Cursed soldiers
Encyclopedia
The 'cursed soldiers' is a name applied to a variety of Polish resistance movement
s formed in the later stages of World War II
and afterwards. Created by some members of the Polish Secret State
, these clandestine organizations continued their armed struggle against the Stalinist government
of Poland
well into the 1950s. The guerrilla warfare included an array of military attacks launched against the new communist prisons as well as MBP state security offices, detention facilities for political prisoners, and concentration camps set up across the country. Most of the Polish anti-communist
groups ceased to exist in the late 1940s or 1950s, hunted down by MBP security services and NKVD
assassination squads. However, the last known 'cursed soldier', Józef Franczak
, was killed in an ambush as late as 1963, almost 20 years after the Soviet
take-over of Poland.
The best-known Polish anti-communist resistance organizations operating in Stalinist Poland included Freedom and Independence (Wolność i Niezawisłość, WIN), National Armed Forces (Narodowe Siły Zbrojne, NSZ), National Military Union
(Narodowe Zjednoczenie Wojskowe, NZW), Konspiracyjne Wojsko Polskie
(Underground Polish Army, KWP), Ruch Oporu Armii Krajowej
(Home Army Resistance, ROAK), Armia Krajowa Obywatelska
(Citizens' Home Army, AKO), NIE
(NO, short for Niepodległość), Armed Forces Delegation for Poland (Delegatura Sił Zbrojnych na Kraj), and Wolność i Sprawiedliwość
(Freedom and Justice, WiS). Similar Eastern European Anti-Communist Insurgencies
fought on in other countries.
, the Soviet and Polish communists who set up the brand new government called the Polish Committee of National Liberation
in 1944, realized that the Polish Secret State loyal to the Polish government-in-exile, had to be abolished before they could gain complete control over Poland. Future General Secretary of PZPR, Władysław Gomułka, pronounced that "Soldiers of AK are a hostile element which must be removed without mercy". Another prominent communist, Roman Zambrowski
, ushered that the AK had to be "exterminated".
Armia Krajowa
(or simply AK) – the main Polish resistance movement in World War II
– had officially disbanded on 19 January 1945 to prevent a slide into armed conflict with the Red Army
including an increasing threat of civil war over Poland's sovereignty. However, many units decided to continue on their struggle under new circumstances, seeing the Soviet forces as new occupiers. Meanwhile, Soviet partisans in Poland
had already been ordered by Moscow on June 22, 1943 to engage Polish Leśni partisans
in combat. They commonly fought Poles more often than they did the Germans. The main forces of the Red Army
(Northern Group of Forces
) and the NKVD
began conducting operations against AK partisans already during and directly after the Polish Operation Tempest
designed by the Poles as a preventive action to assure Polish rather than Soviet control of the cities after the German withdrawal. Stalin aimed to ensure that an independent Poland would never reemerge in the postwar period.
, formed in mid-1943. NIE's goal was not to engage the Soviet forces in combat, but rather to observe and conduct espionage
while the Polish government-in-exile decided how to deal with the Soviets. At that time, the exiled government still believed that the solution could be found through negotiations. On May 7, 1945, the NIE ("NO") was disbanded and transformed into the Delegatura Sił Zbrojnych na Kraj ("Armed Forces Delegation for Homeland"). However, this organization lasted only until August 8, 1945, when the decision was made to disband it and to stop partisan
resistance on Polish territory.
In March 1945 a staged trial of 16 leaders of the Polish Underground State held by the Soviet Union
took place in Moscow
- (the Trial of the Sixteen
).Malcher, G.C. (1993) Blank Pages Pyrford Press ISBN 1 897984 00 6 Page 73 The Government Delegate
, together with most members of the Council of National Unity
and the C-i-C of the Armia Krajowa
, were invited by Soviet general Ivan Serov
with agreement of Joseph Stalin
to a conference on their eventual entry to the Soviet-backed Provisional Government. They were presented with a warrant of safety, but the NKVD
arrested them in Pruszków
on 27 and 28 March. Leopold Okulicki
, Jan Stanisław Jankowski and Kazimierz Pużak
were arrested on 27th with 12 more the next day. A.Zwierzynski had been arrested earlier. They were brought to Moscow
for interrogation in the Lubyanka. After several months of brutal interrogation and torture they were presented with the forged accusations of "collaboration
with Nazi Germany
" and of "planning a military alliance with Nazi Germany".
The first Polish communist government, PKWN, was formed in July 1944, but declined jurisdiction over AK soldiers. Consequently, for more than a year, it was Soviet agencies like the NKVD
that dealt with the AK. By the end of the war, approximately 60,000 soldiers of the AK had been arrested, and 50,000 of them were deported to the Soviet Union's gulag
s and prisons. Most of those soldiers had been captured by the Soviets during or in the aftermath of Operation Tempest, when many AK units tried to cooperate with the Soviets in a nationwide uprising against the Germans. Other veterans were arrested when they decided to approach the government after being promised amnesty
. In 1947, an amnesty was passed
for most of the partisans; the Communist authorities expected around 12,000 people to give up their arms, but the actual number of people to come out of the forests eventually reached 53,000. Many of them were arrested despite promises of freedom; after repeated broken promises during the first few years of communist control, AK soldiers stopped trusting the government.
The third AK organization was Wolność i Niezawisłość ("Freedom and Sovereignty"). Again, its primary goal was not combat; rather, the WiN was designed to help AK soldiers make the transition from a life as partisans to that of civilians. The continued secrecy and conspiracy were necessary in light of the increasing persecution of AK veterans by the communist government. WiN was, however, much in need of funds to pay for false documents and to provide resources for the partisans, many of whom had lost their homes and entire life-savings in the war. Viewed as enemies of the state, starved of resources, and with a vocal faction advocating armed resistance against the Soviets and their Polish proxies, WiN was far from efficient. A significant victory for the NKVD and the newly created Polish secret police, Urząd Bezpieczeństwa (UB), came in the second half of 1945, when they managed to convince several leaders of the AK and WiN that they truly wanted to offer amnesty to AK members. Within a few months, they managed to gain information about vast numbers of AK/WiN resources and people. Several months later when the (imprisoned) AK and WiN leaders realized their mistake, the organization was crippled and thousands more of their members were arrested. WiN finally disbanded in 1952.
of MBP declared at the secutity briefing, that "The terrorist and political underground had ceased to be a threatening force," although the class enemy at universities, offices and factories still needs to be "found out and neutralized."
The persecution of the AK members was only a part of the rein of Stalinist terror in postwar Poland. In the period of 1944–56, approximately 300,000 Polish people had been arrested, or up to two million, by different accounts. There were 6,000 death sentences issued, the majority of them carried out. Possibly, over 20,000 people died in communist prisons including those executed "in the majesty of the law" such as Witold Pilecki
, a hero of Auschwitz. A further six million Polish citizens (i.e., one out of every three adult Poles) were classified as suspected members of a 'reactionary or criminal element' and subjected to investigation by state agencies. During the Polish October
of 1956, a political amnesty freed 35,000 former AK soldiers from prisons. Still, some partisans remained in service, unwilling or simply unable to rejoin the community. The cursed soldier Stanisław Marchewka "Ryba" ("The Fish") was killed in 1957; and the last AK partisan, Józef Franczak
"Lalek" ("Doller"), was killed in 1963 — almost two decades after the Second World War ended. Four years later, long after the abolition of Stalinist terror, last member of the elite British-trained Cichociemny ("The Silent and Hidden") intelligence and support group Adam Boryczka
was finally released from prison (1967). Until the end of the People's Republic of Poland
, former AK soldiers were under constant investigation by the secret police. It was only in 1989, after the fall of communism, that the court sentences of AK soldiers were finally declared invalid and annulled by the Polish law.
(Narodowe Zjednoczenie Wojskowe, NZW) took place on May 6–7, 1945, in the village of Kuryłówka in southeastern Poland
. The Battle of Kuryłówka fought against the Soviet 2nd Border Regiment of the NKVD, ended in a victory for the underground forces commanded by Major Franciszek Przysiężniak
("Marek"). The anti-communist fighters killed up to 70 Russian agents. The NKVD troops retreated in haste, only to reappear in the village later on and burn it to the ground in retaliation, destroying over 730 buildings.
On May 21, 1945, a heavily-armed unit of the Home Army (AK) led by Colonel Edward Wasilewski
, attacked and destroyed the NKVD camp
located in Rembertów
on the eastern outskirts of Warsaw
. The Russians incarcerated there many hundreds of Polish citizens, including members of the Home Army, who were systematically deported to Siberia
. The attack freed all Polish political prisoners from the camp. Between 1944-1946, the Cursed soldiers liberated many communist prisons in Soviet occupied Poland. For a more complete list of their operations see Polish anti-communist resistance.
regions of Poland. The Augustów roundup was a joint operation of the Red Army and the Soviet NKVD and SMERSH
battalions with the assistance from Polish UB and LWP units, against underground Armia Krajowa soldiers. The Soviet operation extended into the territory of occupied Lithuania
. More than 2,000 Polish suspected anti-communist fighters were captured and detained in Russian internment
camps. About 600 of the "Augustow Missing" are presumed dead and buried in unknown mass graves on the present territory of Russia. The Polish Institute of National Remembrance
has declared the 1945 Augustów roundup "the largest crime committed by the Soviets on Polish lands after World War II."
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...
s formed in the later stages of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and afterwards. Created by some members of the Polish Secret State
Polish Secret State
The Polish Underground State is a collective term for the World War II underground resistance organizations in Poland, both military and civilian, that remained loyal to the Polish Government in Exile in London. The first elements of the Underground State were put in place in the final days of the...
, these clandestine organizations continued their armed struggle against the Stalinist government
History of Poland (1945–1989)
The history of Poland from 1945 to 1989 spans the period of Soviet Communist dominance imposed after the end of World War II over the People's Republic of Poland...
of Poland
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...
well into the 1950s. The guerrilla warfare included an array of military attacks launched against the new communist prisons as well as MBP state security offices, detention facilities for political prisoners, and concentration camps set up across the country. Most of the Polish anti-communist
Anti-communism
Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...
groups ceased to exist in the late 1940s or 1950s, hunted down by MBP security services and NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
assassination squads. However, the last known 'cursed soldier', Józef Franczak
Józef Franczak
Józef Franczak was a soldier of the Polish Army, Armia Krajowa World War II resistance, and last of the cursed soldiers - members of the militant anti-communist resistance in Poland. He used codenames Lalek , Laluś, Laleczka, Guściowa, and fake name Józef Babiński...
, was killed in an ambush as late as 1963, almost 20 years after the Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
take-over of Poland.
The best-known Polish anti-communist resistance organizations operating in Stalinist Poland included Freedom and Independence (Wolność i Niezawisłość, WIN), National Armed Forces (Narodowe Siły Zbrojne, NSZ), National Military Union
National Military Union
Narodowe Zjednoczenie Wojskowe was a Polish anti-Communist organization, founded in November 1944, after collapse of the Warsaw Uprising. It was among the largest and strongest resistance organizations established in the Soviet-controlled Poland in mid- and late 1940s...
(Narodowe Zjednoczenie Wojskowe, NZW), Konspiracyjne Wojsko Polskie
Konspiracyjne Wojsko Polskie
Konspiracyjne Wojsko Polskie was a Polish paramilitary organization, which existed from April 1945 to as late as 1954, whose purpose was to fight Communist-controlled government of Poland as well as the NKVD...
(Underground Polish Army, KWP), Ruch Oporu Armii Krajowej
Ruch Oporu Armii Krajowej
Ruch Oporu Armii Krajowej - Polish anticommunist military resistance organization formed in 1944 by Józef Marcinkowski from Armia Krajowa soldiers....
(Home Army Resistance, ROAK), Armia Krajowa Obywatelska
Armia Krajowa Obywatelska
Armia Krajowa Obywatelska was a Polish military anticommunist organization, and a successor of the disbanded Polish anti-Nazi resistance Home Army...
(Citizens' Home Army, AKO), NIE
NIE (resistance)
NIE, short for Niepodległość , "NIE" means also "NO" in Polish - was a Polish anticommunist resistance organisation formed in 1943 in a case of a Soviet occupation of Poland. Its main goal was the struggle against the Soviet Union after 1944. NIE was one of the most well hidden structures of Armia...
(NO, short for Niepodległość), Armed Forces Delegation for Poland (Delegatura Sił Zbrojnych na Kraj), and Wolność i Sprawiedliwość
Wolnosc i Sprawiedliwosc
Wolnosc i Sprawiedliwosc was a secret Polish oppositional, anti-Communist organization, founded in early 1950s in Warsaw and Kraków...
(Freedom and Justice, WiS). Similar Eastern European Anti-Communist Insurgencies
Eastern European Anti-Communist Insurgencies
The Eastern European Anti-Communist Insurgencies fought on after the official end of the Second World War against the Soviet Union and the communist states formed under Soviet occupation.Prominent movements include:...
fought on in other countries.
Historical background
With the advance of Soviet forces across Poland against Nazi GermanyNazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, the Soviet and Polish communists who set up the brand new government called the Polish Committee of National Liberation
Polish Committee of National Liberation
The Polish Committee of National Liberation , also known as the Lublin Committee, was a provisional government of Poland, officially proclaimed 21 July 1944 in Chełm under the direction of State National Council in opposition to the Polish government in exile...
in 1944, realized that the Polish Secret State loyal to the Polish government-in-exile, had to be abolished before they could gain complete control over Poland. Future General Secretary of PZPR, Władysław Gomułka, pronounced that "Soldiers of AK are a hostile element which must be removed without mercy". Another prominent communist, Roman Zambrowski
Roman Zambrowski
Roman Zambrowski was a Polish communist activist. He is a father of journalist Antoni Zambrowski....
, ushered that the AK had to be "exterminated".
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...
(or simply AK) – the main Polish resistance movement in World War II
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...
– had officially disbanded on 19 January 1945 to prevent a slide into armed conflict with 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...
including an increasing threat of civil war over Poland's sovereignty. However, many units decided to continue on their struggle under new circumstances, seeing the Soviet forces as new occupiers. Meanwhile, Soviet partisans in Poland
Soviet partisans in Poland
Poland was annexed and partitioned by Germany and the Soviet Union in the aftermath of the invasion of Poland in 1939. In the pre-war Polish territories annexed by the Soviets the first Soviet partisan groups were formed in 1941, soon after Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet...
had already been ordered by Moscow on June 22, 1943 to engage Polish Leśni partisans
Leśni
Leśni is one of the informal names applied to the anti-German partisan groups operating in occupied Poland during World War II. The groups were formed mostly by people who for various reasons could not operate from settlements they lived in and had to retreat to the forests...
in combat. They commonly fought Poles more often than they did the Germans. The main forces of 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...
(Northern Group of Forces
Northern Group of Forces
The Northern Group of Forces was the military formation of the Soviet Army stationed in Poland from the end of Second World War in 1945 until 1993 when they were withdrawn in the aftermath of the fall of Soviet Union...
) and the NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
began conducting operations against AK partisans already during and directly after the Polish Operation Tempest
Operation Tempest
Operation Tempest was a series of uprisings conducted during World War II by the Polish Home Army , the dominant force in the Polish resistance....
designed by the Poles as a preventive action to assure Polish rather than Soviet control of the cities after the German withdrawal. Stalin aimed to ensure that an independent Poland would never reemerge in the postwar period.
Formation of the anti-communist underground
The first AK structure designed primarily to deal with the Soviet threat was the NIENIE (resistance)
NIE, short for Niepodległość , "NIE" means also "NO" in Polish - was a Polish anticommunist resistance organisation formed in 1943 in a case of a Soviet occupation of Poland. Its main goal was the struggle against the Soviet Union after 1944. NIE was one of the most well hidden structures of Armia...
, formed in mid-1943. NIE's goal was not to engage the Soviet forces in combat, but rather to observe and conduct espionage
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
while the Polish government-in-exile decided how to deal with the Soviets. At that time, the exiled government still believed that the solution could be found through negotiations. On May 7, 1945, the NIE ("NO") was disbanded and transformed into the Delegatura Sił Zbrojnych na Kraj ("Armed Forces Delegation for Homeland"). However, this organization lasted only until August 8, 1945, when the decision was made to disband it and to stop partisan
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...
resistance on Polish territory.
In March 1945 a staged trial of 16 leaders of the Polish Underground State held by the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
took place in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
- (the Trial of the Sixteen
Trial of the Sixteen
The Trial of the Sixteen was a staged trial of 16 leaders of the Polish Underground State held by the Soviet Union in Moscow in 1945.-History:Some accounts say approaches were made in February with others saying March 1945...
).Malcher, G.C. (1993) Blank Pages Pyrford Press ISBN 1 897984 00 6 Page 73 The Government Delegate
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...
, together with most members of the Council of National Unity
Council of National Unity
Rada Jedności Narodowej was the quasi-parliament of the Polish Underground State during World War II...
and the C-i-C of 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...
, were invited by Soviet general Ivan Serov
Ivan Serov
State Security General Ivan Aleksandrovich Serov was a prominent leader of Soviet security and intelligence agencies, head of the KGB between March 1954 and December 1958, as well as head of the GRU between 1958 and 1963. He was Deputy Commissar of the NKVD under Lavrentiy Beria, and was to play a...
with agreement of Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
to a conference on their eventual entry to the Soviet-backed Provisional Government. They were presented with a warrant of safety, but the NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
arrested them in Pruszków
Pruszków
Pruszków is a town in central Poland, situated in the Masovian Voivodeship since 1999. It was previously in Warszawa Voivodeship . Pruszków is the capital of Pruszków County, located along the western edge of the Warsaw urban area...
on 27 and 28 March. Leopold Okulicki
Leopold Okulicki
General Leopold Okulicki was a General of the Polish Army and the last commander of the anti-German underground Home Army during World War II. He was murdered after the war by the Soviet NKVD....
, Jan Stanisław Jankowski and Kazimierz Pużak
Kazimierz Puzak
Kazimierz Pużak was a Polish politician of the interwar period. Active in the Polish Socialist Party, he was one of the leaders of the Polish Secret State and Polish resistance, sentenced by the Soviets in the infamous Trial of the Sixteen in 1945.-Biography:Born on 26 August 1883 in a family of...
were arrested on 27th with 12 more the next day. A.Zwierzynski had been arrested earlier. They were brought to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
for interrogation in the Lubyanka. After several months of brutal interrogation and torture they were presented with the forged accusations of "collaboration
Collaboration
Collaboration is working together to achieve a goal. It is a recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together to realize shared goals, — for example, an intriguing endeavor that is creative in nature—by sharing...
with Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
" and of "planning a military alliance with Nazi Germany".
The first Polish communist government, PKWN, was formed in July 1944, but declined jurisdiction over AK soldiers. Consequently, for more than a year, it was Soviet agencies like the NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
that dealt with the AK. By the end of the war, approximately 60,000 soldiers of the AK had been arrested, and 50,000 of them were deported to the Soviet Union's gulag
Gulag
The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
s and prisons. Most of those soldiers had been captured by the Soviets during or in the aftermath of Operation Tempest, when many AK units tried to cooperate with the Soviets in a nationwide uprising against the Germans. Other veterans were arrested when they decided to approach the government after being promised amnesty
Amnesty
Amnesty is a legislative or executive act by which a state restores those who may have been guilty of an offense against it to the positions of innocent people, without changing the laws defining the offense. It includes more than pardon, in as much as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the...
. In 1947, an amnesty was passed
Amnesty of 1947
The Amnesty of 1947 in Poland was an amnesty directed at soldiers and activists of the Polish anti-communist underground, issued by the authorities of People's Republic of Poland. The law on amnesty was passed by the Polish Sejm on February 22, 1947. The actual purpose of the amnesty was the...
for most of the partisans; the Communist authorities expected around 12,000 people to give up their arms, but the actual number of people to come out of the forests eventually reached 53,000. Many of them were arrested despite promises of freedom; after repeated broken promises during the first few years of communist control, AK soldiers stopped trusting the government.
The third AK organization was Wolność i Niezawisłość ("Freedom and Sovereignty"). Again, its primary goal was not combat; rather, the WiN was designed to help AK soldiers make the transition from a life as partisans to that of civilians. The continued secrecy and conspiracy were necessary in light of the increasing persecution of AK veterans by the communist government. WiN was, however, much in need of funds to pay for false documents and to provide resources for the partisans, many of whom had lost their homes and entire life-savings in the war. Viewed as enemies of the state, starved of resources, and with a vocal faction advocating armed resistance against the Soviets and their Polish proxies, WiN was far from efficient. A significant victory for the NKVD and the newly created Polish secret police, Urząd Bezpieczeństwa (UB), came in the second half of 1945, when they managed to convince several leaders of the AK and WiN that they truly wanted to offer amnesty to AK members. Within a few months, they managed to gain information about vast numbers of AK/WiN resources and people. Several months later when the (imprisoned) AK and WiN leaders realized their mistake, the organization was crippled and thousands more of their members were arrested. WiN finally disbanded in 1952.
Persecution
The NKVD and UB used brute force and deception to eliminate the underground opposition. In the autumn of 1946, a group of 100–200 soldiers of Narodowe Siły Zbrojne (National Armed Forces, NSZ) were lured into a trap and massacred. In 1947, Colonel Brystiger ("Bloody Luna")Julia Brystiger
Julia Brystiger was a Polish Communist activist and member of the security apparatus in Stalinist Poland...
of MBP declared at the secutity briefing, that "The terrorist and political underground had ceased to be a threatening force," although the class enemy at universities, offices and factories still needs to be "found out and neutralized."
The persecution of the AK members was only a part of the rein of Stalinist terror in postwar Poland. In the period of 1944–56, approximately 300,000 Polish people had been arrested, or up to two million, by different accounts. There were 6,000 death sentences issued, the majority of them carried out. Possibly, over 20,000 people died in communist prisons including those executed "in the majesty of the law" such as Witold Pilecki
Witold Pilecki
Witold Pilecki was a soldier of the Second Polish Republic, the founder of the Secret Polish Army resistance group and a member of the Home Army...
, a hero of Auschwitz. A further six million Polish citizens (i.e., one out of every three adult Poles) were classified as suspected members of a 'reactionary or criminal element' and subjected to investigation by state agencies. During the Polish October
Polish October
Polish October, also known as October 1956, Polish thaw, or Gomułka's thaw, marked a change in the Polish internal political scene in the second half of 1956...
of 1956, a political amnesty freed 35,000 former AK soldiers from prisons. Still, some partisans remained in service, unwilling or simply unable to rejoin the community. The cursed soldier Stanisław Marchewka "Ryba" ("The Fish") was killed in 1957; and the last AK partisan, Józef Franczak
Józef Franczak
Józef Franczak was a soldier of the Polish Army, Armia Krajowa World War II resistance, and last of the cursed soldiers - members of the militant anti-communist resistance in Poland. He used codenames Lalek , Laluś, Laleczka, Guściowa, and fake name Józef Babiński...
"Lalek" ("Doller"), was killed in 1963 — almost two decades after the Second World War ended. Four years later, long after the abolition of Stalinist terror, last member of the elite British-trained Cichociemny ("The Silent and Hidden") intelligence and support group Adam Boryczka
Adam Boryczka
Adam Boryczka was a Captain of the Polish Army and member of the underground Home Army in the area of Wilno, where he fought the Germans and after 1944 - the Soviets. Some time in 1945 he moved to central Poland and began working for the anti-Communist organization Wolnosc i Niezawislosc...
was finally released from prison (1967). Until the end of the People's Republic of Poland
People's Republic of Poland
The People's Republic of Poland was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1990. Although the Soviet Union took control of the country immediately after the liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944, the name of the state was not changed until eight years later...
, former AK soldiers were under constant investigation by the secret police. It was only in 1989, after the fall of communism, that the court sentences of AK soldiers were finally declared invalid and annulled by the Polish law.
The largest operations and actions
The biggest battle in the history of the National Military UnionNational Military Union
Narodowe Zjednoczenie Wojskowe was a Polish anti-Communist organization, founded in November 1944, after collapse of the Warsaw Uprising. It was among the largest and strongest resistance organizations established in the Soviet-controlled Poland in mid- and late 1940s...
(Narodowe Zjednoczenie Wojskowe, NZW) took place on May 6–7, 1945, in the village of Kuryłówka in southeastern Poland
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...
. The Battle of Kuryłówka fought against the Soviet 2nd Border Regiment of the NKVD, ended in a victory for the underground forces commanded by Major Franciszek Przysiężniak
Franciszek Przysiężniak
Franciszek Przysiężniak - was a lieutenant in the Polish Army, an officer of anti-communist resistance groups National Military Organization and National Military Union .Przysiężniak finished the Volhynian School for Reserve...
("Marek"). The anti-communist fighters killed up to 70 Russian agents. The NKVD troops retreated in haste, only to reappear in the village later on and burn it to the ground in retaliation, destroying over 730 buildings.
On May 21, 1945, a heavily-armed unit of the Home Army (AK) led by Colonel Edward Wasilewski
Edward Wasilewski
Edward Wasilewski , pseudonym Wichura , was one of the best known anti-communist fighters in the Polish resistance during the Soviet takeover of Poland. Under his command, 44 underground soldiers successfully attacked the NKVD camp in Rembertów on the night of 20–21 May 1945, and liberated 700–1000...
, attacked and destroyed the NKVD camp
Attack on the NKVD Camp in Rembertów
On May 21, 1945, a unit of the Home Army , led by Colonel Edward Wasilewski, attacked a Soviet NKVD camp located in Rembertów on the eastern outskirts of Warsaw. The Russians incarcerated there many hundreds of Polish citizens; members of the Home Army and underground fighters, whom they were...
located in Rembertów
Rembertów
Rembertów is a district of the city of Warsaw, the capital of Poland. Between 1939 and 1957 Rembertów was a separate town, after which it was incorporated as part of the borough of Praga Południe. Between 1994 and 2002 it formed a separate commune of Warszawa-Rembertów...
on the eastern outskirts of Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw 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...
. The Russians incarcerated there many hundreds of Polish citizens, including members of the Home Army, who were systematically deported to Siberia
Sybiraks
The Polish term sybirak is synonymous to the Russian counterpart sibiryak and generally refers to all people resettled to Siberia, it is in most cases used to refer to Poles who have been imprisoned or exiled to Siberia-History:Many Poles were exiled to Siberia, starting with the 18th-century...
. The attack freed all Polish political prisoners from the camp. Between 1944-1946, the Cursed soldiers liberated many communist prisons in Soviet occupied Poland. For a more complete list of their operations see Polish anti-communist resistance.
Retaliation
One of the biggest communist anti-partisan operations took place from June 10 to June 25, 1945, in and around the Suwałki and AugustówAugustów
Augustów is a town in north-eastern Poland with 29,600 inhabitants . It lies on the Netta River and the Augustów Canal. It is situated in the Podlaskie Voivodeship , having previously been in Suwałki Voivodeship . It is the seat of Augustów County and of Gmina Augustów.In 1970 Augustów became...
regions of Poland. The Augustów roundup was a joint operation of the Red Army and the Soviet NKVD and SMERSH
SMERSH
SMERSH was the counter-intelligence agency in the Red Army formed in late 1942 or even earlier, but officially founded on April 14, 1943. The name SMERSH was coined by Joseph Stalin...
battalions with the assistance from Polish UB and LWP units, against underground Armia Krajowa soldiers. The Soviet operation extended into the territory of occupied Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
. More than 2,000 Polish suspected anti-communist fighters were captured and detained in Russian internment
Internment
Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people, commonly in large groups, without trial. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the meaning as: "The action of 'interning'; confinement within the limits of a country or place." Most modern usage is about individuals, and there is a distinction...
camps. About 600 of the "Augustow Missing" are presumed dead and buried in unknown mass graves on the present territory of Russia. The Polish Institute of National Remembrance
Institute of National Remembrance
Institute of National Remembrance — Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation is a Polish government-affiliated research institute with lustration prerogatives and prosecution powers founded by specific legislation. It specialises in the legal and historical sciences and...
has declared the 1945 Augustów roundup "the largest crime committed by the Soviets on Polish lands after World War II."
Anti-communist resistance organizations
Among the best-known Polish underground organizations, engaged in guerrilla warfare were:- Wolność i Niezawisłość (Freedom and Independence, WIN) founded on September 2, 1945, active to 1952.
- Narodowe Siły Zbrojne (National Armed Forces, NSZ) created on September 20, 1942, split in March 1944.
- Narodowe Zjednoczenie Wojskowe (National Military Union, NZW) established in mid-to-late 1940s, active until mid-1950s.
- Konspiracyjne Wojsko PolskieKonspiracyjne Wojsko PolskieKonspiracyjne Wojsko Polskie was a Polish paramilitary organization, which existed from April 1945 to as late as 1954, whose purpose was to fight Communist-controlled government of Poland as well as the NKVD...
(Underground Polish Army, KWP) which existed from April 1945 to as late as 1954. - Ruch Oporu Armii KrajowejRuch Oporu Armii KrajowejRuch Oporu Armii Krajowej - Polish anticommunist military resistance organization formed in 1944 by Józef Marcinkowski from Armia Krajowa soldiers....
(Resistance of the Home Army, ROAK) formed in 1944 against UB collaborators. - Armia Krajowa ObywatelskaArmia Krajowa ObywatelskaArmia Krajowa Obywatelska was a Polish military anticommunist organization, and a successor of the disbanded Polish anti-Nazi resistance Home Army...
(Citizens' Home Army, AKO) founded in February 1945, incorporated into Wolność i Niezawisłość in 1945. - NIENIE (resistance)NIE, short for Niepodległość , "NIE" means also "NO" in Polish - was a Polish anticommunist resistance organisation formed in 1943 in a case of a Soviet occupation of Poland. Its main goal was the struggle against the Soviet Union after 1944. NIE was one of the most well hidden structures of Armia...
(NO) formed in 1943, active till 7 May 1945. - Delegatura Sił Zbrojnych na Kraj (Delegature of the Polish Forces at Home) formed on May 7, 1945, dissolved on August 8, 1945.
- Wolność i SprawiedliwośćWolnosc i SprawiedliwoscWolnosc i Sprawiedliwosc was a secret Polish oppositional, anti-Communist organization, founded in early 1950s in Warsaw and Kraków...
(Freedom and Justice, WIS) founded in early 1950s.
Notable members
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See also
- NZWNational Military UnionNarodowe Zjednoczenie Wojskowe was a Polish anti-Communist organization, founded in November 1944, after collapse of the Warsaw Uprising. It was among the largest and strongest resistance organizations established in the Soviet-controlled Poland in mid- and late 1940s...
Battle of Kuryłówka - Augustów roundup
- Polish Leśni partisansLeśniLeśni is one of the informal names applied to the anti-German partisan groups operating in occupied Poland during World War II. The groups were formed mostly by people who for various reasons could not operate from settlements they lived in and had to retreat to the forests...
- Attack on the NKVD Camp in RembertówAttack on the NKVD Camp in RembertówOn May 21, 1945, a unit of the Home Army , led by Colonel Edward Wasilewski, attacked a Soviet NKVD camp located in Rembertów on the eastern outskirts of Warsaw. The Russians incarcerated there many hundreds of Polish citizens; members of the Home Army and underground fighters, whom they were...
- 1951 Mokotow Prison execution1951 Mokotów Prison executionOn March 1, 1951, the Soviet-controlled communist Polish secret police, Urząd Bezpieczeństwa , carried out an execution of seven members of the 4th Headquarters of anti-Communist organization Wolność i Niezawisłość in the Mokotów Prison in Warsaw...
- Western betrayalWestern betrayalWestern betrayal, also called Yalta betrayal, refers to a range of critical views concerning the foreign policies of several Western countries between approximately 1919 and 1968 regarding Eastern Europe and Central Europe...
regarding Eastern and Central Europe - Baltic Forest BrothersForest BrothersThe Forest Brothers were Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian partisans who waged a guerrilla war against Soviet rule during the Soviet invasion and occupation of the three Baltic states during, and after, World War II...
- Romanian anti-communist resistance movementRomanian anti-communist resistance movementAn armed resistance movement against the communist regime in Romania was active from the late 1940s to the mid-1950s, with isolated individual fighters remaining at large until the early 1960s. Armed resistance was the first and most structured form of resistance against the communist regime...
- Ukrainian Insurgent Army
- Japanese holdoutJapanese holdoutJapanese holdouts or stragglers were Japanese soldiers in the Pacific Theatre who, after the August 1945 surrender of Japan that marked the end of World War II, either adamantly doubted the veracity of the formal surrender due to strong dogmatic or militaristic principles, or were not aware of it...
Further reading
- Jerzy Ślaski, Żołnierze wyklęci, Warszawa, Oficyna Wydawnicza Rytm, 1996
- Grzegorz Wąsowski and Leszek Żebrowski, eds., Żołnierze wyklęci: Antykomunistyczne podziemie zbrojne po 1944 roku, Warszawa, Oficyna Wydawnicza Volumen and Liga Republikańska, 1999
- Kazimierz Krajewski et al., Żołnierze wyklęci: Antykomunistyczne podziemie zbrojne po 1944 r., Oficyna Wydawnicza Volumen and Liga Republikańska, 2002
- Tomasz Łabuszewski, Białostocki Okręg AK- AKO : VII 1944-VIII 1945 (Warszawa: Oficzna Wydawnicza Volumen and Dom Wydawniczy Bellona, 1997
- Zrzeszenie “Wolność i Niezawisłość” w dokumentach, 6 vols. (Wrocław: Zarząd Główny WiN, 1997–2001)
- Zygmunt Woźniczka, Zrzeszenie “Wolność i Niezawisłość” 1945-1952 (Warszawa: Instytut Prasy i Wydawnictw “Novum” – “Semex”, 1992)
- Marek Latyński, Nie paść na kolana: Szkice o opozycji lat czterdziestych (London: Polonia Book Fund Ltd., 1985)