New sources for Paweł Kochański’s biography

Elżbieta Szczepańska-Lange

Abstract

This text focusses on a document in the civil records of the Holy Cross parish in Warsaw: a certificate of the baptism of Fajwel Kahan/Kaganov, or Paweł Kochański. The author came across the document unexpectedly during her search for the certificate of the violinist’s marriage to Zofia Kon, which took place at the Holy Cross Church in 1911.

Why should Kochański, who had been baptised with the approval of Sejny Consistory in a small church in Iłgów (now Ilguva), Lithuania, in 1902, certify his baptism seven years later, when he could easily access the original certificate?

Everything leads to the conclusion that Kochański’s aim was to provide false testimony for a later year of birth, which would officially make him three years younger and thus enable him to avoid being enlisted into the army. The author quotes the memoirs of Artur Rubinstein, Paweł Kochański’s closest friend, who was also threatened by the draft in 1909. According to the pianist’s account, he and Kochański initially acted hand in glove to evade the threat, bribing members of the draft board. The author also attempts to shed light on the circumstances in which Kochański’s baptism was certified. The legal validity of the document seems questionable; however, despite repeated efforts and consultation, the author has not identified the article of Canon Law that would have regulated the certification of baptism in 1909.

The puzzle relating to Kochański’s successful evasion of military service has not yet been completely solved. Several other documents, including the violinist’s correspondence with the Młynarski family, have provided researchers with evidence that Kochański was born in 1884 and not – as was written in the certificate of baptism discussed here and subsequently in all other sources – in 1887. This story shows that a minor fraud, justified from the perspective of a Pole and a musician, which also greatly benefitted musical culture and caused nobody any harm, can eventually be brought to light.