Bataliony Chlopskie
Encyclopedia
Bataliony Chłopskie was a Polish
World War II resistance movement
and partisan
organisation. The organisation was created in mid-1940 by the agrarian political party Stronnictwo Ludowe
and by 1944 was partially integrated with the Armia Krajowa
. At its height, the organisation had 175,000 members.
.
However, in early 1941 it was decided that an armed force be created. The core of the newly formed BCh came from the earlier organization Chłostra (an acronym of Chłopska Straż - Peasants' Guard), as well as from other underground organizations of the peasant movement, such as Związek Młodzieży Wiejskiej (Association of Peasant Youth), Chłopska Organizacja Wolności "Racławice" (Peasant Freedom Organization "Racławice") and Centralny Związek Młodej Wsi "Siew" (Central Union of Village Youth "Sowing").
The structure of the BCh was based on pre-war administrative divisions of Poland. Areas were roughly correspondent to pre-war Voivodeships
, and were further divided onto districts (based on powiat
s) and commune-based units. By mid-1943 10 areas were formed:
Each of the areas fielded its own armed units. The units were basically of two types:
The units of the latter type were later mostly joined with the Armia Krajowa. The commander of the BCh was Franciszek Kamiński
, his chiefs of staff were Kazimierz Banach (until 1942) and S. Koter.
During the process of unification of Polish underground, large part (approximately 50 000 men) of the BCh soldiers was integrated by the Government Delegate's Office at Home
with Armia Krajowa and Państwowy Korpus Bezpieczeństwa
. Also, by early 1943 part of the tactical units were transformed into Special Units specialized in diversion and reprisal actions. The statistics show that in March 1944 the Bataliony Chłopskie had approximately 175 000 members grouped in 69 units. However, the full unification with the Armia Krajowa did not occur until the end of the war.
After the Red Army
entered Poland, elements of BCh started to cooperate with the communist-backed Armia Ludowa
, while the majority remained loyal to the Polish government
. However, the incoming end of the war, as well as information of the Yalta Conference
made further resistance futile and on April 2, 1945 most of the Bataliony Chłopskie units came out from the underground. Some of the soldiers were arrested by the communists, while others joined the reestablished Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe of Stanisław Mikołajczyk
. Formally the Bataliony Chłopskie were dissolved in September 1945.
The first major actions of armed resistance began in late 1942 when the Zamość
area, due to its fertile black soil, was chosen for German colonization as part of Generalplan Ost
. Polish farmers were expropriated and forcibly expelled from the farms with great brutality. Their farms were handed over to German settlers. Children were separated from their parents and after racial scrutiny send over to Germany to be raised in German families. After several major battles against German units (the most notable being the battles of Wojda, Róża and Zaboreczno), the Germans had to halt the expulsions and in the end very few German settlers were brought to the area (see Zamość Uprising
).
Other major actions included liberation of prisoners from prisons in Pińczów
and Krasnystaw
as well as the sinking of German river patrol ship Tannenberg on the Vistula
.
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
World War II resistance movement
Polish resistance movement in World War II
The Polish resistance movement in World War II, with the Home Army at its forefront, was the largest underground resistance in all of Nazi-occupied Europe, covering both German and Soviet zones of occupation. The Polish defence against the Nazi occupation was an important part of the European...
and partisan
Partisan (military)
A partisan is a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation by some kind of insurgent activity...
organisation. The organisation was created in mid-1940 by the agrarian political party Stronnictwo Ludowe
Stronnictwo Ludowe
The People's Party was a Polish political party, active from 1931 in the Second Polish Republic. An agrarian populist party, its power base was composed mostly from peasants....
and by 1944 was partially integrated with the Armia Krajowa
Armia Krajowa
The Armia Krajowa , or Home Army, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...
. At its height, the organisation had 175,000 members.
History
Initially after the occupation of Poland by the Soviet Union and Germany, the peasant parties were reluctant to forming their own armed resistance forces. Since mid-1940 several smaller groups were formed, mostly for self-defence of Polish peasants against German terror and economic policies. Most of members of peasant parties grouped into CKRL (Central Directorate of Peasant Movement) who received military training before the war were transferred to other armed resistance organizations, most notably to ZWZZwiazek Walki Zbrojnej
Związek Walki Zbrojnej was an underground army formed in Poland following its invasion in September 1939 by Germany and the Soviet Union that opened World War II.The precursor to the ZWZ was the Service...
.
However, in early 1941 it was decided that an armed force be created. The core of the newly formed BCh came from the earlier organization Chłostra (an acronym of Chłopska Straż - Peasants' Guard), as well as from other underground organizations of the peasant movement, such as Związek Młodzieży Wiejskiej (Association of Peasant Youth), Chłopska Organizacja Wolności "Racławice" (Peasant Freedom Organization "Racławice") and Centralny Związek Młodej Wsi "Siew" (Central Union of Village Youth "Sowing").
The structure of the BCh was based on pre-war administrative divisions of Poland. Areas were roughly correspondent to pre-war Voivodeships
Voivodeships of Poland
The voivodeship, or province, called in Polish województwo , has been a high-level administrative subdivision of Poland since the 14th century....
, and were further divided onto districts (based on powiat
Powiat
A powiat is the second-level unit of local government and administration in Poland, equivalent to a county, district or prefecture in other countries. The term powiat is most often translated into English as "county", although other terms are also sometimes used...
s) and commune-based units. By mid-1943 10 areas were formed:
-
- WarsawWarsawWarsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
- Warsaw VoivodeshipWarsaw VoivodeshipWarszawa Voivodeship was a unit of administrative division and local government in Poland in years 1975–1998, superseded by Masovian Voivodeship.Capital city: WarsawMajor cities and towns: :* Warsaw ;...
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- LublinLublinLublin is the ninth largest city in Poland. It is the capital of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 350,392 . Lublin is also the largest Polish city east of the Vistula river...
- Łódź
- KrakówKrakówKraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
, RzeszówRzeszówRzeszów is a city in southeastern Poland with a population of 179,455 in 2010. It is located on both sides of the Wisłok River, in the heartland of the Sandomierska Valley...
, SilesiaSilesiaSilesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław... - Białystok
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, Tarnopol - PoznańPoznanPoznań is a city on the Warta river in west-central Poland, with a population of 556,022 in June 2009. It is among the oldest cities in Poland, and was one of the most important centres in the early Polish state, whose first rulers were buried at Poznań's cathedral. It is sometimes claimed to be...
- Warsaw
Each of the areas fielded its own armed units. The units were basically of two types:
- territorial militias - created for self-defense, sabotage and preparation of future all-national uprising
- tactical units - strictly militarized, created for use as the core of the future all-national uprising
The units of the latter type were later mostly joined with the Armia Krajowa. The commander of the BCh was Franciszek Kamiński
Franciszek Kaminski
Franciszek Kamiński was a Polish general and activist of the peasant movement....
, his chiefs of staff were Kazimierz Banach (until 1942) and S. Koter.
During the process of unification of Polish underground, large part (approximately 50 000 men) of the BCh soldiers was integrated by the Government Delegate's Office at Home
Government Delegate's Office at Home
The Government Delegation for Poland was an agency of the Polish Government in Exile during World War II. It was the highest authority of the Polish Secret State in occupied Poland and was headed by the Government Delegate for Poland, a de facto deputy Polish Prime Minister.The Government...
with Armia Krajowa and Państwowy Korpus Bezpieczeństwa
Panstwowy Korpus Bezpieczenstwa
Państwowy Korpus Bezpieczeństwa was a Polish underground police force organized by the Armia Krajowa and Government Delegate's Office at Home under German occupation during World War II...
. Also, by early 1943 part of the tactical units were transformed into Special Units specialized in diversion and reprisal actions. The statistics show that in March 1944 the Bataliony Chłopskie had approximately 175 000 members grouped in 69 units. However, the full unification with the Armia Krajowa did not occur until the end of the war.
After the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
entered Poland, elements of BCh started to cooperate with the communist-backed Armia Ludowa
Armia Ludowa
Armia Ludowa was a communist partisan force set up by the Polish Workers' Party during World War II. Its aims were to support the military of the Soviet Union against German forces and aid the creation of a pro-Soviet communist government in Poland...
, while the majority remained loyal to the Polish government
Polish government in Exile
The Polish government-in-exile, formally known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in Exile , was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Poland of September 1939, and the subsequent occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, which...
. However, the incoming end of the war, as well as information of the Yalta Conference
Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea Conference and codenamed the Argonaut Conference, held February 4–11, 1945, was the wartime meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, represented by President Franklin D...
made further resistance futile and on April 2, 1945 most of the Bataliony Chłopskie units came out from the underground. Some of the soldiers were arrested by the communists, while others joined the reestablished Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe of Stanisław Mikołajczyk
Stanislaw Mikolajczyk
Stanisław Mikołajczyk , Polish politician, was Prime Minister of the Polish government in exile during World War II, and later Deputy Prime Minister in postwar Poland, before the USSR took political control of Poland....
. Formally the Bataliony Chłopskie were dissolved in September 1945.
Tasks and actions
The main tasks of Bataliony Chłopskie were:-
- Defense of the peasants against German economic exploitation
- Defense of peasants against expulsions
- Self-defense against German terror
- Aid to the expelled, Jews, the intelligentsiaIntelligentsiaThe intelligentsia is a social class of people engaged in complex, mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture, encompassing intellectuals and social groups close to them...
, and to the families of those enslaved by the Germans.
The first major actions of armed resistance began in late 1942 when the Zamość
Zamosc
Zamość ukr. Замостя is a town in southeastern Poland with 66,633 inhabitants , situated in the south-western part of Lublin Voivodeship , about from Lublin, from Warsaw and from the border with Ukraine...
area, due to its fertile black soil, was chosen for German colonization as part of Generalplan Ost
Generalplan Ost
Generalplan Ost was a secret Nazi German plan for the colonization of Eastern Europe. Implementing it would have necessitated genocide and ethnic cleansing to be undertaken in the Eastern European territories occupied by Germany during World War II...
. Polish farmers were expropriated and forcibly expelled from the farms with great brutality. Their farms were handed over to German settlers. Children were separated from their parents and after racial scrutiny send over to Germany to be raised in German families. After several major battles against German units (the most notable being the battles of Wojda, Róża and Zaboreczno), the Germans had to halt the expulsions and in the end very few German settlers were brought to the area (see Zamość Uprising
Zamosc Uprising
The Zamość Uprising refers to the actions by Polish resistance against the forced expulsion of Poles from the Zamość region under the Nazi Generalplan Ost...
).
Other major actions included liberation of prisoners from prisons in Pińczów
Pinczów
Pińczów is a town in Poland, in Świętokrzyskie Voivodship, about 40 km south of Kielce. It is the capital of Pińczów County. Population is 12,304 .-History:...
and Krasnystaw
Krasnystaw
Krasnystaw is a town in eastern Poland with 19,615 inhabitants . Situated in the Lublin Voivodeship , previously in Chelm Voivodeship . It is the capital of Krasnystaw County....
as well as the sinking of German river patrol ship Tannenberg on the Vistula
Vistula
The Vistula is the longest and the most important river in Poland, at 1,047 km in length. The watershed area of the Vistula is , of which lies within Poland ....
.