Obchody Tygodnia Ligi Obrony Powietrznej i Przeciwgazowej na terenie województwa krakowskiego w 1936 roku

Abstract

The article is a contribution to the research into the history of the Airborne and Antigas Defence League, a mass social organisation, which functioned in Poland between the two World Wars. In the 1930s the League functioned as a social association of higher utility. It received many privileges facilitating its activity, yet in return it was transformed from an aviationlovers society into a state agency, and was supposed to realise some of the government’s tasks concerning the air-defence works and preparing people to passive air defence in case of war. One of the forms of social popularisation of the aviation development and air- and gas-defence programme were cycles of mass events. „Aviation weeks” had also a financial dimension, as they always brought considerable income to the institution. The article presents such activities of the League on the example of the Cracow voivodship in the summer and autumn of 1936. An attempt is also made to show the social mechanisms functioning on a different scale in other voivodships of Poland in the same period of time.