ZOLNIERZE WYKLECI Freedom Fighters Instytut Pamieci Narodowej

Atlas polskiego podziemia niepodległościowego 1944-1956/The atlas of the independence underground in Poland 1944-1956, by Instytut Pamięci Narodowej (Contributor). 2007

The Zolnierze Wykleci: A Superb, Very Detailed Atlas and Compendium of Polish Guerrilla Action Against the Soviet-Imposed Communist Puppet Government

THE ATLAS OF THE INDEPENDENCE UNDERGROUND IN POLAND 1944-1956 is the title of this Polish-language work. It also contains substantial English-language sections (pp. XXXIX-LVI, LXVIII-LXXVII, and LXXXIII-LXXXVI).

This oversize atlas (approximately 33 cm by 25 cm by 5 cm) is packed with every imaginable detail relevant to the Soviet imposition of the Communist puppet state upon Poland. There are individual and group photos of soldiers as well as photos of memorabilia, political cartoons, propaganda posters of both sides, messages that had been typed by Communist officials and Underground commanders, etc. There even is a handwritten letter, to Kremlin stooge Communist President Boleslaw Bierut, begging for the life of a woman’s captured husband. It includes a photo of their two young sons. (p. 396).

The editors, Slawomir Poleszak and Rafal Wnuk, provide a variety of introductory information. For instance, according to Communist sources, some 60% of the anti-Communist Underground came out in the open in the so-called amnesty of February 1947. (p. XLIX).

DIRECT SOVIET RULE TRANFERRED TO POLISH COMMUNIST SATRAPS

Polish Communist rule in post-WWII Poland was not only imposed by the USSR: It flowed directly and seamlessly from Soviet power. What took place was, first and foremost, less a Pole-on-Pole war, and more a Polish-Soviet war. The editors, Slawomir Poleszak and Rafal Wnuk, make all this very clear. They comment, (quote) There is no doubt that without the presence of the Red Army and NKVD, [the] Communists would not have seized and maintained the power. The statement that the Soviets helped Polish Communists to gain power in 1944 reflects the state of affairs in a superficial way only. It would be closer to the truth to say that Polish Communists took the power over of Stalin s volition. The Soviets did not help the PPR fight for the power but they passed that power to administer the territories occupied by the Red Army to Polish Communists& Local Communists played a role of the executors of Kremlin orders and they were not partners of the Soviet Union even for a short moment. Thus, one cannot talk about the civil war, during which one party gets external help& The real part to the conflict was the Soviet Union, not the PPR or the  people s Poland. (unquote)(p. LII).

However, the vast majority of those killed were Poles, so the conflict was definitely of a fratricidal character. Relatively few Soviets died during the forced Communization of Poland. (p. LII).

MAIN FEATURES OF THE ATLAS

This exhaustive work emphasizes regional maps. There are 47 of them, and they are at a scale near or at 1:1,500,000. [This scale corresponds to a scale of 1 inch to 23.7 miles, or 1 cm to 15 km.] These 47 regional maps show the locations of Polish guerrilla combat encounters with the Communist security forces. These regional maps cover the following parts of Poland: Kresy (specifically Wilno/Vilnius area, Polesie, and eastern Galicia) and Poland in her forced post-Yalta borders (specifically Bialystok, Lublin, Rzeszow, Olsztyn, Kielce, Katowice, Krakow, Warsaw, Poznan, and Bydgoszcz).

The locations on each of the 47 regional maps are numbered. Each regional map has a facing page that uses the numbers on the map to describe the combat encounter in a short paragraph.

The 47 regional maps make the following obvious: Most of the Polish guerrilla attacks on the forces of Communist repression, the M.O. (MILICJA OBYWATELSKA) and the U. B. (BEZPIEKA), took place at the sites of their police stations and bases. In fact, by April 1947, there had been 1,300 successful attacks on MO stations by the ZOLNIERZE WYKLECI. (p. XLVI).

The atlas also contains several maps, of all of Poland west of the Curzon line, that show the sites of the military encounters, and which are apportioned to five time intervals (covering 1944-1956) of post-WWII Poland (p. 524). It is easy to see that the majority of the combat encounters took place in the eastern half of Poland as defined by her 1945 borders.

A series of all-Poland maps (pp. 522-523) show the numbers of guerrilla units apportioned according to region of Poland and interval of time. An all-Poland map (p. 13) shows the maximal extent (1944-1945) of the deployment of the NSZ (NARODOWE SILY ZBROJNE), while another all-Poland map (p. 17) shows the maximal extent (1948-1949) of the SN (STRONICTWO NARODOWE).

Data is also provided on the Polish guerilla units that operated in the Soviet-annexed Kresy, and it is instructive. There were over 1,700 armed divisions operating in the latter part of 1944. In 1950-1953, after years of savage Soviet repression, 100 of them were still in action. (p. 523).

EASTERN GALICIA AND WOLYNIA

This work is unusual in that it provides significant details about the A. K. (ARMIA KRAJOWA) and NIE (NIEPODLEGLOSC) in this part of the Kresy. Maps (p. 59, 61) show the OBWODY INSPEKTORATU of these Polish guerrilla organizations in the areas of Lwow, Stanislawow, Kolomyja, Stryj, Czortkow, Brzezany, Tarnopol, Zloczow, Kowel, Luck (Lutsk), Rowne, Dubno, and Sarny.

During late 1943 and early 1944, there were about 28,000 AK/NIE partisans active in eastern Galicia. Of these, some 12,000 were in the Lwow area, another 12,000 in the Tarnopol area, and 4,000 in the Stanislawow area. (p. 58). In Volyn (Wolyn), parts of the 27th Wolynian Division of the A. K. functioned through March 1945. (p. 63).

POLITICAL CARTOONS, BULLETINS, AND BROCHURES

One of the cartoons makes an ironic joke about what Communism is doing to Poland. The verses rhyme in Polish, and are hilarious. (p. 294). The author quips that, while the sausage and bacon go to Stalin, the Poles are left with bones and tripe to eat. The author portrays himself a poor donkey who is about to be locked up in a kolkhoz (collective farm).

A bulletin, the ORZEL BIALY, is titled, “What we are fighting for.” (p. 450). It advocates genuine independence for Poland, guarantee of her western borders and the re-acquisition of the Soviet-confiscated Kresy, and that social reforms be conducted in a Christian manner. A brochure (p. 518) warns that the nationalization of the means of production will lead to the servitude of the peasant, as had existed under serfdom.