1914

Andrzej Panufnik, the second son of Tomasz Panufnik and Matylda Thonnes, is born in Warsaw on 24 September, shortly after the start of the First World War.

(...) on 24 September my mother gave birth to a rather frail, dark-haired, dark-eyed boy: I was said to look like a scrawny gipsy – a total contrast to the energetic, lion-like five-year old Mirek, who was fair-skinned, yellow haired, with pale blue eyes.

1915

Tomasz Panufnik rents an apartment in Aleje Ujazdowskie in Warsaw for his wife and children, and leaves for Tarnopol to work as a hydraulics engineer.

Warsaw was under the rule of the Tsar, and all too soon my father was conscripted as a captain in the Russian army. When he said goodbye to us he had no idea, and nor had my mother, that several years would pass before he could come home again.

1916

The whole of Poland is under German occupation.

During that time, Karol Szymanowski, cut off from the West at his family home of Tymoszòwka, writes his ground-breaking Symphony No.3 and Violin Concerto No. 1.

Cabaret Voltaire, regarded as the start of the Dadaist movement, is active in Zurich.

1917

In 1917 the Russian Revolution breaks out, after which chaos ensues and the family loses contact with their father, who until then had managed to send money regularly.

With no more money arriving, we were almost destitute. My mother was forced to sell her valuable inheritance from her grandfather, a well-sited piece of building land in Warsaw for which she received only a pittance from a grasping war-time speculator.

1918

On 11 November the Council of Regency transfers power to Józef Piłsudski; armistice is declared on all fronts and, in practical terms, the First World War comes to an end.

On 29 December Tomasz Panufnik unexpectedly returns home from the war.

Trotting into my mother’s room early one morning, I saw a man in her bed. 'Who’s that horrible creature?' I asked indignantly. My mother was laughing. 'It’s not a creature. It’s your father!'

1919

Peace Conference takes place in Paris from 18 January to 28 June. Poland is represented by Roman Dmowski and Ignacy Jan Paderewski.

Elections to the Polish Parliament take place on 26 January.

The Skamander poet’s group is established in Warsaw.

Proust receives the award of L’Academie Goncourt for the most recent volume of In Search of Lost Time (Within a Budding Grove).