Freedom and Independence , originally the full name - Resistance without war and sabotage “Freedom and Independence” , abbreviated version is “unN” ( Polish. Wolność i Niezawisłość, Ruch Oporu w. military organization operating in Poland after the Second World War. Vin existed for several years, its number was systematically reduced, the first part of the leadership was arrested as early as 1945, and the rest since 1948 have been working under the control of the state security organs of people's Poland.
Freedom and Independence | |
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Wolność i Niezawisłość | |
Freedom and Independence organization icon | |
Ideology | nationalism anti-communism |
Ethnicity | Poles |
Active in | Poland in its post-war borders , Grodno region of the BSSR. |
Date of formation | September 2, 1945 |
Date of dissolution | December 1952 |
Allies | CIA Gelena Organization MI-6 UPA |
Opponents | Poland the USSR |
Number of members | up to a maximum of 30,000 |
History
On May 7, 1945, General Vladislav Anders , who served as commander-in-chief of Polish forces in the West, dismissed the civil-military organization Nie , whose task was an underground struggle against the USSR. For the armed struggle, Vladislav Anders, on the basis of AK-NIE, created the military organization DSZ ( Delegate of the Armed Forces ). The commandant of the Armed Forces Delegation was Colonel Jan Zhepetsky (“Burn”, “Preses”). Vladislav Anders created the Delegation of the Armed Forces to fight against the USSR and the Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland. After the formation of the Delegation of the Armed Forces of the organization “DSZ”, several tens of thousands of members of the Home Army complied. The successful actions of the Polish People’s Army, the internal troops, the NKGB and the security organs, the adopted amnesty law led to decadent attitudes among the members of the organization and unwillingness to continue unsafe underground life especially after the coalition government was formed on the basis of the Provisional Government of the Polish Republic. Some former representatives of the “London Government” S. Mikolajczyk, including Mikolajczyk, were included in the Polish government (the new coalition government-Provisional Government of National Unity was formed on June 28, 1945 with the participation of representatives of the USSR, the United States and Great Britain at the Yalta conference in February 1945) Komendant delegatures armed forces Colonel Ian Rzepecka was a supporter of the cessation of armed struggle especially after the July 5, 1945 an ode to the coalition government of Poland was recognized by the US and Britain. The Polish emigration government lost a bitter battle with the facts [1] . The West has written off the emigration government completely because it is completely unsuitable for any negotiations. It became clear that the arguments about the power of the emigre government were purely theoretical. At the same time, Jan Zhepetsky opposed the statement of the arrested colonel Jan Mazurkevich (“Radoslaw”), who called on the soldiers of the Army Kraiova to leave the underground. Jan Zhepetsky believed that it was necessary to create a political structure that would unite soldiers and officers of the Army of Krajowa, who could influence the situation in the country, including during the future parliamentary election campaign, with the help of an organizational and propaganda resource.
The delegate of the armed forces ceased to exist on August 6, 1945. On August 14, Jan Zhepetsky issued an order for the dissolution of the “Home Army” and, based on the Armed Forces Delegation, created and headed the illegal political organization WiN (Freedom and Independence). “WiN” was created by a group of 5 senior officers of the Army of Kraiowa and the Delegation of the Armed Forces on September 2, 1945. On October 2, at the secret congress of the commandants of the DSZ bushes, he was elected chairman of the WiN executive committee. The complete unification of the Postak underground, however, did not happen. The structure of the organization has also changed. There are three departments in the organization "VIN", according to its main tasks: a) Propaganda (publication of newspapers, leaflets and verbal agitation). b) Intelligence (collection of military, political and economic information and transfer of these materials to London). c) Counterintelligence (protection of the underground from repression by the public security organs).
The structure of VIN leadership units: 1. The VIN Main Executive Committee. 2. Executive committees of the three obshar (the obshar combines several voivodships). 3. Executive committees in the voivodships. 4. Committees in counties. VIN maintained, via radio and via couriers, communication with the emigre government of Poland and the headquarters of the Supreme Commander. The Vin statute stated: “the goal of unification is the conquest and implementation of the principles of democracy in Poland in the Western European understanding of the word”. Its original purpose was a political struggle with the Polish communist forces and the prevention of their coming to power. Despite the declared civil character of some members of the organization, armed struggle was also assumed. In practice, WiN warlords often did not follow the instructions of the governing bodies of the organization. The organization had armed detachments ((the largest units numbered up to a few hundred people) and the militant groups operating in underground conditions mainly in the eastern regions of Poland. In the summer and autumn of 1945, some armed detachments and members of the organization obeyed the call of Colonel Jan Mazurkevich (underground name - Radoslav, get out of the underground.The main source of income of the organization after 1945 was the requisition of state, cooperative and private property.
Since 1946, the leadership of "Freedom and Independence" has become subordinate to the Polish government in exile and the supreme commander of the Polish armed forces, located in the UK . Initially, the organizational structure of “Freedom and Independence” was divided into 3 zones / obshary: the Western zone with the center in Poznan , the Central zone with the center in Warsaw and the South with the center in Krakow . In 1946, a structural reorganization took place, after which only two zones temporarily remained - Central and South. The guerrilla groups and the Freedom and Independence Fighting Groups, adhering to the terror , attacked the security forces, communists, members of the Civil Police , the Voluntary Reserve of the Civil Police, and liquidated activists who collaborated with the Polish communist authorities.
The political department “Freedom and Independence” supported the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the territory of Poland, denied the new borders of Poland, which were established after the Yalta Conference . The organization called for the creation of a Polish army independent of communist influence. "Freedom and Independence" opposed the nationalization of industrial enterprises and land reform.
In January 1947, the organization called on the Polish population to boycott the elections to the Constituent Seimas of the Polish People’s Republic and called on Western countries to intervene in the political situation in Poland. Hopes for the intervention of the Western powers did not materialize. Supporters of resistance believed in the near perspective of a third world war, sabotage , sabotage , and terrorist acts were organized. Despite the prohibition of the governing bodies of the WiN (Colonel Jan Zhepetsky) district of Lublin in 1945 entered into negotiations with the UPA . In 1946, the armed units of Freedom and Independence, together with the units of the UPA, carried out several armed actions in eastern Poland, the most famous of which was the attack of Hrubieshov on May 28, 1946. The participants of the organizations spread rumors about the allegedly imminent war of the USSR with America and other capitalist countries and the death in this war of the Soviet Union [2] . The underground workers and the part of the Polish population that supported the anti-communist underground expected the imminent arrival of the Anders army , but General Anders did not appear.
"Freedom and Independence" in exchange for the collected secret information was financially supported by the American CIA and the British Secret Intelligence Service . Until 1953, Western intelligence services actively cooperated with WiN in various ways. The CIA has repeatedly sent US agents to Poland to inspect the WiN organization. Within the framework of the proposed future war with the USSR, American and British intelligence developed the Plan Volcano for WiN, planning to use the organization for sabotage and sabotage. From 1948 to 1952, 17 radio stations, about a million dollars and several hundred kilograms of gold were transported to Poland to carry out subversive work. Plan X was also developed, which included WiN’s underground activities in future military conditions. Polish counterintelligence carried out a series of actions, recruiting several AK and WIN officers and organizing a fictitious V WiN control in 1948, thus taking control of the organization. In 1948-1952, the Polish counterintelligence conducted an extensive misinformation game with Western intelligence services, maintaining radio contact with them, sending and receiving emissaries. The CIA highly appreciated the activities of these structures - according to data voiced by the chief of the secret operations unit Frank Wisner. Significant funds from the CIA budget were allocated for operations to support structures created by state security officers. In December 1952, a two-hour program was broadcast on Polish radio about the operation. The “underground workers” participating in the program told that in 1952 I. Kovalsky and S. Sepko, who in 1948 were members of the VN leadership team, came to the state security bodies. They voluntarily surrendered various secret documents (correspondence, cipherblocks, instructions), radio stations, weapons and one million dollars received from intelligence services of Anglo-Saxon countries. They also described in detail the “Volcano” plan, according to which Vin should “organize, train and prepare an operational underground squad in such quantity that it would be able to provide effective espionage and sabotage, and also make it impossible to use railways and highways Poland during the war. The plan further indicated that the CIA had pledged to prepare a highly qualified group of Polish-Americans who would be deployed to Poland for sabotage work. A detailed list of industrial enterprises and other objects in the country that were to be destroyed was attached to the plan. WiN liquidation provoked the “Berg Affair” - the activities of Polish émigré political forces with representatives of the CIA were publicized. For emigration, this message was a shock. The “Berg Affair” led to a split among Polish émigré anti-Soviet forces. Polish Prime Minister in emigration Stanislav Matskevich wrote an article “On the trade in death,” in which he accused the emigrants who had collaborated with Western intelligence agencies for personal material gain.
Presidents of Liberty and Independence
- Colonel Jan Zhepetsky - from April 2, 1945 to November 5, 1945 (arrested);
- Colonel Jan Shchurek-Tsergovsky - from 11/23/1945 (arrested the same day);
- Colonel Franciszek Nepokulchitsky - from November 1945 to 10/18/1946 (arrested);
- Lieutenant Colonel Vincenty Kvechinsky - from October 1946 to January 5, 1947 (arrested);
- Lieutenant Colonel Lukash Cheplinsky - from January 1947 to 11/27/1947 (arrested);
Jan Zhepetsky
Francishek Nepokulchitsky
Lukash Cheplinsky
Persecution
From the very beginning of the existence of Freedom and Independence, the Ministry of Public Security constantly tried to liquidate the organization. In 1945, the first president of WiN, Colonel Jan Zhepetsky , all the commanders of the zones, was arrested. In October 1946, the third president of the organization, Colonel Franciszek Nepokulchitsky , was arrested. The unpromising fighting, the abandonment of active armed struggle, large-scale arrests, the loss of many bases and well-known commanders, the reduction of the social base and the successful actions of internal troops and security forces led to decadent attitudes among members of the organization and unwillingness to continue unsafe underground life. The defeat of Mikolajczyk further worsened the mood in the ranks of Vin. The creator of the WiN organization, Colonel Jan Zhepetsky, through Polish Radio called on members of Svobdy and Independence to accept the state amnesty announced in 1947. Only in 1947, 12 thousand members of the organization took advantage of the amnesty, part of them disband themselves. This date marks the decline of “Freedom and Independence”, although some underground cells, armed groups and WiN organizations operated for some time. The detachments and organizations of the "forest" were full of misled agents; besieged and desperate, they often degenerated and degenerated into criminal gangs.
The Ministry of Public Security has developed and conducted an operational game . Since 1948, the organization was under the control of the security organs of People’s Poland. The activities of Freedom and Independence were completely liquidated in December 1952, 139 people were arrested. WiN has not achieved any political or military goals. The war of the anti-Soviet and anti-communist armed underground ended in defeat. Calculation on defeat in the new war of the Soviet Union turned out to be a mistake. The last hiding military member of the WiN single was killed during a shootout with Motorized civilian police support (ZOMO) in 1963.
Memory
- On March 1, 1951, 7 members of the organization’s leadership were shot in Warsaw Prison Mokotów . The day of their execution at the initiative of the President of the Institute of National Remembrance Janusz Kurtyka became the Polish National Day of Remembrance of the “Damned Soldiers” .
Currently
At present, a public organization of the same name operates in Poland, which is active in spreading the history of post-war Freedom and Independence, promoting anti-communist and anti-Russian sentiments in Polish society.
See also
- Damned soldiers
- Craiova Civil Army
- Historical policy
- Anti-communist speeches in Eastern Europe
Source
- Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by Tim Weiner. Anchor Books. 2008. ISBN 978-0-307-38900-8
- Wnuk, Rafał, Polska konspiracja antysowiecka na Kresach Wschodnich II RP w latach 1939-1941 i 1944-1952 / Tygiel narodów, Warszawa / London: ISP PAN / RYTM. pp. 157–251. ISBN 8388794728 .
- Grzegorz Motyka, Rafał Wnuk - “Pany i rezuny. Współpraca AK-WiN i UPA 1945-1947 ", Warszawa 1997 (Polish) ISBN 83-86857-72-2
- Freedom And Independence - Zrzeszenie "Wolność i Niezawisłość", WiN., Institute of National Remembrance, IPN, Poland (eng.)
- Zygmunt Woźniczka, Zrzeszenie "Wolność i Niezawisłość": 1945-1952 Wyd. 1. - Warszawa: Instytut Prasy i Wydawn. Novum - "Semex," 1992. ISBN 8385299319
- Marian Reniak, Droga z Monachium. Warszawa 1970. Wydawnictwo MON.
- Informator o nielegalnych antypaństwowych organizacjach i bandach zbrojnych działających w Polsce Ludowej w latach 1944—1956 Poland. Ministerstwo Spraw Wewnętrznych. Biuro "C.", Warszawa: [sn], 1964.
- Wolność i Niezawisłość
Notes
- ↑ The Polish Emigration Government categorically refused to take into account the decisions taken at the Tehran conference of the Big Three of the leaders of the three leading powers of the anti-Hitler coalition; the emigration government declared the decision of the Yalta Conference of the Big Three invalid. Contrary to the statement of the Potsdam Conference of the “Big Three” in August 1945 that the Polish émigré government “no longer exists”, it continued to function officially unrecognizable.
- ↑ GRUBESHIVSKA ATAKA 1946 р. chi ruinuvnya two stereotype
Links
- [1] Report from the Deputy Adviser of the NKVD under the Ministry of Public Security of Poland S. P. Davydov to the People's Commissar of the Interior of the USSR L. P. Beria about the arrest of the leadership of the Freedom and Independence organization.
- Bergu sprawa (Polish)