Polska Organizacja Wojskowa

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The founder of the organization, Józef Piłsudski (center), with the high command of Polska Organizacja Wojskowa in the war year 1917

The Polska Organizacja Wojskowa (abbreviation POW , German  Polish Military Organization ) was a secret military organization of Polish independence fighters during the First World War and was founded in August 1914 by Józef Piłsudski . It was used in the intelligence service and for acts of sabotage against the occupiers of Poland.

Origin and use against Russia

The POW was created in 1914 by amalgamating large parts of the paramilitary organizations Związek Strzelecki (German Rifle Association ) and the Polskie Drużyny Strzeleckie (German- Polish rifle squadrons ), which were created with the approval of the Austrian authorities in Galicia . The newly created, paramilitary unit served as a secret service and sabotage organization to complement the Polish legions that were set up around the same time and participated as regular troops in the First World War on the Austrian side. The actions of the POW were initially directed against the Russian occupiers in the so-called Weichselland ; which is why she operated from Galicia in the first three years in a gray area between unofficial recognition and underground work. The Austrian authorities even hoped that the POW would prepare a Polish uprising against the Russian occupiers. At the beginning the organization operated in central Poland; In the course of time, however, offshoots emerged in all the subdivisions of the former Polish-Lithuanian union state (in areas that are now part of Lithuania , Belarus and Ukraine ). In addition to espionage and sabotage, the organization was also active in training its relatives and acquiring weapons.

Many members of the legions were also POW members at the same time. Even if it was politically led by a committee under Jędrzej Moraczewski , Józef Piłsudski, who was also the commander of the 1st Brigade of the Legions, decided on the organization's military operations. He had assigned officers from his brigade to carry out secret POW operations behind the Russian lines. In 1915 around 1000 people were deployed in the four POW groups in Warsaw , Lublin , Radom and Siedlce . In 1916 it already had 5,000 members. After the extensive occupation of central Poland by the Central Powers in 1915, the German army also unofficially supported the POW, as it was hoped that the organization would provide intelligence information about the Russian enemy.

Fight against the Central Powers

After the imprisonment of Piłsudski and Kazimierz Sosnkowski by German units on July 20, 1917 (as a result of Piłsudski's refusal to allow the legions to swear allegiance to the emperors of Germany and Austria ), many of the former members of the legions resigned after their release from internment the POW, which was led from 1918 by a confidante of Piłsudski, Edward Rydz-Śmigły . The organization now began to carry out acts of sabotage against German and Austrian targets (bases and supplies). From now on, the POW only worked underground, the new headquarters was set up - undetected by the Austrian authorities - in the cellar vaults of the Kraków Wawel . It also operated in France, where it was called the Polonaise Militaire organization .

POW members disarm a German soldier in November 1918

End of war

In November 1918 the POW was involved in the disarming of the troops of the Central Powers. She ensured the repatriation to their home countries. The weapons obtained when the opposing units were disarmed formed the basis of the equipment for the newly formed Polish army . By mid-November, most of the war opponents' garrisons in Galicia and the Vistula had surrendered to the POW units. After Poland regained independence, it was integrated into the newly established, regular Polish army in December 1918. Some of its members continued to work there in the intelligence service. In the Ukraine the organization continued until 1920; only then were the battles against the Soviet units decided in their favor. In the battle of Lemberg from November 1, 1918 to May 1919, the POW group active there provided the majority of the fighters against the attacking units of the West Ukrainian People's Republic . In Poland, two regional successor organizations emerged that intervened in regional disputes over border drawing. In February 1918 an organization was founded in Poznan and in February 1919 in Upper Silesia . The Poznan POW was the decisive unit in the Poznan uprising . The Upper Silesian POW ( Polska Organizacja Wojskowa Górnego Śląska , POWGŚl ) became the most important military, albeit unofficial, unit in the Upper Silesian uprisings under Alfons Zgrzebniok .

On November 10, 1933, in the presence of many spectators in Warsaw, the Polish President Ignacy Mościcki unveiled a memorial in memory of the fallen POW members ( Pomnik Peowiaka ). In the following years November 10th should become a regular commemoration day ("Święto Peowiaków").

Known members

A commander of the POW was the future Marshal of Poland , Michał Rola-Żymierski . Józef Beck became Poland's Foreign Minister in the interwar period . Other members of the organization were the later Polish Prime Ministers Janusz Jędrzejewicz , Leon Kozłowski and Marian Zyndram-Kościałkowski . A member of the Kiev section of the POW was Bolesław Wieniawa-Długoszowski , who was Polish President (the government-in-exile ) for a day after the attack on Poland in 1939 . Later President Aleksander Prystor and later Prime Ministers (of the Polish government in exile) Tomasz Arciszewski , Jerzy Hryniewski and Stanisław Mackiewicz also served at the POW. The father of the later writer Tadeusz Borowski , Stanislaw, was a member of the POW before the World War, which in 1926 led to Soviet reprisals against the whole family and the separate deportation of the couple to the Soviet Union and years of separation from their sons.

Web links

Commons : Polska Organizacja Wojskowa  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Yuri Felshtinsky, Lenin and his Comrades. The Bolsheviks take over Russia 1917-1924 , ISBN 978-1-929631-95-7 , Enigma, New York 2010, p. 34
  2. ^ A b c Archibald L. Patterson, Between Hitler and Stalin: The Quick Life and Secret Death of Edward Smigly Rydz, Marshal of Poland , ISBN 978-1-60844-563-9 , Dog Ear Publishing, Indianapolis 2010, p. 41 ff.
  3. ↑ a b Wojciech Stela, Polish decorations and commemorative badges : 1914-1918 & 1918-1921 (Wars for the borders) , RE Hyla ( transl .), Original title: Polskie odznaki honorowe i pamiątkowe: 1914-1918 & 1918-1921 (Wojny o granicę państwa) , ISBN 978-83-906628-1-7 , self-published, Warsaw 2001, p. 1
  4. ↑ a b Neal Ascherson, The dream of a free fatherland. Poland's history until today , Uta Haas (transl.), ISBN 3-8025-2176-5 , original: Struggles for Poland , vgs, Cologne 1987, p. 48ff.
  5. ↑ a b c d Jerzy Jan Lerski (also: George J. Lerski), Historical Dictionary of Poland, 966-1945 , ISBN 0-313-26007-9 , Greenwood, Westport 1996, p. 456
  6. ^ Frank Grube and Gerhard Richter (eds.), The Freedom Struggle of the Poles. History, documentation, analysis , ISBN 3-455-08787-6 , Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1981, p. 49
  7. ^ Halik Kochanski, The Eagle Unbowed: Poland and the Poles in the Second World War , ISBN 978-0-674-06814-8 , Harvard University Press, 2012, p. 6
  8. ↑ Bohdan Arct, Poles Against the "V" Weapons. Poles on the fronts of the Second World War (original title: Polacy na Frontach II Wojny Światowej ), Rada Ochrony Pomników Walki i Męczeństwa (Poland), Interpress, 1972
  9. ↑ Hiroaki Kuromiya, The voices of the dead: Stalin's great terror in the 1930s , ISBN 978-0-300-12389-0 , Yale University Press, 2007, p. 220
  10. ^ A b M. BB Biskupski, Independence Day: Myth, Symbol, and the Creation of Modern Poland , ISBN 978-0-19-965881-7 , Oxford University Press, 2012, pp. 78f.
  11. ↑ Robert Machray, The Poland of Pilsudski: Incorporating "Poland, 1914-1931", much condensed and carrying on the history of Poland till mid-July, 1936 , G. Allen & Unwin, New York 1937, p 338
  12. ^ The sculpture by Edward Wittig was abducted by German troops in 1940. A replica has been in front of the Galeria Zachęta in Warsaw since 1999
  13. ^ Tomasz Nałęcz, Polska Organizacja Wojskowa: 1914-1918 , ISBN 978-83-04-01452-7 , Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, 1984 (in Polish)
  14. ↑ Cezary Leżeński, Kwatera 139: Opowieść o marszałku Rydzu-Śmigłym , Volume 1–2, ISBN 978-83-222-0551-8 , Wydawn. Lubelskie, 1989 (in Polish)
  15. ↑ Polityka i społeczeństwo , Issue 3-5, Rzeszow University (chair of political science), Wydawn. Uniwersytetu Rzeszowskiego, 2006, p. 210 (in Polish)
  16. ^ Postal indiscretions. The correspondence of Tadeusz Borowski. Ed. Tadeusz Dremnowski. Translated by Alicia Nitecki. Northwestern University Press , Evanston 2007, p. 328