The Warsaw Commune: Betrayed by Stalin, Massacred by Hitler. Zygmunt Zaremba 1947
We are now in July 1944. Soviet troops are approaching the eastern frontiers of the Polish republic, then crossing them in the Rokitno-Sarny department, opposite Pinsk. The national uprising against the Germans has become imminent, for since the start of resistance activity the Polish liberation movement has been preparing for armed activity against the occupying forces. It cannot and does not wish to remain a passive spectator of the war spreading over its national territory. However, the huge German forces concentrated in Poland make military action across the entire country impossible. The secret political and military command, in close liaison with the Polish government in London, also decided upon a tactic of limited local engagements in the regions closest to the front.
The Home Army (AK) received the order to harass the Germans. It was not to come out of clandestinity until after the greater part of the enemy army had fallen back, when the relaxation of control would allow the concentration of the larger units. In accordance with this decision, ‘Tempest’ was proclaimed, involving a strong diversionary action against the German army, with the aim of paralysing its combatant units. First of all unleashed in the province of Volhynia, ‘Tempest’ soon spread to other regions where the defeated Nazi forces were in retreat.
The organisations of the Polish Resistance received the order to come out of clandestinity and make themselves known to the Red Army as soon as it entered our territory. It was also envisaged that Polish elements should offer to collaborate with the Soviet authorities in the civilian administration; the Home Army would place itself under the orders of the Soviet High Command on condition that the latter recognised its independence and its links with the Polish High Command. It was all ready to cooperate with the Red Army under the orders of the Soviet High Command.
Such was the plan of the fighting Polish government as regards new battles on Polish territory. We wanted to take part in the struggle in an effective way, under our own flags, and in friendly cooperation with the USSR. But we were soon to realise that the USSR, which was advancing into the territory of the Republic, did not want to give up the gift of land offered by Hitler in 1939 in exchange for the opportunities given to Germany to invade Poland, France and other European countries. ‘Tempest’ considerably assisted the advance of the Soviet troops westwards, above all in the regions of Vilna and Volhynia. However, in the absence of concerted action between the Polish and Russian forces, it did not bring about the result hoped for by the Poles. The units of the Home Army won magnificent victories over the enemy in several important battles. After these, the ‘Allied’ army disarmed and suppressed them. [1] The USSR decided not to recognise the legal Polish government, and not to permit the existence of the Home Army. It immediately replaced it everywhere with ‘Berling Polish formations’ completely subordinate to itself. [2] Tragically, the situation now became more complex. The war now spread over Polish territory, ceased to be the signal for a general mass mobilisation, a spontaneous struggle of the whole nation for its freedom. At a stroke, the war changed into a political conspiracy counterposing the Polish interest, which wanted the reconstruction of an independent republic, to the Russian interest, subservient to Soviet policy, ready to give up Poland’s eastern territories, and completely submissive.
The government and the organisations it had created in secret, confident in the justice of their cause, represented the idea of an independent Polish state.
However, the Soviet government, wishing to undermine the authority of the legal Polish authorities and destroy their independent organisations, first of all mobilised the Berling units and a Communist National Council, and then from Moscow in 1944 came a Committee for National Liberation, said to be from Lublin, completely subservient to the USSR, which supported and recognised it as the official representation of the Polish nation. [3]
This entanglement of conflicting tendencies was to have a disastrous effect over the outcome of the uprising of August 1944.
1. On many occasions, Soviet army officers warmly complimented the AK’s contribution to their advance, and quietly warned them that the NKVD would soon follow with a wave of repression against them. [Editor’s note]
2. General Zygmunt Berling (1896-1980) was in command of the Polish forces in the Soviet Union, which advanced into Poland alongside the Red Army. He had been a lieutenant-colonel in the prewar Polish army, was exiled to the Soviet Union, was contacted by the NKVD whilst in prison, and deserted from the Polish army (which had been assembled there after the German invasion in June 1941) when it was about to depart from Soviet territory in 1942. [Editor’s note]
3. The defunct Communist Party of Poland was resurrected in January 1942 as the Polish Workers Party (PPR), emerging from the Union of Friends of the USSR, which had been formed in Warsaw in November 1941. The Central Bureau of Polish Communists was formed in Moscow. A Popular Front organisation, the Union of Polish Patriots (ZPP), was launched in Moscow in March 1943. In December 1943 the PPR set up the National Council of Poland (KRN) as a rival to the Government-in-Exile, and the Polish Committee for National Liberation (PKWN) was set up in Lublin in July 1944 under the aegis of the Moscow Poles. The PKWN was installed as the sole legitimate government of Poland in early 1945, but was not recognised as such by Britain and the USA. [Editor’s note]