Poland, 2008, 3.65 Zl. 11 (3/4) x 11 (1/2). multicoloured

Catalogues:
Michel: 4399
Scott: 3920
Stanley Gibbons: 4345
Yvert et Tellier: 4132

It has been 100 years this year (2008) since Rota - one of the most important for the Poles and very much at their hearts patriotic song by Maria Konopnicka was written. The poet's intention was quite different from what it later became; the poem had a life at is own. Rota's first edition was in 1908 in Krakow's paper "Przodownica". Two years later it was issued in "Gwiazdka Cieszyńska" and "Gazeta Polska" in Chicago. In partitioned Poland Rota was for some time the Polish anthem and in free Poland - it served as an anthem of the Polish Scouting movement. Nowadays it is still an unofficial anthem of some peasants' organizations. Rota had its may versions in the country and abroad. It is a second most important national song - after Dąbrowski's Mazurka - to be sung while standing like in the case of the Polish anthem.

Plots: Konopnicka Maria. «Little Orphan Mary and the Gnomes»