, the verses swapped themselves in the 19th century when the song was banned and sung from memory. Consultations lasted from October 5 to 27, 2021, and 95 entities participated in them. The law was not passed, and the law from 1980, in the consolidated text published in 2025, still applies.

The Year 2027: 230 Years of the Song and 100 Years of the Anthem

The year 2027 will be a double anniversary: 230 years since the song was written and 100 years since the circular of February 26, 1927. On April 30, 2026, two parliamentary draft resolutions were submitted to the Sejm from two sides of the political scene. The draft from print no. 2503, represented by MP Joanna Lichocka and signed by MPs from Law and Justice, proposes the Year of Mazurek Dąbrowskiego. The draft from print no. 2512, represented by MP Patryk Gabriel and signed by MPs from the Civic Coalition, proposes the Year of the National Anthem. Both were referred on May 6, 2026, for the first reading in committees. According to data from the Sejm on November 4, 2026, neither of the resolutions has yet been adopted.

Hymn during the war and in the PRL

World War II

A brochure about the anthem published in 2017 by the Ministry of the Interior and Administration (MSWiA) and prepared by the National Anthem Museum states that during World War II, "Mazurek" once again became a forbidden song, yet it was sung by partisans, Warsaw insurgents, and soldiers on all fronts. The alteration of the lyrics also returned. According to the same brochure, after the Germans occupied Silesia, a scout from Lublińca delivered to the command of the Home Army a version that included the lines "Poland has not yet perished and cannot perish, as long as a German bows before a Pole in humility." By the end of the war, even German propaganda resorted to the anthem: a leaflet from around 1944 has been preserved in the museum's collection with the slogan "Poland has not yet perished... but it is threatened with destruction by Bolshevism," which aimed to encourage Poles to fight against the Soviets.

In Polish accounts, there is a recurring story that during the occupation, the overture "Polonia" by Wagner was played with the melody of "Mazurek" woven in, and the Germans did not react because Wagner was Hitler's favorite composer. We have not found a source from that era or a scientific study to confirm this, so we present it as an unverified account. There is also a completely unexpected scene. During the Warsaw Uprising, some Hungarian units stationed near Warsaw sympathized with the Poles. According to Lesław Bartelski, the author of the monograph "Mokotów 1944," the orchestra of the 5th Hungarian reserve division played "Mazurek Dąbrowskiego" for the Warsaw residents in Ursynów. This is a report from one book that we could not confirm with a second source.

Soldiers of the Polish Armed Forces in the West again added a refrain to their situation. In 1939, the magazine "Polak we Francji" published "Mazurek Sikorski": "March, march Sikorski, from the land of the Franks to Poland." After the fall of France and the transfer of the army to Great Britain, they sang "from the land of Scotland to Poland."

The most famous wartime performance of the anthem across the ocean, Artur Rubinstein's protest at the founding conference of the UN in San Francisco in 1945, is described in the section about museums and curiosities.

PRL: the anthem that was not changed

One might expect that the authorities, which took the crown from the eagle, would also take on the anthem with Bonaparte and the saber. This did not happen. The communist authorities left "Mazurek" with the same four verses, and in 1976 and 1980, they themselves included it in the constitution and laws. We searched for traces of attempts to remove Bonaparte from the text or to replace the anthem with a new song and found no credible source to confirm them.

Poles, as always, composed their own words to this melody. The brochure from the National Anthem Museum quotes a satirical version from the time of Edward Gierek: "Poland has not yet perished, as long as we live, but in such prosperity, we will soon perish," with a refrain about marching "without food to work." According to the compilation of the Independence Songbook, two verses from Wybicki's manuscript, including "The German, the Muscovite will not settle," could not be officially performed in the PRL due to the dominance of the Soviet Union. This information comes from one source that we could not confirm in censorship documents.

August 1980 and "Solidarity"

In the PRL, the anthem had two lives: it was part of official ceremonies but also a song of protest, as it is difficult to forbid workers from singing the anthem of their own state. This is clearly visible in the Gdańsk Shipyard. On August 14, 1980, Bogdan Borusewicz from the Free Trade Unions and three shipyard workers, Jerzy Borowczak, Bogdan Felski, and Ludwik Prądzyński, tried to start a strike in defense of the dismissed Anna Walentynowicz. According to PAP, the strike began with a brief rally, during which a minute of silence was observed for the victims of December 1970, and the anthem was sung. Only then did the first two departments stop working. Borowczak recalled in an interview with PAP: "There were only two options: the anthem and a minute of silence for the victims of December 1970. I applied both." Historian Robert Derewenda, quoted by Polskie Radio Lublin, points out that the "Solidarity" movement referred to the anthem and the coat of arms as sovereign national symbols.

Polonia and the anthem across the ocean

For Poles abroad, "Mazurek" has been a recognizable symbol for two centuries. In the 19th century, emigrants carried it after uprisings, and at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, among emigrants in both Americas, the "March of Polonia" became widespread. The brochure from the National Anthem Museum also cites an emigrant song from the late 19th century, created on the American continent and referred to by the authors of the brochure as the "March of Polonia" or the "Song of Poles," with the words "Poland has not yet perished, although we are across the seas" and the refrain "We will leave America and return to Poland." According to the brochure, it was brought to Poland from Brazil before World War II by Jadwiga Jahołkowska, an activist of the folk women's movement.

The same brochure provides an example from 1918. In the Niagara-on-the-Lake camp in Canada, where volunteers from America were concentrated for the Polish Army in France, the "March of American Riflemen" was created, a modification of the "March of Czachowski" starting with the words "Scattered all over the world, without a homeland, we have finally gathered here in the face of war's toil." Many popular stories about "Mazurek" at specific Polish-American parades do not have descriptions in the verified sources we checked, regarding when and where exactly it was sung, so we limit ourselves to documented examples.

The anthem and the law – what the regulations say today

About the origins of the words and melody of "Mazurek Dąbrowskiego" and how the song of the legions became the anthem, we write in earlier sections. There, we also describe the history of the regulations: the circular from 1927, the inclusion of the anthem in the constitution in 1976, and the amendment from 2004. Here, we deal with what is currently in force. The most important are two acts: the Constitution from 1997, which in Article 28, paragraph 3 states that "The anthem of the Republic of Poland is Mazurek Dąbrowskiego," and the law of January 31, 1980, on the coat of arms, colors, and anthem of the Republic of Poland and state seals. The latter has been amended multiple times, and its current consolidated text was published in the Journal of Laws in 2025 under position 299. According to the database of legislative acts of the Sejm, this is still the applicable consolidated text, and the last amendment to the law was introduced on January 1, 2025, and did not concern the anthem. All quotes below come from this text.

What the law says

The first article of the law names the white eagle, the white and red colors, and "Mazurek Dąbrowskiego" as symbols of the Republic and adds that honoring them with reverence and respect is "the right and duty of every citizen of the Republic of Poland and all state authorities, institutions, and organizations." The third paragraph of this article states that the symbols "remain under special protection of the law, provided for in separate regulations."

Article 12 stipulates the work itself: the literary text of the anthem is included in Annex 4, and the musical text in arrangements for one voice, for piano, and for voice and piano – Annex 5. Arrangements "for choral, instrumental, and instrumental-vocal ensembles" are approved by the minister, currently the minister responsible for culture. In practice, this means that there is no "arbitrary" national anthem: there is a melody with a statutory musical notation and its approved arrangements.

When the anthem is performed

Article 13 states that the anthem is performed or played publicly in the arrangements referred to in Article 12 and that this is done "especially during ceremonies and state holidays and anniversaries." Article 15 adds that the anthem is performed or played "in a manner that ensures them due honor and respect" (the pronoun "them" in this provision refers collectively to the coat of arms, colors, and anthem). The requirement for honor and respect has been in the law since the beginning, already in 1980. The amendment of February 20, 2004, effective from April 10, 2004, changed something else: it added the words "especially" in Article 13, repealed paragraph 3, according to which other circumstances for performing the anthem could be specified by executive regulations, and removed from Article 15 the stipulation that this occurs "in circumstances and conditions provided for in the law and regulations issued on its basis." Since then, the list of occasions is open. The regulations regarding the anthem in the consolidated text from 2005 and from 2025 are identical, so no later amendment has changed them.

How to behave

The rules of conduct are described in Article 14, paragraph 1. Its wording is worth knowing literally:

"During the performance or playback of the national anthem, a demeanor of solemnity and calmness is required. Individuals present during the public performance or playback of the anthem stand in a posture expressing respect, and furthermore, men in civilian clothing remove their headgear, while individuals in uniform that includes headgear, who are not part of an organized group, pay honors by saluting. Standard bearers during the performance or playback of the anthem pay honors by lowering the standard."

Several details are sometimes misrepresented. The provision about removing headgear still refers to men in civilian clothing – this has been the case since 1980 and remains in the consolidated text from 2025. One can read online about "gender-neutral" regulations from the ministry, but the law itself does not contain such wording. Only individuals in uniform with headgear who are not part of an organized group salute. The behavior of individuals in uniform who are part of an organized group is determined, according to paragraph 2, by executive regulations. The law does not require singing, does not require a military-style posture, and does not mention placing a hand on the heart. It requires solemnity, calmness, and a posture expressing respect. The MSWiA guide "Biało-czerwona i hymn polski" adds a practical tip: the anthem accompanies the raising of the national flag to the mast, and the time for raising the flag should be synchronized with the duration of the anthem.

Arrangements, key, and tempo

The statutory musical notation from Annex 5 contains several pieces of information that usually no one looks at. Above the staff is a tempo marking: quarter note equals 116 beats per minute. The melody is written in 3/4 time, in the key of F major. The title includes annotations "Words: Józef Wybicki, 1797" and "Author of the melody unknown." Therefore, the Polish state does not officially indicate the composer of the melody.

Is it permissible to perform the anthem in a different arrangement, for example, rock or jazz? The letter of the law is quite strict here. The anthem is performed publicly "in the arrangements referred to in Article 12," meaning according to the statutory musical notations or arrangements approved by the minister. Free interpretation performed publicly thus falls outside what the law provides, and whether it violates the regulations in a specific case is determined by law enforcement agencies and courts. Arrangements, citing the "Military Ceremonial of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland" introduced by the decision of the Minister of National Defense in 2014, point out another detail: during official state and military ceremonies, the anthem is usually performed in full, with all four verses and the refrain, while during foreign visits, international events, and sports competitions, shortening to the first verse with the refrain is permitted. This distinction does not arise from the text of the law.

Penalties

The protection of the anthem from disrespect is primarily based on the Code of Offenses. Article 49, paragraph 2 states that a person who "violates the provisions regarding the coat of arms, colors, and anthem of the Republic of Poland" is subject to arrest or a fine. Paragraph 1 of the same article concerns the demonstrative showing of disrespect to the Polish Nation, the Republic of Poland, or its constitutional bodies in a public place. Arrest lasts according to the code from 5 to 30 days, and the fine ranges from 20 to 5000 zlotys.

The often-cited Article 137 of the Penal Code concerns anyone who "publicly insults, destroys, damages, or removes the coat of arms, banner, flag, or other state symbol," and provides for a fine, restriction of freedom, or imprisonment for up to one year. The anthem is not mentioned by name in it. Whether it falls under the concept of "another state symbol" is disputed among lawyers. Prosecutor Piotr Kosmaty, in an article published in 2025 in the "Legal and Administrative Discourse" of the University of Zielona Góra, writes about "doctrinal disputes" in this matter. He proposes that insulting the anthem be classified under Article 133, which provides for up to 3 years of imprisonment for publicly insulting the Nation or the Republic, and ultimately to add the anthem to Article 137. Therefore, it should not be stated as a certainty that insulting the anthem "carries a prison sentence" based on Article 137.

Proposed changes that did not come into effect

About the proposed new law on state symbols from 2021, which included, among other things, swapping the second and third verses, we write in an earlier section. It is worth adding a few details from the official assessment of the regulatory impact from September 30, 2021 (project UD219, Ministry of Culture, National Heritage, and Sport). In pre-consultations, which the then Ministry of Culture and National Heritage conducted with the National Center for Culture from October 23 to November 9, 2018, 70 surveys were submitted by individuals, and the first issue mentioned in them was "the issue of the anthem's key." Separate expert consultations regarding the anthem took place on November 17, 2018, at the Fryderyk Chopin National Institute, and their results, as the ministry writes, were taken into account in the work on the musical annex. The project was not passed, and the current consolidated text from 2025 retains the text, order of verses, and musical notation from the 1980 law.

Official text of the anthem

Here is the text from Annex 4 to the law, preserving the order and punctuation of the original:

Poland has not yet perished,
As long as we live.
What foreign violence has taken from us,
We will reclaim with the saber.

March, march Dąbrowski,
From the land of Italy to Poland.
Under your leadership,
We will unite with the nation.

We will cross the Vistula, we will cross the Warta,
We will be Poles.
Bonaparte gave us an example,
How we should win.

March, march …

Like Czarniecki to Poznań
After the Swedish partition,
To save the homeland
We will return across the sea.

March, march …

Already there, the father to his Basia
Says, weeping –
Just listen, our people
Are beating the drums.

March, march …

Common Mistakes and Myths

Everyone knows the anthem, but few can sing it flawlessly from start to finish. Some mistakes have a long history, as dozens of versions of this song circulated for two centuries. The Ministry of Interior and Administration (MSWiA) even published a guide with a chapter titled "Avoid Mistakes," and the National Anthem Museum in Będomin released a brochure discussing changes to the lyrics stanza by stanza. Below, we compile the most common deviations from the official text.

"Kiedy" or "póki"

The dispute over one word is the most interesting. As we mentioned in an earlier section, "kiedy" originally meant "if" here. The MSWiA guide elaborates on this thought: Wybicki used the word "kiedy" in the sense of "if, since, because," thus linking the existence of Poland to the existence of Poles. "Póki," on the other hand, defines a time limit and pertains only to those who utter these words at that moment. The same guide states that "póki" began to replace "kiedy" as early as the 19th century, and the mistake "was removed by a special commission in 1926." We did not find this last piece of information in sources other than materials from the ministry and the museum, so we present it as their finding. One thing is certain: the law and the official musical notation have "kiedy."

The variant with "póki" is not a modern invention. The museum's brochure cites, for example, the "Song of Polish Legionnaires," which philologist Bolesław Pochmarski wrote in the spring of 1915 in Sławków. It begins with the words "Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła, póki my żyjemy."

How Many Poles Sing the Anthem

We were unable to find a representative study by CBOS or another center that would check how many Poles know all four stanzas. The numbers circulating online on this topic do not have a cited source, so we do not repeat them. However, there is a study on how often Poles sing the anthem. In a report by TNS Polska for the National Center for Culture from September 2016 (1512 respondents aged 15 and older, interviews conducted from July 18 to 31, 2016), 33 percent of respondents answered that they had sung the anthem in the past 12 months, and 42 percent said they had the opportunity to do so more than a year earlier. The authors note that the study took place partially during the European football championships, when there were more opportunities to sing the anthem than usual. In the same study, 94 percent of respondents considered showing respect for the coat of arms, flag, and anthem as a manifestation of patriotism, and 93 percent declared that they personally held these symbols in respect.

Myths and Misunderstandings

• Myth: The anthem was written by General Dąbrowski. No. Dąbrowski is the addressee of the refrain, not the author. The law states directly: "Lyrics: Józef Wybicki, 1797."
• Myth: The melody was definitely composed by Michał Kleofas Ogiński. This attribution long functioned in literature but has not been confirmed, and the official musical notation states: "Author of the melody unknown." We discuss the authorship dispute regarding the melody in an earlier section.
• Myth: The text has always been the same. Wybicki wrote "Jeszcze Polska nie umarła," and his song had six stanzas, of which four entered the anthem, in a changed order. We describe the details of these changes in an earlier section.
• Myth: Basia is Barbara Chłapowska, Dąbrowski's wife. The museum brochure in Będomin directly calls this a myth: Dąbrowski met his future wife only in 1806, nine years after the song was created. According to the brochure, Basia and her father are symbolic figures.
• Myth: The anthem was established by the law of 1927. The status of the anthem was granted by circular no. 49 of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on February 26, 1927, and the notes with harmonization by Feliks Konopaska were approved on April 2, 1927, as we discuss in earlier sections. The first law on the anthem dates back to 1980.
• Myth: During the anthem, one must place their hand on their heart. Polish law does not require this. It requires a posture expressing respect, and men in civilian clothes must remove their headgear. The hand on the heart is a custom that can be adopted but is not an obligation.
• Myth: The anthem may only be performed at state ceremonies. Since the amendment in 2004, the law states that the anthem is performed publicly "in particular" during ceremonies, holidays, and state anniversaries. The list of occasions is not closed; the condition is respect and the statutory arrangement of the melody.
• Myth: "Mazurek Dąbrowskiego" was played in space. We did not find credible confirmation that the anthem was played in orbit during Mirosław Hermaszewski's flight in 1978 or during Ignis Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski's mission in 2025. Uznański-Wiśniewski took a facsimile of the manuscript of Chopin's As-flat major mazurka to the International Space Station, which he handed over to the National Institute of Fryderyk Chopin on October 16, 2025. It was a mazurka, but not the anthem.

Polonia: The Anthem Abroad

The Polish law on the anthem does not contain provisions regarding the order of anthems at ceremonies involving two countries or how to behave during a foreign anthem. We also did not find a binding rule that could be cited as applicable to every organizer of a Polish diaspora event – in practice, the organizer and local custom decide. It is worth knowing at least the regulations of the country of residence. In the United States, behavior during "The Star-Spangled Banner" is described in section 301 of title 36 of the United States Code. When the flag is displayed, individuals in uniform should salute from the first to the last note, soldiers and veterans without uniforms may salute in the same way, and others should face the flag, standing at attention, with their right hand on their heart. Men without uniforms should remove their headgear and hold it in their right hand at their left shoulder, so that their hand is over their heart. When the flag is not present, everyone turns towards the music. The regulation uses the word "should," which means it is a recommendation and does not foresee a penalty. During the Polish anthem, it is sufficient to adopt a posture expressing respect, as provided by Polish law.

Museums, Memorabilia, and Curiosities

The National Anthem Museum in Będomin

In Kashubia, in the small village of Będomin, stands a manor where Józef Wybicki was born in 1747. Since 1978, it has housed the National Anthem Museum, a branch of the National Museum in Gdańsk. According to available descriptions, the first building was erected here in the early 18th century by the Gleissen-Doręgowski family, and in 1741 and 1772–1773, when the estate was already owned by the Wybicki family (they were its owners from 1740 to 1785), it was remodeled into a manor in Polish style. PAP, in a text published by dzieje.pl, dates the manor generally to the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1906, the eastern part burned down, and in 1912, the manor was remodeled into a two-story building with a Polish gable roof. The renovation from 1977 to 1978 restored its appearance from the second half of the 18th century.

The museum has three permanent exhibitions: "Polish National Symbols," "The Fate of Mazurek Dąbrowskiego," and "Józef Wybicki and His Times." The most valuable part of the collection is patriotic musical items: songbooks and scores, including a Parisian edition of the notes and text of the "Mazurka" in Polish and French from 1826, two adaptations of the anthem published in the 19th century in Germany, and the lyrics of foreign anthems modeled after the Polish one. There are also music boxes playing the "Mazurka," the oldest gramophone records with Polish hymnic songs, and a miniature gramophone with two miniature records of the anthem. In the fall of 2013, a five-meter eagle was erected near the museum, with wings made from about 200 old coats.

The manor requires rescue. At the end of April 2026, the National Museum in Gdańsk announced that it had received 1.59 million zlotys from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage for partial renovation. The last comprehensive renovation took place in the 1970s when the building was adapted for the museum. The work will primarily cover the manor's facades, shutters, and entrance with a wooden porch, as well as the roof of the administrative building, but not the interiors and exhibitions. The museum announced that the work would begin after selecting a contractor and would be related to the hundredth anniversary of the establishment of the anthem, which falls on February 26, 2027. We were unable to determine whether a contractor was selected and work commenced by November 2026.

Reggio nell’Emilia

We discuss the plaque from 1977 on the town hall in Reggio nell’Emilia and the Sala del Tricolore, where the tricolor flag, the prototype of today's Italian flag, was adopted on January 7, 1797, in an earlier section. Next to the hall is the Museo del Tricolore, opened in its current form on January 7, 2004, by President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. It should be noted that this is a museum of the Italian flag, and its Italian descriptions do not mention Poland.

The Wybicki plaque is a site for Polish ceremonies. On July 19, 2022, on the 225th anniversary of the song's creation, the head of the Office for Veterans and Repressed Persons, Jan Józef Kasprzyk, the Polish ambassador to Italy, Anna Maria Anders, the consul general in Milan, Anna Golec-Mastroianni, and the chairman of the city council, Matteo Iori, laid wreaths at the Wybicki plaque and at the plaque commemorating the creation of the Italian flag. Subsequently, Polish decorations "Pro Bono Poloniae" and "Pro Patria" were awarded in the Sala del Tricolore.

The Anthem in Music and Concert Halls

We discuss the fugue by Karol Kurpiński, the overture by Richard Wagner, and "Pan Tadeusz" in earlier sections. The melody was also quoted by later composers. Ignacy Jan Paderewski, a future prime minister, hid it in his b-minor symphony "Polonia" from 1908, transforming it from triple meter to duple meter. Edward Elgar wove it into the symphonic prelude "Polonia" from 1915.

The most famous performance outside Poland belongs to Artur Rubinstein. In 1945, at the founding conference of the UN in San Francisco, there was no Polish delegation, and the hall lacked a Polish flag. Accounts of what the pianist did differ in detail. According to Rubinstein's own account, cited in various studies, he began his concert for the conference participants by expressing disappointment at Poland's absence and pointed out the lack of a Polish flag, then played "Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła" loudly and slowly, repeating the last phrase in a powerful forte. The audience stood up and gave him a standing ovation. An article on the IPN website provides a different account: Rubinstein was said to have started according to protocol with the host's anthem, that is, the United States, interrupted after a few measures, and said: "I will play you the anthem of Poland. And please stand up." This text does not provide sources. The fact of the protest is well documented, but its exact course is not. Poland signed the United Nations Charter on October 15, 1945, as the 51st country.

The Year 2027 – Several Anniversaries at Once

We discuss two parliamentary draft resolutions proposing to declare 2027 the Year of the National Anthem or the Year of Mazurek Dąbrowski in an earlier section. According to data from the Sejm as of November 4, 2026, both were still awaiting their first reading in committees. The year 2027 will bring several round dates: February 26 will mark one hundred years since the MSWiA circular, July will mark 230 years since the lyrics were written in Reggio nell’Emilia, and September 29 will mark 280 years since Wybicki's birth. This would not be the first such year. On October 14, 2021, the Sejm declared 2022 the Year of Józef Wybicki, on the 200th anniversary of his death and the 275th anniversary of his birth.

We also searched for coins and stamps dedicated to the anthem. We were unable to confirm in the catalogs of the National Bank of Poland or the Polish Post any specific issue dedicated to "Mazurek Dąbrowski," so we do not provide any.

Little Known, but True

• Bonaparte is the only person from outside Poland mentioned by name in the Polish anthem. Some studies point this out.
• During the November Uprising, an anonymous version of the song circulated "dedicated to cowards, vain people, loafers, gluttons, and vagabonds of the capital city of Warsaw," with the refrain "March, march to the spoon, and from the spoon to the bowl." The museum brochure in Będomin cites it.
• The Kashubians have their own song, which was created as a regional version of the "Mazurka": "Marsz Kaszubski" by Hieronim Derdowski from 1880. According to the museum brochure, it is now sung to a different melody, and many Kashubians consider it their anthem.
• After the act of November 5, 1916, in which the emperors of Germany and Austria-Hungary announced the establishment of the Kingdom of Poland without specifying borders, Poles composed a mocking stanza to this melody: "We will trim a piece of the country, and the Kingdom will be." In June 1918, another stanza was added, with the refrain "March, march Poles, to Germany, to work."