On August 1, 1944, the Warsaw Uprising broke out against the German forces occupying the capital of Poland. The Polish Underground State decided to start it while German forces were retreating from Poland before the Soviets attacked. However, as they approached the city's eastern suburbs, the Red Army suspended combat operations, allowing the Germans to regroup and defeat Polish resistance, and to almost completely destroy the city in retaliation. The uprising lasted 63 days with little external support. It was the largest military effort undertaken by any European resistance movement during World War II.

On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of this event, we asked Poles about three issues: who they think the uprising is important for today, what significance they themselves attach to the event, and whether, from today's perspective, they consider this uprising necessary and whether it should have happened. Almost half (49%) of respondents answered that, in their opinion, the Warsaw Uprising is currently important for all Poles. According to less than one-third (31%), the uprising is important only to some Poles, specifically those who belong to the older generation. A much smaller group (8%) consider it a local event and only interesting for people connected with Warsaw, while an even smaller group think that few people are interested in it today (7%).

In your opinion, for whom is the Warsaw Uprising important today?

As many as 91% of Poles have said that the uprising is important to them personally. In all subsequent measurements since 1994, such answers have clearly dominated, but in 2024, for the first time, more than half of respondents have claimed that the uprising is "very important" to them. This would mean that with the passage of time, the importance of this event not only does not decrease, but actually grows. This is undoubtedly related to the extremely solemn celebrations of subsequent anniversaries of the uprising in recent decades, not only in Warsaw, but also throughout Poland, which contributed to making the uprising a nationwide symbol of the fighting spirit and sacrifice in the name of the homeland.

Is the Warsaw Uprising important for you personally?

Despite the significant role that the uprising plays in the national imagination today, it was undoubtedly a military defeat, responsible for about 200,000 deaths and the razing of Warsaw to the ground. However, when we asked the respondents whether the uprising was necessary and whether it should have happened, the majority (61%) thought so, and only one-fifth (21%) disagreed. A comparison with the results from previous years shows that the view of the uprising's justification has clearly strengthened since the 1990s.

Do you think that the Warsaw Uprising was necessary and it should have happened?