Provisional Polish Revolutionary Committee
Encyclopedia
Revolutionary committee
Revolutionary committees or revkoms were Bolshevik-led organizations in Soviet Russia and in areas of its activities established to serve as provisional governments and temporary Soviet administrations in territories under the control of the Red Army in 1918-1920, during the Russian Civil War and...
created under the patronage of Soviet Russia
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , commonly referred to as Soviet Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or simply Russia, was the largest, most populous and economically developed republic in the former Soviet Union....
with the goal to establish a Polish Soviet Socialist Republic.
Polrevkom was created on July 23, 1920, 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...
by the "Polish Bureau" of Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
s, with chairman Julian Marchlewski
Julian Marchlewski
Julian Baltazar Marchlewski was a Polish communist. He was also known under the aliases Karski and Kujawiak....
. The decision was made during the initial successes 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...
during the Polish-Soviet War
Polish-Soviet War
The Polish–Soviet War was an armed conflict between Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine and the Second Polish Republic and the Ukrainian People's Republic—four states in post–World War I Europe...
with the goal of providing administration of the Polish territories. The Committee was declared "provisional", because it was assumed that after a Soviet victory the power would be transferred to the Polish Communist Workers' Party.
The Polrevkom was assembled on July 24 in Smolensk
Smolensk
Smolensk is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River. Situated west-southwest of Moscow, this walled city was destroyed several times throughout its long history since it was on the invasion routes of both Napoleon and Hitler. Today, Smolensk...
, with its headquarters in an armored train, which quickly proceeded to Minsk
Minsk
- Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...
(July 25), Wilno (July 27), and arrived to Bialystok
Bialystok
Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. Located on the Podlaskie Plain on the banks of the Biała River, Białystok ranks second in terms of population density, eleventh in population, and thirteenth in area, of the cities of Poland...
on July 30, 1920. It set up permanent headquarters in the Branicki Palace and issued public proclamations. For their efforts they received from Moscow over 2 billion ruble
Ruble
The ruble or rouble is a unit of currency. Currently, the currency units of Belarus, Russia, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria, and, in the past, the currency units of several other countries, notably countries influenced by Russia and the Soviet Union, are named rubles, though they all are...
s. It is seen, like many other Bolshevik revolutionary committees, as a Bolshevik puppet government.
The committee consisted of the following members:
- Julian Baltazar Marchlewski (chairman)
- Feliks Dzierzynski (de-facto leader)
- Feliks KonFeliks KonFeliks Yakovlevich Kon was a Polish communist activist.-Career:Born in Warsaw, Kon's mother was Georgian and was brought up in Russia. He was trained as a historian and a journalist, but was involved in politics...
(education) - Edward Próchniak (secretary)
- Józef UnszlichtJózef UnszlichtJózef Unszlicht or Iosif Unshlikht , a Bolshevik revolutionary activist, chekist, and Soviet government official of Polish-Jewish extraction from the Masovian region....
(party) - Bernard Zaks (industry)
- Stanisław Bobiński (agriculture)
- Tadeusz Rydwański (propaganda)
The Polrevkom activity was related to the North-Western front of the Red Army. The South-Western front of the Red Army supported a similar Galician Revolutionary Committee (Galrevkom), seated in Tarnopol in Eastern Galicia.
The TKRP had very little support from the ethnic Polish population and recruited its supporters mostly from the ranks of Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
; 1918 Białystok were it was set up had about 75% Jewish majority.
On 22 August 1920 the Polrevkom moved out of Bialystok to Minsk with the defeat of the Red Army, and was dissolved soon afterwards. A significant number of the key persons involved were later instrumental in creation of the Polish Autonomous District
Polish Autonomous District
Polish Autonomous Districts were national raions in the interbellum period possessing some form of a national autonomy in the Ukrainian and Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republics of the USSR...
within 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....
.