The article presents a historical vision of the Polish patriotism. The author shows the traditions of Polish patriotism in a historical perspective on the example of changes in the function and significance of the symbolic battle of Grunwald/Tannenberg of 1410 (as a case study) in the formation of the Polish patriotic identity. The author also tries to characterise the most important challenges that different educational milieux faced in 1918 and in the first years of the construction of the Second Polish Republic.