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The Polish Underground State[a] was a single political and military entity formed by the union of resistance organizations in occupied Poland that were loyal to the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile in London. The first elements of the Underground State were established in the final days of the German and Soviet invasion of Poland, in late September 1939. The Underground State was perceived by supporters as a legal continuation of the pre-war Republic of Poland that waged an armed struggle against the country's occupying powers: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. The Underground State encompassed not only military resistance, one of the largest in the world,[b] but also civilian structures, such as justice, education, culture and social services.
The Ministry of Public Security, was the secret police, intelligence and counter-espionage agency operating in the Polish People's Republic. From 1945 to 1954 it was known as the Security Office, and from 1956 to 1990 as the Security Service.
Freedom and Independence Association was a Polish underground anticommunist organisation founded on September 2, 1945, and active until 1952.
The Augustów roundup was a military operation against the Polish World War II anti-communist partisans and sympathizers following the Soviet takeover of Poland. The operation was undertaken by Soviet forces with the assistance of Polish collaborationist units, and conducted from July 10 to July 25, 1945, in Suwałki and Augustów region of northern Polish People's Republic.
The "cursed soldiers" or "indomitable soldiers" were a heterogeneous array of anti-Soviet-imperialist and anti-communist Polish resistance movements formed in the later stages of World War II and in its aftermath by members of the Polish Underground State. The above terms, introduced in the early 1990s, reflect the stance of many of the diehard soldiers.
Anti-communist resistance in Poland can be divided into two types: the armed partisan struggle, mostly led by former Armia Krajowa and Narodowe Siły Zbrojne soldiers, which ended in the late 1950s, and the non-violent, civil resistance struggle that culminated in the creation and victory of the Solidarity trade union.
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. He was a resistance fighter for 24 out of 45 years of his life.
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. It was most active in the Łódź Voivodeship, but also in the neighboring provinces of northern Upper Silesia, eastern Poznań and western Kielce.
The anti-communist resistance in Poland, also referred to as the Polish anti-communist insurrection fought between 1944 and 1953, was an anti communist and anti-Soviet armed struggle by the Polish Underground against the Soviet domination of Poland by the People's Republic of Poland puppet regime, since the end of World War II in Europe. The guerrilla warfare conducted by the resistance movement formed during the war, included an array of military attacks launched against communist prisons, state security offices, detention facilities for political prisoners, and prison camps set up across the country by the Stalinist authorities.
Roman Romkowski born Menasche Grünspan also known as Nasiek (Natan) Grinszpan-Kikiel, was a Polish communist official trained by Comintern in Moscow. After the Soviet takeover of Poland Romkowski settled in Warsaw and became second in command in the Ministry of Public Security during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Along with several other high functionaries including Stanisław Radkiewicz, Anatol Fejgin, Józef Różański, Julia Brystiger and the chief supervisor of Polish State Security Services, Minister Jakub Berman from the Politburo, Romkowski came to symbolize communist terror in postwar Poland. He was responsible for the work of departments: Counter-espionage (1st), Espionage (7th), Security in the PPR–PZPR, and others.
Józef Kuraś, noms-de-guerre "Orzeł" (Eagle) and from June 1943 "Ogień" (Fire), was born in Waksmund near Nowy Targ. He served as lieutenant in the Polish Army during the invasion of Poland, and became an underground member of Armia Krajowa and Bataliony Chłopskie in the Podhale region. After the end of World War II, he continued his fight against the Communist authorities and was one of the leaders of the so-called "cursed soldiers".
Marian Bernaciak was a lieutenant in the Polish Army, a member of ZWZ and the Home Army, a major and a legendary leader of an underground partisan unit of WiN in the Lublin region.
Zdzisław Broński - was a reserve officer of the Polish Army, member of ZWZ and the Home Army, one of the partisan leaders of the anti-communist underground Freedom and Independence, WiN, in the Lublin region.
Henryk Antoni Flame was a corporal and pilot in the Polish Air Force, and a captain of the anti-Nazi, and anti-Communist resistance organization NSZ.
Franciszek Przysiężniak - was a lieutenant in the Polish Army, an officer of anti-communist resistance groups National Military Organization (NOW) and National Military Union (NZW).
Stanisław Radkiewicz was a Polish communist activist with Soviet citizenship, a member of the pre-war Communist Party of Poland and of the post-war Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR). As head of the Ministry of Public Security of Poland between 1944 and 1954, he was one of the chief organisers of Stalinist terror in Poland. He also served as a political commissar and was made a divisional general in Communist Poland.
Emilia Malessa, née Izdebska, was a Polish soldier, member of the Home Army with the rank of Captain, participant in the Warsaw Uprising, member of the underground anti-communist organization Freedom and Independence (WiN), and a "cavalier" of the Order of Virtuti Militari.
The attack on Hrubieszów was a joint action of the Polish post-Home Army (AK) organization Freedom and Independence (WiN) and the Ukrainian partisans of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which took place on the night of 27 May 1946. It was the most significant joint action carried out by both organizations, which had previously often fought each other, but they decided to co-operate in the face of the common threat from the Polish communists and the Soviet NKVD.
The Pomeranian Griffin secret military organization was a Polish anti-Nazi resistance group active in Pomerania and East Prussia during World War II. A major Polish resistance organization in the Pomerania region, at its height in 1943 it might have had as many as 20,000 members, although only about 500 were active partisans in the forests (leśni).
The 1946 pacification of villages by PAS NZW was the killing of 79 Polish nationals of Belarusian ethnicity in Bielsk County, north-eastern Poland, by partisans, members of the Polish Extraordinary Special Actions unit of the National Military Union. The murders took place in the aftermath of World War II.
References
- ↑ Philipp Ther, Ana Siljak, "Redrawing nations: ethnic cleansing in East-Central Europe, 1944-1948." Marek Jasiak, "Overcoming resistance." Rowman & Littlefield , 2001, pg. 182. ISBN 0-7425-1094-8.
- 1 2 Ewa Blankiewicz, "Ostatni Lesni - Wystawa IPN" (The last Forest brothers - An IPN presentation). Gazeta Ciechanow, March 2005
- ↑ Curtis Peebles, "Twilight warriors: covert air operations against the USSR", Naval Institute Press, 2005, pg. 44,
- ↑ Sławomir Poleszak, "Ostatni Niezlomni" (The Last Unbroken). Rzeczpospolita , 17 December 2007.