Arlington resident Orli founded the Sienkiewicz Society, a group of about 20 re-enactors who bring to life 17th century Eastern European militaries. They’ve been soldiers from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Muscovite Russians, Ukrainian Cossacks and Turkish Ottomans. Why the 17th century?

I was interested in rapiers and daggers, and they’re the weapons of the Three Musketeers, and they are 1630 — so 17th century. The 17th century is a fascinating period. And for many years I was doing English and Swede and so on. But I’m Polish in origin and nobody knew anything about Eastern European history in America — especially in the 17th century — so I thought it would be a fun project. That was 10 years ago.

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