The Warsaw Commune: Betrayed by Stalin, Massacred by Hitler. Zygmunt Zaremba 1947
We have given this pamphlet the title of The Warsaw Commune in memory of the magnificent endeavour of the Parisian people, as well as to draw attention to the historic continuity of the struggle for freedom and social justice. The proletariat of each country carries on this struggle in accordance with its political situation and the level of economic and social development. But it is everywhere faithful to its general direction, whose living expression is Socialism. It everywhere provides proof of its devotion and its fervour, testifying to the strength of the tide of history, which in spite of all obstacles strives to create new collectivist forms of life.
As soon as this conflict grows, one typical fact becomes apparent: that social class that proclaims the international brotherhood of nations and the solidarity of all workers, and beyond the barriers of races or nations, in times of crisis takes its position in the front rank of those who fight for national freedom. Furthermore, when the ruling classes, powerless or complicit in the event of defeat, make abject concessions to the invader, the proletariat continues to fight in an intransigent manner. Does not this fact point to a new era, and a new relationship of forces – a system in which the working class will take control of the material and moral interests of the entire country and play the leading role in national life?
By taking over this role, the working class forges an unbreakable unity between the cause of freedom and that of the economic and social transformation of the community. And it is at times of crisis that this feature of the struggle emerges in its sharpest form. That is why the Paris Commune was the first expression of the new form of collective life to be created by the workers.
It is in this way also that the Polish people carried on its five-year struggle against the Hitlerite invader. Its climax was the Warsaw Uprising, during which the will to regain national independence and to remodel Polish life in accordance with the ideal of Social Democracy was clearly shown.
Like the Paris Commune, the Warsaw Uprising inspired the enthusiasm of some and the condemnation of others. The entirety of the Polish reactionary forces violently denounced ‘those criminals who transformed the capital into ruins’. Poland also had its Thiers and its Guizots. [1] But by their side, and even surpassing them in lying about the heroic actions of the people of Warsaw, appeared a new element, which nobody expected – Stalinism.
In fact, while the Russians were planning to take over Poland in order to make it their obedient subject, the Warsaw Uprising messed up their treacherous game: fighting Poland, which had refused to exchange German occupation for that of the USSR, and had refused to accept the loss of territory with which Hitler paid for Soviet treachery in 1939, [2] had to be represented to the world as an accomplice of Hitler, liberated by Russian arms alone and obedient to them. So this was the lie the Russians used against the Warsaw Commune, whether directly or via their agents, either in Poland or abroad.
This phenomenon deserves particular attention. Is there not a striking affinity between the Communism of today that lays claim to spheres of influence, territorial conquests and transfers of population along with the right to dispose of their homelands, and the governmental principles of the likes of Metternich [3] and Thiers, to say nothing of Mussolini and Hitler?
The campaign of defamation against the Warsaw Commune did not limit itself to Polish territory. Soviet agents spread it all over the world. We are not amazed by this, for was there anything else left for those who had betrayed Warsaw to the Germans? Had they not for two months been passive witnesses of the superhuman struggle of the people of Warsaw, whilst with the exception of defamatory propaganda, they had granted them no aid, not even in the form of anti-aircraft defence, not even the smallest airbase for the use of the airborne help promised by the Western Allies?
It is by their only weapon, slander, that they are attempting to justify the attitude of the Red Army, which was encamped only a few kilometres away from Warsaw throughout the entire insurrection.
To get some idea of the value of this propaganda, let us go to the fountainhead, quoting from one of the most authoritative statements, that of Stalin himself in an interview granted after the strangling of the Warsaw Commune by the Germans. He alleged:
This uprising was fomented by people who were badly prepared from the military point of view and who did not have a sufficient sense of responsibility. When the Red Army in its march westwards was approaching cities, it never called for the inhabitants to rise. [4]
The facts reported on pages 17 to 22 of our pamphlet are quite sufficient to answer this statement.
As for the allegedly insufficient military preparation, it did not turn out to be so bad after all, since it enabled the insurgents – cut off from the rest of the world in their struggle – to hold out for 63 days, and to inflict serious blows upon the Germans.
This pamphlet was written from experience, during the battles of the uprising, and was drawn up in its final form after I had left Warsaw.
We did not know at the time who would get out safe and sound from this fiery and bloody conflagration, or how. But we nonetheless wished to preserve a true account of our struggle and hand it on to posterity.
The idea for this book comes from the Warsaw Regional Committee of the Socialist Party. By attempting this undertaking in these conditions, while we are too close to the events, and without being able to get an overall picture of the events, this work can only be a modest contribution. But it will be a useful one, for it gives an exact representation of the facts as the author witnessed them.
While the compilation of this pamphlet was going on, the typed-out pages were passed on to friends, who assumed the responsibility of getting them out of Warsaw and putting them in a safe place.
The first edition, brought out in 800 duplicated copies, appeared shortly after the fall of Warsaw, thanks to a group of comrades working in particularly difficult conditions during the final period of the German occupation. It was distributed immediately. Other copies put in circulation brought this first edition up to 1500 copies.
The demand to know the story of this heroic struggle made necessary a second edition. The need was all the greater since by distortions and lies Communist propaganda attempted both to smear the struggle for independence and to cover up the responsibility of those who had consigned Warsaw to annihilation.
In June 1945 the Polish Socialist Party published a second edition in its secret printshop, entitled The August Insurrection. It was distributed in over 3000 copies.
An edition printed in the Polish language and illustrated with numerous photographs and documents has just appeared in London, and is now circulating throughout the world.
Nobody is as yet in a position to write the history of the insurrection. It is, however, necessary to make known, both to our countrymen and to foreigners, the entirety of these heroic events, which biased propaganda wishes to discredit by all possible means. The historic importance of the Warsaw Uprising will require other more detailed studies. I have not introduced any modifications into the original text here. I have merely restricted myself to adding some supplementary notes, making use of a collection of documents published by Andrzej Pomian. [5]
After the appearance of the first two editions, I was criticised for not having sufficiently outlined the role and achievements of particular groupings and individuals. I refrained from doing this, not only from old habits of illegality, but through fear of being incomplete. In fact, I would not have been able to mention all those who distinguished themselves by their courage every time it was put to the test.
I have only added one fresh chapter dealing with the ideological background to the uprising. I do not name anyone. It is not yet time to tell all.
This pamphlet comes out as it was composed, the testimony of a man right at the heart of events, who saw and lived through the 63 days of the Warsaw Commune.
Without aspiring to the title of an historian, I can nonetheless bear witness to what the Warsaw Uprising was, and how it will remain in the memory of the Polish people.
Paris, January 1947
1. Adolphe Thiers (1797-1877) and François Guizot (1787-1874) were both major French bourgeois politicians. Thiers was variously Minister of the Interior, Prime Minister and President of the Republic of France, and as head of the government in Versailles, oversaw the brutal crushing of the Paris Commune. [Editor’s note]
2. A reference to the territory that was ceded to the Soviet Union under the Molotov – Ribbentrop Pact. [Editor’s note]
3. Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar, Fürst von Metternich-Winneburg-Beilstein (1773-1859), Austrian Foreign Minister, presided over the reorganisation of Europe at the Congress of Vienna in 1814-15. It abolished the Grand Duchy of Warsaw set up by Napoleon, and left the Poles ruled by the Prussian, Austrian and Russian empires without a state of their own. [Editor’s note]
4. Cited in Radwanski’s pamphlet, The Truth About Warsaw, Paris, published by France d'abord (sic!).
5. A Pomian, The Warsaw Rising: A Collection of Documents (London, 1945). [Editor’s note]