The Home Army (AK) is an underground military organization operating during the years of fascist occupation in Poland, the western regions of Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania. The army leadership was subordinate to the Polish emigration government in London. The AK leaders in their program regarded the actions of Germany and the USSR as unfair and aggressive towards the Polish people and therefore used the concept of “two enemies” - Germany and the USSR. The leadership of the Home Army set the goal of restoring the Polish state within the borders before September 1, 1939, even with the help of the Nazis; was engaged in developing a strategy for the fight against the USSR in the event of the defeat of Germany. With this turn of history, the AK leadership chose the following tactics: “Be prepared to carry out a special order to carry out mass sabotage and organize the partisan movement in the rear of the Soviets.” In the event of the collapse of the fascist occupation regime, the leaders of the AK prepared to ensure the coming to power of the emigration government of Poland. Politically, the organization was formed on the basis of supra-partisanship: in fact, everyone who possessed military skills and had the appropriate political consciousness could join the AK.
The Home Army rebels did not have a uniform uniform. Whenever possible, civilian clothing was supplemented with elements of Polish pre-war uniforms or captured German uniforms. All rebels wore a red and white armband, sometimes additionally depicting the emblems of the units, the Polish eagle, the letter WP (Wojsko Polskie) or an abbreviation for the name of the unit.
In the initial period of the war, members of the AK were engaged in organizational work - they trained personnel to form a wide network of underground organizations, training centers, collected and delivered weapons, and carried out intelligence work throughout the territory of pre-war Poland.
On the territory of modern Belarus, the first AK partisan detachments were created in February 1942 on the basis of the anti-Soviet underground military bourgeois organizations of Poland, including the “Union of Armed Struggle”. AK was a fairly large and well-organized force. According to both Soviet and Polish sources, the underground network of its partisan cells numbered from 250 to 400 thousand people. About 14 thousand Akavians operated directly on the territory of Belarus during the Great Patriotic War. The most active were 4 formations and 3 brigades of the Novogrudok AK district: northern (Shchuchin, Lida), middle (Novogrudok, Stolbtsy), southern (Slonim, Baranavichi, Nesvizh), numbering approximately 7 thousand people. On the territory of the western regions of Belarus, AK members actively distributed anti-Soviet literature calling for the restoration of the “Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth”, carried out sabotage, and were engaged in sabotage and intelligence work. fight against the Soviets. It considered the theory of two enemies justified, but at the same time, operationally, it acted on the basis of the tactics of “limited struggle.” Therefore, for quite a long time the Akovites did not take active military action against the Soviet partisans, and in some cases they cooperated with them. After the signing of the agreement “On the joint struggle against Nazism between Poland and the USSR” on July 30, 1941, cases of cooperation between Akovites and Soviet partisans against the Nazis are known. However, the severance of diplomatic relations between the USSR and the Polish emigration government in April 1943 provoked a conflict between the AK and the Soviet partisans. The main issue was the Soviet-Polish border and the attitude towards the German occupiers. At the local level, issues of struggle for spheres of influence, provision of food, weapons, etc. also required resolution.
After the adoption in June 1943 of the resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) “On the further development of the partisan movement in the western regions of Belarus”, as well as the closed letter of the Central Committee of the KSchb) “On the military-political tasks of work in the western regions of the BSSR”, the Soviet partisans went into open confrontation with AK parts. The documents emphasized that the western regions of the BSSR are an integral part of the BSSR and that only groups and organizations that are guided by the interests of the USSR are permissible here. The existence of all other organizations should be considered as interference in the interests of the USSR. The secret letter contained specific instructions regarding Polish formations. According to Polish historiography, out of 185 combat operations carried out by units of the Novogrudok AK district from January 1, 1942 to July 1944, 102 were against the Germans (55%) and 81 (45%) against Soviet partisans.
The losses were significant both among the partisans and Akovites, and among the local population. According to Polish and domestic historiography, from the spring of 1943 to July 1944, in the Baranovichi region alone, Soviet partisans shot more than 500 local residents for collaborating with the AK. It is known that the repressions from the AK were no less. Thus, the commander of the Stolbtsy AK unit A. Pilch (“Gura”) admitted in one of his publications that during the same period his legionnaires killed about 6 thousand people. In turn, the Germans, seeking to activate local forces to fight Soviet partisans , from the end of 1943 they began to use the conflict between the AK and the “Soviets” for their own purposes. Thus, according to historical data, in December 1943, the leadership of the Stolbtsy unit concluded an agreement with the Germans on cooperation in the fight against Soviet partisans. A similar agreement was concluded by the Nadnemansky Union in 1944 in Lida. Negotiations on cooperation with the Nazis in February 1944 were also conducted by the commander of the Vilnius district of the AK, General A. Kryzhanovsky (“Wilk”). Therefore, it can be argued that since the end of 1943, the activity of the Akovites against the partisans was even more active. In October 1943, the AK command approved the plan for Operation Storm, which provided for the capture and establishment of control over the western regions of Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania during the retreat of German troops.
Carrying out this operation, AK troops tried to capture Vilnius in 1944, but to no avail. In the western regions of Belarus, Akovites also tried to prevent the establishment of Soviet power. At the same time, the leadership of the AK, together with units of the Red Army, were preparing a military operation in Warsaw against the fascist regime. This was the last collaboration between Akovites and representatives of the Soviet government. Having failed in the Warsaw Uprising, in the fall of 1944, most of the AK formations, in accordance with the order of the command, dissolved themselves, some switched to the underground struggle and the path of terror. Thus, the struggle of the AK members continued even after the official dissolution of the AK on January 19, 1945. After 90 German troops were expelled from Belarus, the NKVD authorities used repressive measures against former members of the AK. According to the calculations of Polish scientists, about 80 thousand Akovites along with their families were deported from the territory of the Bialystok, Vilna and Novogrudok districts. The NKVD authorities continued to liquidate the Akovsky underground until 1952.
On the territory of Belarus in the Brest and Pinsk regions, some of which were included by the Nazis in the Reich Commissariat “Ukraine,” military formations of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) operated. This organization arose as a result of illegal measures taken by the Polish government of J. Pilsudski against the Uranian people. The program theses of the OUN also included an anti-Soviet orientation. Thus, before the start of the Great Patriotic War, Hitler’s military intelligence (Abwehr) concluded a political agreement with the leadership of the OUN on joint actions against the USSR. Already in the first days of the war, two of their legions operated on the territory of Belarus. On June 30, 1941, in Lvov, the OUN proclaimed an independent Conciliar Ukraine, and a corresponding government was formed. But this action was negatively assessed by the fascist authorities, and punitive measures on their part immediately followed - the OUN government was shot, and the participants themselves ended up in a concentration camp.
In the summer of 1942, one of the branches of the OUN, the armed formation “Polesskaya Sich”, operated in the Pinsk-Mozyr-Korosten region; its representatives were called “Bandera” in honor of their commander S. Bandera. It is known that until mid-1943, armed Ukrainian formations did not conduct active military operations against Soviet partisans, and in some cases even helped them. However, in the summer of 1943, they developed new tactics: passive defense was used against the Nazis, and fighting against the partisans. The change in relations was caused by the actions of Soviet partisans, who, according to the Banderaites, carried out reprisals against civilians. In 1943-1944. Active work was carried out to increase the military reserves of the OUN; several new armed formations were formed, united into the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). The army was active in Ukraine and Belarus. From 1944 to 1946, the UPA carried out more than 2 thousand sabotage and terrorist attacks in Belarus, as a result of which more than 1 thousand people died. The activities of Ukrainian military formations, the number of which was constantly increasing, were directed against units of the Red Army. Thus, by the end of 1944, there were already 250 groups and detachments of Ukrainian Nazionists operating on the territory of Belarus. As a result, Ukrainian nationalists practically controlled the Dvinsky district of the Brest region. At the same time, the liberation campaign of Soviet troops on the territory of Belarus gradually ousted the rebel organizations, and most of their cells were destroyed. However, certain elements of Ukrainian nationalists were persecuted by the Soviet authorities until the end of the 50s.
Basic information
The main goal of the AK was to organize armed resistance to German troops in the pre-war territory of Poland. The AK was subordinate to the Polish government in exile and was the largest organization of the Polish Resistance.
Also, AK was engaged in the fight against Ukrainian nationalists and, according to some historians, was engaged in ethnic cleansing of the Ukrainian population (in response to the genocide of the Poles). She also fought with Lithuanian and Slovak nationalists.
She was sharply hostile to communist partisan detachments in Poland proper (Ludova Guard) and in Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania. Sometimes she collaborated with them against a common enemy, more often she fought. She had the same relationship with the Red Army. After the occupation of the territory of Poland by the armed forces of the USSR and Polish communists, it switched to partisan actions against them.
Home Army and Jews
Formally, the Home Army was the armed forces of the Polish government, which sought to help the Jews. There was a Jewish department at the Home Army headquarters. Some Home Army fighters and commanders saved Jews. Among them were even the righteous of the world, for example, Vladislav Bartoshevsky.
In most cases, Home Army units were engaged in the murder of Jews who managed to avoid being caught by the German Nazis. They fought with Jewish partisans.
To put it roughly, just as many Jews hiding in the forests died at the hands of the AK and its subordinate forces as at the hands of the Nazis.
Occasionally, however, Jewish partisans managed to cooperate with AK. For example, the Jewish detachment in the Starzewski Forest near Minsk Mazowiecki enjoyed the support of the local AK detachment. According to some evidence, the commander of this detachment, Wozniak, simply did not carry out the order from above to destroy the Jewish detachment.
Information received through AK
An employee of the Bureau of Information and Propaganda, Jan Karski, reached Great Britain in 1942 and delivered a report on the Nazi extermination of Jews in Poland.
Propaganda of AK among the population
In 1941-1942 The AK command urged the population not to help Jews who were trying to escape from the Nazis.
Order No. 116 of the new AK commander, General Bur-Komorowski, dated September 15, 1943, was interpreted by local commanders as an order to suppress Jewish units:
Well-armed gangs wander aimlessly through towns and villages, attacking estates, banks, commercial and industrial enterprises, houses and farms. The robberies are often accompanied by murders, which are carried out by Soviet partisans hiding in the forests, or simply by bandits. Men and women, especially Jewish women, take part in the attacks.<...>I have already issued orders to local commanders, if necessary, to use weapons against these robbers and revolutionary bandits.
Interactions during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
AK established contact with Beitar in Warsaw and helped buy weapons and transport them to the ghetto.
Henryk Wolinski (“Vaclav”) led the Jewish sector at the headquarters of the AK High Command, was an intermediary between the EBO and the headquarters, in particular, he conveyed the first message about the creation of the EBO to the commander-in-chief, General Grot-Rowecki, and to Jurek Vilner the general’s order to subordinate the EBO to the Army Krajowa. He also connected the underground fighters with Colonel Monter and the officers, who subsequently supplied them with weapons and taught them how to use them. Most often, classes were conducted by Zbigniew Lewandowski, "Rail", head of the Technical Research Department of AK.
The Home Army command was familiarized with the EBO's plans several weeks before the start of the fighting and brought its strike forces - "Kediv" - to a state of combat readiness.
It was decided to make several breaks in the ghetto walls through which Jews could escape to the Kampinos Forest area, a forested area northwest of the capital. The plan almost completely failed. Only a small group - ten people - made their way through the cordon with weapons in their hands, from where AK transported them further to Kampinos. A group of militants "Kediva" AK under the command of Lieutenant Jozef Pshenny - "Chwatsky" was unable to blow up the wall and suffered heavy losses.
Subsequently, combat groups of GL, AK, PLAN, RPPS Militia, SOB and other anti-fascist military organizations continued armed marches near the walls of the ghetto, disturbed the German cordon, fired at patrols, crews of guns and machine guns, and trucks with soldiers.
In Kielce Voivodeship
The partisan detachment of Jews who fled from the Czestochowa ghetto under the command of Hanyz and Gevirtsman was subjected to constant attacks by the AK. In September, the commander sent a group - four Jews, a Russian and two Poles - to recapture the cattle surrendered by the peasants from the Germans. The group was attacked by AK members and the whole group was shot. The incident marked the beginning of the AK war against the detachment of Khanyz and Gevirtsman. At the end of 1943, when part of Gevirtsman’s group was in the house of a peasant friendly to the detachment, the house was surrounded by AK soldiers. They beat up the Jews and handed them over to the Germans.
In the work camp for Jews in the town of Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, in the east of the Kielce Voivodeship, there was also a Resistance organization. Having obtained 12 pistols, the organization arranged for a group of 17 people to escape with the task of joining the AK. The Poles gave the fugitives a dugout and taught them how to use weapons. However, in February 1943, when these seventeen were supposed to take the oath, the Poles, obeying orders from above, opened fire on them. Only two of the Jews escaped; the rest were killed.
In Warsaw Voivodeship
In the Warsaw Voivodeship, Jewish partisan detachments arose in the forests around Wyszków. The most significant was the detachment named after. Mordechai Anielewicz, consisting of former participants in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
The Wyszków forests were a long-standing AK base. And although a cooperation agreement was concluded between the leadership of the AK and the leadership of the EBO in Warsaw, it had little effect on the behavior of the AK detachments in relation to the Jewish partisans. First of all, the AK conducted anti-Jewish propaganda among the peasants, and this immediately affected the supply of them to the detachment. Mordechai Anielevich with food. In fact, a war on two fronts began for the detachment - against the Germans and against the Polish partisans of the right camp.
Near Vyshkow the detachment named after. Mordechai Anielewicz was divided into three teams. Soon, in a battle with an AK detachment, one team was exterminated. A complaint to the AK headquarters in Warsaw was unsuccessful. The second team of the detachment successfully derailed the German military personnel. The Germans staged a punitive operation, in which the second team was defeated, and the survivors joined the third - Podolsky's team. A significant part of Podolsky’s team died in battles with the National Defense Forces, another part returned to Warsaw, and the third joined the Soviet partisans.
Attack on Zorin's squad
In 1943, in the Ivenets region, a detachment of the 27th Lancer regiment of the Stolbtsy AK unit of the AK Zdislav Nurkevich (pseudonym “Night”), which numbered 250 people, terrorized civilians and attacked partisans.
In November 1943, 10 Jewish partisans from Sholom Zorin’s detachment became victims of the conflict between Soviet partisans and Nurkevich’s lancers. On the night of November 18, they prepared food for the partisans in the village of Sovkovshchizna, Ivenetsky district. One of the peasants complained to Nurkevich that “the Jews are robbing.”
AK soldiers surrounded the partisans and opened fire, after which they took away 6 horses and 4 carts of the partisans. The partisans who tried to return the property to the peasants were disarmed and, after bullying, were shot. In response, on December 1, 1943, the partisans disarmed Nurkevich’s detachment.
The outbreak of the Soviet-German war radically changed the situation in Europe. In connection with the change in the diplomatic policy of Great Britain and the United States towards the Soviet Union towards cooperation, the Polish government, located in London, also had to determine its relationship with the Soviet leadership. Therefore, at the beginning of July 1941, negotiations began in London between the USSR Ambassador to Great Britain I. Maisky and General V. Sikorsky, during which the issue of the border between the states was hotly discussed. However, partly at the insistence of the British government, on July 30, 1941, an agreement between the Soviet Union and Poland was signed to establish diplomatic relations in cooperation in the war.
In protest against the signing of this agreement without a definite solution to the issue of Western Belarus and Western Ukraine, Foreign Minister A. Zalesski, Minister of Justice M. Seyda, Minister of State for Polish Affairs and Commander-in-Chief of the Union of Armed Struggle K. Sankovsky resigned. However, despite the government crisis and the negative attitude of President U. Rachkevich towards the agreement, it entered into force. On August 14, 1941, a Soviet-Polish military treaty was signed in Moscow, which defined the general principles for the creation of a Polish army from among Polish citizens on the territory of the USSR, the basis for its organized structure, participation in hostilities, etc.
A little earlier before the signing of the treaties of 1941 - in the fall of 1939 - a Polish anti-Soviet underground arose in the western regions of Belarus, which was closely connected with the Polish underground. Even the day before the capitulation of Warsaw on September 27, 1939, a group of Polish officers formed the first underground military structure to fight the German occupiers - the Polish Victory Service (SZP), led by General M. Karaszewicz-Tokazhewski, which included representatives of opposition parties to the Polish government, which left the country on September 17, 1939.
In October 1939, a new Polish coalition government was formed in France, led by General W. Sikorski, who ordered the creation of an underground armed organization in the occupied territory of Poland - the Union of Armed Struggle (ZVZ) in January 1940, led by General K. Sosnkovsky. Extending the activities of this organization to the entire territory of Poland within the borders of 1939, the government of V. Sikorski already at that time adopted the theory and strategy of fighting two enemies - Germany and the Soviet Union.
In the winter of 1940, branches of the SVB were created in the western territories of Belarus and Ukraine: obshar No. 2 Bialystok (territories of Polesie, Novogrudok and Bialystok voivodeships) and obshar No. 3 Lvov (Lvov, Stanislav, Ternopil and Volyn voivodeships), Vilna was allocated as a separate district voivodeship After the defeat of France, the Polish émigré government moved to London, General S. Rowecki (Grot) became the commander-in-chief of the SVB, and General K. Sosnkowski became the minister for the affairs of the occupied country and the official successor of the president.
The situation changed after the signing of the above agreements, according to which organizational units of the Polish underground could operate in the western regions of the USSR occupied by Germany from a formal legal point of view, quite legally and justifiably. On February 14, 1942, the ZVZ was transformed into the Home Army (AK), an underground military organization that united organizations and groups of the Polish underground that supported the Polish exile government in London. Sometimes, for purposes of secrecy, the AK was called the Polish Insurgent Union. The AK was led by the High Command (GA AK) in Warsaw.
The entire territory of the former Poland, including the western regions of Belarus and Ukraine, was conditionally divided into obshars led by obshar commanders (Zhondu delegates - government representatives). The so-called “delegation” was created around the delegates, with the involvement of local organizations and political parties that adhered to the policies of the London government. In turn, obshars were divided into districts (headed by a commandant), districts into inspectorates, and the latter into obvods. The bypass was led by a commandant, who was appointed by the district commandant, as well as by the bypass headquarters. The headquarters included 1 - 2 deputies, as well as chiefs (chiefs) of the intelligence, organizational, combat and drill training, sanitary, propaganda, communications and sapper departments. All department heads, with the exception of the intelligence and propaganda departments, were supposed to be officers, and the head of the combat and combat training department was to be a career officer. The propaganda department should be headed by "a publicist or politician who is not currently involved in the politics of enemies." The commander of the sanitary department could be “an intellectual with a commercial education.”
In July–August 1942, the territorial structure was slightly changed. The smallest organizational and military unit was a department - a “squad”, which was composed of 2 - 3 villages. The squad was united into platoons - “plutons”. The territory of the platoon was a former volost - “gmina”, 2 - 3 plutons were united into a company - “campaign”.
The following AK districts existed on the territory of Belarus: Novogrudok, Polesie (Brest nad Bug) and Vilno. The districts of Novogrudok, Polesie, as well as the inspectorate of Grodno were subordinate to the command of the Home Army and the Bialystok region.
The Novogrudok AK district was organizationally formed in the fall of 1941. From September 1941 to June 1944, the commandant of the district was Lieutenant Colonel J. Shlyasky (“Pravdzic”, “Badger”). Until January 15, 1943, this district was subordinate to the command of the Bialystok Region, and after that date it came under the direct leadership of the AK Civil Code. The district consisted of the following circuits: “Shchuchin” (code name “Lonka”), “Lida” (“Bur”), “Volozhin - Yuratishki” (“Benoza”), “Novogrudok” (“Stavy”), “Stolbtsy” ( “Slup”), “Slonim” (“Pyaski”), “Baranovichi” (“Pushcha”) and “Nesvizh” (“Strazhnitsa”). The lines were united into 3 inspectorates. Inspectorate No. 1 included the lines "Shchuchin", "Lida", "Volozhin", "Yuratishki - Ivye". Inspectorate No. 2 united the Novogrudok and Stolbtsy districts. Inspectorate No. 3 included the Baranovichi, Slonim and Nesvizh contours.
The Vilna district was finally formed in May 1944. It was led by Lieutenant Colonel A. Kzhizhanovsky (“Wilk”). The district was divided into 4 inspectorates, on the basis of which 3 territorial units were organized in May 1944. The Vilna formation (commander Major A. Olekhnovich, “Prokhoretski”) included the 2, 3, 5 and 7 brigades. The Northern Formation (Major M. Pototsky, “Wangelny”) included the 1st, 4th, 23rd, 24th and 36th brigades. Oshmyanskoe (Major Ch. Dembitsky, “Yarema”) included the 8th, 9th, 12th and 13th brigades. In addition, in the Vilna district there was an independent 6th brigade, which was not part of any of the above formations. The Vilna connection (or connection No. 1) covered the territory of the Vilna and Trakai bypasses. The Northern Connection (No. 2) united the Sventsyansky, Braslav, Disnensky and Postavy circuits. The Oshmyany connection (No. 3) covered the territory of the Oshmyany, Vileika and Molodechensky bypasses. The population of the district was about 9 thousand people.
Compared to Novogrudok and Vilna, the Polesie district of the AK was the most poorly organized. This was explained by the fact that the Akovites had to fight not only the Germans, but also the formations of Ukrainian nationalists. The commandant of the district from December 1941 to April 1944 was Major S. Dobrsky (“Zhuk”, “Master”), and from May to August 1944 the duties of the district commandant were performed by Yu. Svartsevich. At the time of complete completion of the structural organization (April 1944), the Polesie district numbered more than 4 thousand people.
As for the relationship between the AK and the Soviet partisans, in principle, the cooperation of the two sides under the Nazi occupation was mutually beneficial. In the spring of 1943, AK detachments of the Novogrudok district established contact with Soviet partisans. In the Naroch partisan zone, contact was established between the detachment of A. Buzhinsky (“Kmitets”) and the Soviet detachment of F. Markov. In June 1943, in Ivanitsy, 300 AK soldiers under the command of K. Milashevsky, together with the Soviet Chkalov partisan brigade under the command of R. Sidorka, took part in the battles against the Germans. In July–August of the same year, these detachments again fought against German troops and police in Nalibokskaya Pushcha.
A turning point in Soviet-Polish relations came in the spring of 1943, when Germany published materials from a commission created by the Germans to exhume the corpses of several thousand Polish officers discovered in the Katyn Forest (Smolensk region). The USSR denied the authenticity of the German commission's conclusions. As a result, on April 6, 1943, the Soviet leadership broke off diplomatic relations with the Polish government in exile. According to the contents of General Rowecki’s letter to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Armed Forces, General W. Sikorski: “From a purely military point of view, it is necessary, most likely, to prepare for the worst possibility for ourselves, namely, to see in Russia most likely our enemy, and not our ally. The only expedient and justified position in relation to Russia is, in addition, our actually existing defensive position, namely, a fundamentally hostile one... The need for a solution. I ask Pan General to give his consent in principle to our defensive position in relation to Russia, because only based on such a decision, I will be able to create, as in relation to the Germans, a permanent and logically interconnected plan for our actions in the country, which will become the main trump card this time against Russia in the hands of Pan General during any political fluctuations in Polish-Russian relations.”
In the fall of 1943, Soviet troops began liberating Eastern Belarus from the Germans. The Red Army was approaching the borders of Poland. In this situation, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, General K. Sosnkovsky, sent a directive to the commander of the AK, General Komarovsky, on October 5, 1943. It provided for three options for the behavior of the AK, depending on the development of military and political events: “Option 1: Russia undertakes to restore the borders of 1939. The allies provide this obligation with their guarantees. In the territories of Poland covered by military operations, mixed inter-allied commissions and allied military units appear. In the occupied areas, administration is carried out by representatives of the Polish Government. Berling's military formations are disbanded or reassigned to Polish command.
2nd option: Russia maintains its aggressive and imperialist goals. And with Berling’s divisions he penetrates into Polish territory, the communist Polish government shapes the political situation, the population is subjected to repression and persecution. 3rd option: In the outside world, Russia does not make claims to the borders, pretends that it accepts the American formula for solving these problems after the war, however, by introducing Berling’s troops, it penetrates Polish territory, carries out repression and persecution, but does not allow an inter-allied commission , no divisions, changes the political situation, organizes elections and plebiscites.”
And in October 1943, the AK command approved the “Storm” plan, according to which it was planned to seize the territory of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus, as well as the Vilna region at the time of the retreat of the Nazi troops. In addition, as part of this operation, Operation Sharp Brama was developed - a plan to capture Vilnius before the arrival of the Red Army. An important political goal of the “Storm” plan was to take control of the most important military-strategic, industrial, administrative and cultural centers of the state even before they were liberated by the Red Army, as well as to take civil power into their own hands by “delegates” - special authorized representatives of the London emigration government.
The first contact between the AK forces concentrated to carry out Operation Storm and Soviet units occurred in Volyn on March 18, 1944. These were detachments of the 27th division under the command of Major Y. Kiversky AK and units of the 2nd Belorussian Front, advancing on Kovel. At the end of March, Y. Kiversky met with the Soviet General Sergeev and agreed on the interaction of his division with units of the Red Army. In operational matters, the 27th Volyn Division of the AK was placed at the disposal of the Soviet command, but enjoyed a certain freedom of action, and the supreme command of the division remained with Komarovsky . During further battles, the 27th Division was almost completely destroyed, and its remnants were mobilized into the Polish Army.
In the early summer of 1944, when Soviet units were about to reach Vilnius, the AK leadership decided to liberate this city on its own, presenting the Red Army with a fait accompli. The operation received the code name “East Brama” - joint actions of AK units of the Vilna and Novogrudok districts to capture Vilnius. The operation was scheduled for July 10, 1944. But the 2nd Belorussian Front, under the command of General Chernyakhovsky, was approaching too quickly, which led to the decision to begin the operation on July 6. Therefore, instead of the planned 16,000 fighters, 4,000 approached Vilnius. They were also opposed by a 17,000-strong German garrison. On the morning of July 6, 1944, AK troops launched an assault on Vilnius. The Germans repulsed all the attacks of the Akovites. On July 7, the 5th Guards Tank Army of the 2nd Belorussian Front broke through to the city, and two days later completely surrounded the German garrison. Some AK units joined the Soviet units and together with them went to storm Vilnius. Despite military cooperation, the Soviet command ordered the removal of Polish flags and banned the parade of Polish units. This sharply strained relations. In mid-July, Krzyzanowski was arrested by NKVD officers, and AK soldiers were disarmed and sent to camps, but some of them managed to free themselves, and they began to fight against the Soviet army. A similar situation arose in Western Ukraine, when Soviet troops, with the support of AK soldiers, after the liberation of Lvov, arrested all the leaders of the Home Army.
Thus, Operation Storm became the apotheosis of the Home Army’s combat activities on the territory of the USSR and Poland. Costing numerous victims, it did not give the Poles any results not only on the territory of Lithuania, Western Belarus and Western Ukraine, but also on the territory of Poland. On the liberated lands, that is, directly in the rear of the Red Army, attempts continued to disarm the AK units, which went underground. The policy of the exile government, aimed at preserving the territorial integrity of the country, affected the fate of those Polish soldiers and officers who joined the ranks of the AK. Subsequently, after the end of the war, they were persecuted. In total, about 50 thousand AK soldiers were detained by the NKVD and sent to camps near Ryazan, from where they returned to Poland only in 1954. There they faced new sentences. On January 17, 1945, Soviet troops, with the support of the 1st Army of the Polish Army, liberated Warsaw, and on January 19, the Home Army was dissolved. Instead, an underground paramilitary organization, Nepodleglost, was created.
Questions for self-control:
1. Name the first partisan detachments, underground organizations and sabotage groups that operated at the initial stage of military operations of the Great Patriotic War on the territory of Belarus.
2. Expand the concept of Vitebsk “Surazh” gates.
3. List and reveal the main stages of the formation and development of the partisan movement.
4. How was the coordination of the activities of the partisan movement carried out both on the territory of occupied Belarus?
5. Reveal the organizational structure of partisan formations.
6. What are the forms of guerrilla warfare?
7. Reveal the essence of the plans “Rail War”, “Concert”, “Winter Concert”, “Desert”.
8. How were the activities of false partisan detachments carried out?
9. Using the example of the Polotsk-Lepel partisan zone, show the activities of partisan zones on the territory of Belarus.
10. Describe the activities of underground organizations in the occupied territory of Belarus.
11. How was resistance carried out in the ghetto? Show this process using the example of the Glubokoe ghetto.
12. Expand the process of interaction between the Home Army and the Belarusian partisans during the Great Patriotic War.
Topic 8
Related information.
During the liberation of Lithuania, the Red Army had to act not only against German troops and bands of Lithuanian nationalists, but also against the Polish Home Army. In 1940–1943 The Home Army, “holding a gun at its feet,” did little to annoy the Germans, and they, in turn, turned a blind eye to the formation of units of the Home Army. It was only in our and Polish cinema that in every occupied village there were German units, and not ordinary ones, but elite ones.
In fact, in Poland and the USSR there were no German troops in a number of areas for tens of kilometers. The garrisons in the rear consisted of elderly and disabled military personnel. Therefore, the Home Army has strengthened significantly in 2 years. Its arsenal was replenished with weapons from the former Polish army, abandoned or hidden in 1939, and German weapons stolen or purchased from the occupation forces. And from the beginning of 1944, American B-24 Liberator flying fortresses operating from Italian airfields regularly dropped weapons by parachute. The Home Army thus received from the Western allies thousands of light weapons, including mortars and heavy machine guns, as well as modern powerful radios. Polish officers who had been trained in sabotage activities in England and the USA also dropped by parachute.
In connection with the successes of the Red Army, the exile government and the leadership of the Home Army developed a plan for Operation Storm. According to him, units of the Home Army were supposed to occupy large cities during the retreat of the Germans, creating civil administrations there, subordinate to London, and meeting the Soviet troops in the role of masters, that is, legal authorities. To implement the plan, it was planned to attract up to 80 thousand members of the Home Army, located mainly in the eastern and southeastern voivodeships of Poland and in the territories of Lithuania, Western Ukraine and Western Belarus.
The “Storm” plan provided for the participation of the Home Army in expelling the Germans, allowed interaction with units of the Red Army, but categorically ordered to “resolutely resist” any attempts to include units of the Home Army in the Red Army or the Polish divisions marching with it from the East. At the end of military operations, the commanders of the Home Army units were asked to remain in the rear of the Red Army, to act independently of it, to prevent the establishment of the power of the People's Council of the People's Republic and to ensure the approval of the administration of the emigrant government.
Moreover, the actions of the “Storm” plan were supposed to take place not only on the territory of the former Polish state, but also on the territory of the Lithuanian SSR.
According to the top secret report of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs L.P. Beria to Stalin, “in Vilna, under the Germans, there existed a Polish underground military organization, which was consolidated into three detachments. Of these three detachments, today there is detachment No. 1, numbering 1,500 people. Two detachments, according to the chief of staff of the detachments, do not exist, since one of them was defeated by the Germans during an attempt to capture the city of Vilna, and the other was dispersed by the Germans during the period of its organization.
Today in the city of Vilna there are up to 2,000 soldiers of the “Polish Regional Army” and in the areas: Novogrudok (Turkeli, Volkorabishki) - up to 7,000–8,000 people, Medniki (Hurka colony) - up to 8,000 people and around Vilno (Veerke-Nove estate) – 3000–4000 people. In total up to 25,000 soldiers.
Our officers and generals were in all these areas and saw their location and numbers.
All Polish soldiers are organized into brigades and are mostly armed with Russian rifles and machine guns, revolvers and grenades. In addition, the brigades have heavy and light machine guns, anti-tank rifles, guns, self-propelled German guns and even tanks (in the 2nd brigade we saw 3 tanks). They also have means of transportation - cars, motorcycles, horses...
In addition, the presence of this “Polish army” disorients the local population. Many people think that this is the Polish army of BERLING, and when the suppliers from the 3rd Belorussian Front came to Oshmyany for food, the residents told them that they had already completed all the tax assignments for the Polish army of BERLING.
The NKVD of the USSR reports that in addition to the 2 battalions of NKVD troops available in Vilna and one regiment arriving in Vilno tomorrow, July 16, we are transferring one division of internal NKVD troops and 4 border detachments to the Vilna region, as a result of which in the next 4-5 days units of the NKVD troops with a total number of 12,000 people will be concentrated in the Vilna region...
The Poles are outrageous, forcibly taking food, cattle and horses from local residents, declaring that this is for the Polish army. There are threats that if local residents of Lithuania hand over food to the Red Army, the Poles will punish them...
...After clearing the city of Vilna from the Germans, the Soviet flag was hung on the city Town Hall. After some time, a Polish flag appeared below the Soviet flag, which, however, was immediately removed. Yesterday evening in the city of Vilna our officers who died during the capture of the city of Vilna were buried. The regiment commander at the grave said that they died for the liberation of the Lithuanian capital, Vilna. The two Polish soldiers standing turned to our Colonel Kapralov and stated that, apparently, the colonel speaking did not know that Vilna had never been and would never be Lithuanian...
...Currently, the Poles are intensively mobilizing into the “Regional Army” and collecting weapons. Yesterday, a cart with weapons on which a Polish soldier was riding was detained in the city. During interrogation, he stated that the weapons were collected from the population and intended for Polish brigades. The weapon has been seized."
The Poles claimed that it was they who liberated Vilna. In fact, General “Vilk” (“Wolf” is the pseudonym of Colonel A. Kzhizhanovsky) received an order from London to occupy Vilna with units of the Home Army. One brigade actually got there, but the Germans completely routed it. At this point, the “occupation” of Vilna by the Poles ended.
The Soviet command decided to disarm parts of the Home Army and do this, if possible, without the use of weapons. For this purpose, Major General “Vilk” was summoned on July 17, 1944 to the headquarters of the commander of the 3rd Belorussian Front, Army General I.D. Chernyakhovsky. There, “Wilk” was told that the Soviet command was interested in the combat effectiveness of the Polish formations, and therefore it was desirable that the Red Army officers become familiar with them. "Wilk" agreed and reported six points where his regiments and brigades were stationed.
In addition, the Soviet command became interested in the officer corps of the Polish formations and invited “Wilk” to gather all commanders of regiments, brigades, their deputies and chiefs of staff, to which “Wilk” also agreed and gave the corresponding order to his liaison officer, who immediately left headquarters.
After this, “Wilk” was disarmed, and the captain who arrived with him, the chief of staff, who was a representative of the London government, tried to grab the pistol to resist, cocked the hammer, but was also disarmed.
Formations and units of the 3rd Belorussian Front, allocated to disarm the Poles, were immediately sent to the locations of the Polish troops. And a maneuverable group of border guards and senior NKVD officials went to the sites of disarmament of the leading officers.
Next, I will quote another report from Beria to Stalin: “Today, July 18, received from Comrade Comrade. Serov and Chernyakhovsky have the following message: Yesterday, at 20 o’clock, brigade and battalion commanders were gathered in the area of the village of Bogushi, allegedly for inspection by their front commander. A total of 26 officers gathered, including: 9 brigade commanders, 12 detachment commanders and 5 staff officers of the Polish army.
The officers refused our offer to surrender their weapons, and only when the use of weapons was announced did the officers disarm.
In addition, yesterday the following were seized: the commander of the Vilna district, Lieutenant Colonel Krzeshevsky, Lyuboslav, pseudonym “Ludwig”, and the commander of the Novogrudok district, Colonel Shidlovsky, Adam, pseudonym “Polishchuk”.
Shidlovsky in May of this year. parachuted from Italy to Warsaw with the task of organizing Polish partisans in the Novogrudok district.
Today, at dawn, we began combing the forests where, according to our information, the Poles were located. In some places there were no Poles. It was established that they set out at night in a southerly direction. Thanks to the measures taken, the Poles were overtaken and disarmed.
As of 16:00, 3,500 people were disarmed, of which: 200 officers and sub-officers.
During the disarmament, weapons were seized: 3000 rifles, 300 machine guns, 50 machine guns, 15 mortars, 7 light guns, 12 vehicles and a large number of grenades and cartridges.
Polish officers and soldiers under escort were sent to collection points, and weapons were transported to warehouses.
The units participating in the operation conduct further reconnaissance, pursuit and disarmament of Polish troops.
As we have established through interrogation of detachment and brigade commanders, as well as the “commanders” of the Vilna and Novogrudok districts, the total number of all soldiers of the so-called “Polish Regional Army” ranges from 8 to 10 thousand, located in the zone of the 3rd Belorussian Front.”
And here is the following report by Lavrentiy Pavlovich dated August 3, 1944: “The NKVD of the USSR reports on the results of the operation to disarm soldiers and officers of the Polish Home Army and on the operational security activities carried out in the Lithuanian SSR.
According to the regiments and formations of the 3rd Belorussian Front that took part in the operation, a total of 7,924 soldiers and officers were disarmed.
Of this number, 4,400 soldiers and officers were sent to assembly points, 2,500 soldiers were sent home by unit commanders and convoys.
In addition, 400 Polish soldiers were disarmed in the sector of the 1st Baltic Front.
During the disarmament of the Poles, the following were confiscated: 5,500 rifles, 370 machine guns, 270 light and heavy machine guns, 13 light guns, as well as 27 vehicles, 7 radios, 720 horses.
Within a few days, a representative of BERLING's army recruited 440 soldiers at the assembly point. The officers refused to join BERLING's army, declaring that there was no order from the high command...
Before the war, Vilna had 320,000 inhabitants. During the occupation, about 30,000 dispersed to villages and were taken by the Germans to Germany. In addition, according to local residents, the Germans arrested and shot over 40,000 Jews and other citizens.
Currently, up to 200,000 people live in the suburbs of Vilno. The vast majority of residents are Poles. It was established that the Lithuanians left with the Germans during the retreat, fearing reprisals from the Soviet authorities and the Poles for actively helping the Germans during the occupation.
There is hostile relations between Poles and Lithuanians. This is explained by the fact that during the period of the German occupation of Lithuania, Lithuanians occupied all responsible administrative posts both in the city and in the countryside and treated the Poles poorly.
In addition, on instructions from the Germans, Lithuanian General Plekhovichus [So in the text. Correct: Plechavičius] organized a division of Lithuanians to carry out punitive measures against the Poles and partisans. This division brutally dealt with the population.
The population of Vilna reacts positively to the liberation of the city from the German occupiers and expresses satisfaction that services in churches will be conducted not in Lithuanian, but in Polish, and also expresses hope that Vilna will be part of Western Ukraine or Belarus, but only not Lithuania.
According to unverified intelligence data, in the Trakai district they are collecting signatures from the population in order to send a letter to Comrade STALIN with a request to annex the Vilna region to Western Belarus.
The workers and labor intelligentsia of Vilna speak approvingly of the creation of the Polish National Liberation Committee, believing that as a result of this event Poland will become an independent state.
Part of the population, especially the clergy, Polish nationalists and reactionary intelligentsia, consider the National Committee to be illegal and rely on the London government.
In all the liberated counties, the local administration, consisting exclusively of Lithuanians, fled. The Germans left the police and punitive authorities in place, organized self-defense units from them and invited them to defend their city. For example, the cities of Trakai and Panevezys were defended by self-defense units. After the Red Army entered the city, these detachments hid in the forests.
Operational measures have been organized to capture members of self-defense units.
In all districts there remained a large number of Russian people who were driven away by the Germans in February of this year. For example, in the Panevezys district there were more than 2,000 people who were stolen by the Germans from the Leningrad region along with livestock and agricultural equipment.
In other counties, residents of Oryol, Kursk, Smolensk and other regions.
From July 14 to 20, the NKVD - NKGB of the Lithuanian SSR arrested 516 people, including: spies - 51, active collaborators of the German occupiers - 91, leading employees of the administrative bodies of the German occupation authorities - 302, members of underground anti-Soviet nationalist organizations - 36 and a criminal element - 35.
In addition, the bodies and troops of the NKVD identified and captured 570 German soldiers and officers who were trying to get to the West.
During military clashes with individual groups of Germans, 785 soldiers were killed.
Weapons were confiscated from the arrested and the population: 984 rifles, 405 machine guns, 132 mortars, 137 grenades, 450,000 cartridges.”
Thus, the decisive actions of the Red Army and State Security thwarted the attempt of the Regional Army to seize the Vilna region and incorporate it into Poland.
***
Commemorative sign "Cross of the Home Army"
Home Army (Armia Krajowa, lit. - Fatherland Army), a Polish national military organization that operated in 1942-1945 in German-occupied Poland. She was subordinate to the Polish émigré government in London. Formed on the basis of the underground organization "Union of Armed Struggle" (created in January 1940). The Home Army included: part of the People's Military Organization, partly the Hlopske Battalions, the main cadres of which were members of the youth peasant organization "Witsi", military detachments of the right wing of the Polish Socialist Party and other illegal military organizations of political centers that supported the emigrant government of Poland.
The Home Army command launched an uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto. In January 1945, the Home Army was disbanded, and from among its most reactionary members, the terrorist underground organization “Liberty and Freedom” (VIN) was created, which fought against the establishment of a socialist system in Poland. In 1947 it was destroyed by Polish security forces.
Material used from the Encyclopedia of the Third Reich - www.fact400.ru/mif/reich/titul.htm
"Crajowa" in Polish means "statewide, national". In turn, “lyudova” is folk in the sense of “working people.” Two armies of one nation, separated by ideology. They practically did not fight among themselves, at some stage they even had a common enemy - the Nazi occupiers. However, the ideology imposed in the end by another occupier divided them into two different formations - different values, different destinies. There is no open hostility between them, but there is no love either.
Both of these Polish armed formations arose during the Second World War. The Home Army (AK) emerged as a conspiratorial military organization that operated during the Nazi occupation on the territory of the Polish state within the borders that existed before September 1, 1939. This army, the largest in the world, operating underground, represented an integral part of the armed forces of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The basis for the creation of the AK was the Polish Victory Service, which was created on September 27, 1939 and already on November 13, 1939, turned into the Union of Armed Struggle. In February 1942, by order of the supreme commander of the Polish armed forces, General Wladyslaw Sikorski, the SVB was renamed the Home Army, subordinate to the Polish government in exile, which operated in Great Britain.
According to the plans of the Polish government, the AK was to become a national, supra-party organization, and its chief commandant was to be the only head of the state armed forces authorized by the government. At various times, the AK was commanded by outstanding Polish military men - generals S. Rowecki “Grot”, T. Komorowski “Bir”, L. Okulicki “Bear”. The main task of the AK was to fight for the restoration of state independence by organizing self-defense actions and preparing an underground army for the uprising that was to break out on Polish lands at the moment of the armed weakening of Nazi Germany. Despite its partisan nature, the AK had a well-developed structure: the governing body of the army was the main commandant's office, which included structural units and individual services that organized conspiracy, conducted intelligence work, accumulated weapons, trained personnel, published underground literature, etc. . In addition, AK members established contacts with prisoner of war camps and among Poles throughout the Reich. In January 1943, a sabotage leadership was also created. The personnel of the AK consisted of officers who served in the Polish army before the Nazi occupation, some of whom remained in Poland, and some were returned to their homeland by the British allies, dropped by parachute.
The regional structure of the AK corresponded to the pre-war administrative division of Poland. At the beginning of 1944, the main commandant's office of the AK was subordinate to units in 8 separate districts, which in turn were divided into regions and subdistricts. The basic units of the AK were “full” groups, 35-50 soldiers each, and “incomplete” groups, 16-25. As of the beginning of 1944, the AK had 6,287 full and 2,613 part-time military units. The AK also included structural foreign divisions operating in Great Britain, Hungary and Germany. As a result of propaganda activities and carrying out rescue armed actions, AK turned into a mass organization, which in the summer of 1944 had about 380 thousand members. Smaller armed organizations joined the ranks of the AK: the Secret Polish Army, the Secret Military Organization, the Armed Confederation, the Socialist Combat Organization, Peasant Battalions, etc. The Army of Ludova (AL) did not join the AK.
The AK carried out its combat missions not only in preparation for the uprising, but also in daily armed activities: organizing acts of sabotage and sabotage, recapturing arrested Polish citizens and prisoners of the Allied armies from the hands of the Nazis, and partisan battles against Nazi punitive detachments. For the allies, the reconnaissance work carried out by AK was extremely valuable. Their greatest merit in this matter is considered to be the receipt and transmission to England in July 1943 of data on the development by the Germans at the Peenemünde plant of a new weapon - the eventually famous FAU rocket. In 1944, AK units also began to fight against NKVD units in the eastern regions of pre-war Poland.
However, the culmination of the AK's struggle was the Warsaw Uprising, which began a few months before the occupation of the Polish capital by Soviet troops - in the summer of 1944. The Warsaw Uprising was destined to become one of the most glorious pages in the history of the AK, but also one of the most dramatic pages in Polish history. Military and civilian casualties numbered many thousands, and old Warsaw was almost completely destroyed. After the defeat of the uprising, AK units that found themselves in territory occupied by the Red Army were demobilized. On January 1, 1945, General Okulicki issued an order to dissolve the Home Army. AK casualties at that time amounted to more than 100 thousand people. Another close to 50 thousand AK members, including General Okulicki, were imprisoned on the territory of the USSR. Some of the AK units, knowing about the repressions of the NKVD and the new Polish security services, refused to lay down their arms and turned into new conspiratorial armed organizations opposing the regime, such as “Will and Independence” (WIN). AK soldiers were largely persecuted by the new Polish authorities, especially during the Stalinist period, when many of them were imprisoned or sentenced to death.
After the political “thaw” in the USSR, many of them returned to their homeland. The communist Polish authorities always treated former AK members with suspicion, and therefore, although they were no longer persecuted, they were not particularly favored - they preferred not to notice and “not remember.” In turn, the role of “official and correct” war veterans and heroes of the fight against fascism was assigned to former soldiers of the People’s Army, that is, the “people’s” Army.
Ludow's Army was also a conspiratorial military organization created in early 1944 on the basis of the People's Guard, almost completely subordinate to the Polish Workers' Party, which recognized the seizure of eastern Polish lands by the Soviet Union. AL operated exclusively on the territory of the General Governorate formed by the Germans and on the Polish territories included by the occupiers in the Reich. As its main task, the AL defined the struggle against the Nazis with the goal of restoring a Polish state under communist leadership, which would be closely linked to the USSR. Therefore, AL units collected intelligence for the Soviet command, carried out joint military actions with the “red partisans”, and later with units of the Soviet Army, and also prepared for the communists to seize power in the country at the end of the war.
Polish partisans of the Ludowa Guard and Soviet partisans. Lyubelshchina. 1944
In 1944, there were six AL districts, and its units were formed on the principle of partisan detachments. The AL also included left-wing militant groups, such as the People's Workers' Militia of the Party of Polish Socialists. The AL was headed by General M. Zimerski “Rolya”. At the beginning of 1944, the AL numbered about 8 thousand members, and in July of the same year - 30 thousand soldiers. AL units also took part in battles with the German army, and some AL units took part in the Warsaw Uprising.
Six AL brigades were created from the Poles, and two more brigades were added to them, formed from prisoners of war who managed to escape from captivity. From the territories controlled by the Red Army, the brigade named after was transferred to the AL. Wanda Vasilevskaya. However, the period of activity of all these brigades was quite short - often did not exceed one month. By decree of the pro-communist All-Polish People's Council on July 21, 1944, the Polish Army was formed from the AL and the Polish army in the USSR. Parts of the AL that remained in the occupied territories retained their old name until the arrival of the VP. As Soviet troops occupied the territory of Poland, most of the AL officers and soldiers went to serve in the public security department and in the civilian militia. They retired as servicemen of the new Polish army or security forces, as well as as war veterans, “heroes of the struggle of the Polish people against the fascist occupation.”
An officer of the Ludova Army (second from left) in the company of Soviet soldiers. The officer wears a pre-war Polish tunic with buttonholes.
During the communist period, AK and AL veterans practically did not intersect. In modern times, specifically on January 21, 1991, the law on “veterans and repressed persons” equalized the rights of all citizens of Poland who fought for the sovereignty and independence of their homeland... in the formations of the Polish Army, allied armies, as well as underground organizations that fought for independence , and in civil activities, being exposed to the danger of being repressed.” AK veterans were allowed to create their own organizations, which they began to do in Poland in 1990, since similar organizations had existed in exile for a long time. Today, the main veteran organization of the AK is the World Union of AK Soldiers. In total, there are 115 veteran organizations in Poland.
Józef Zajonc ("Michal") - former commandant of the 10th districtArmyLyudova.
AK and AL veterans have virtually no hostility towards each other - their enemies were German Nazis and Ukrainian nationalists. There were also NKVDists, but due to the warming of Polish-Russian relations and due to the sensitivity of this moment in relations between AK and AL, they are remembered more often in the organizations of former “Siberian exiles”. Some veterans organizations cooperate, others do not. In Warsaw, veterans of both armies are members of the Warsaw Uprising Association. Veteran's Day is celebrated by everyone, regardless of who served in which armed formation. September 1st is designated as the Day of All World War II Veterans in Poland.
