Battle Of Kuryłówka
The Battle of Kuryłówka, fought between the Polish anti-communist resistance organization, National Military Alliance (NZW) and the Soviet Union's NKVD units, took place on May 7, 1945, in the village of Kuryłówka, southeastern Poland. The battle ended in a victory for the underground Polish forces. Background In May 1945 World War II ended in Europe. But as Norman Davies wrote in '' No Simple Victory'', even after Victory Day the war was not completely over: "In all Soviet-occupied countries the NKVD was hunting down a variety of political opponents and freedom fighters (...) Stalin and Stalinism were still in place - unregenerate, as murderous as ever, and victorious". On May 7, a major battle between the Polish anti-communist resistance organization, National Military Alliance (Narodowe Zjednoczenie Wojskowe, NZW) and NKVD units took place in the village of Kuryłówka, located near Leżajsk (Subcarpathian Voivodeship). According to several sources, this was the biggest ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Franciszek Przysiężniak
Franciszek Przysiężniak (nom de guerre "Ojciec Jan", "Father John") (September 22, 1909 in the village of Krupe, near Krasnystaw – September 30, 1975 in Jarosław) - was a lieutenant in the Polish Army, an officer of anti-communist resistance groups National Military Organization (NOW) and National Military Union (NZW). Przysiężniak finished the Volhynian School for Reserve Cadets of Artillery in Włodzimierz Wołyński in 1938. He then began his military service in the 16th Pomeranian Regiment of Light Artillery in Grudziądz. He took part in the Invasion of Poland in 1939, against the Nazi invaders. On September 28, 1939, he was captured by the Germans at Tomaszów Lubelski, but on his way to the POW camp he managed to escape. In 1942 he joined the National Military Organization and was made the commander of its units in the Krasnystaw county. He headed a unit that specialized in diversion and sabotage which later the merger with the Home Army (AK-NOW). Eventually, h ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Home Army
The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) established in the aftermath of the German and Soviet invasions in September 1939. Over the next two years, the Home Army absorbed most of the other Polish partisans and underground forces. Its allegiance was to the Polish government-in-exile in London, and it constituted the armed wing of what came to be known as the Polish Underground State. Estimates of the Home Army's 1944 strength range between 200,000 and 600,000. The latter number made the Home Army not only Poland's largest underground resistance movement but, along with Soviet and Yugoslav partisans, one of Europe's largest World War II underground movements. The Home Army sabotaged German transports bound for the Eastern Front in the Soviet Union, destroying German supplies and ty ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Warszawa
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officially estimated at 1.86 million residents within a greater metropolitan area of 3.1 million residents, which makes Warsaw the 7th most-populous city in the European Union. The city area measures and comprises 18 districts, while the metropolitan area covers . Warsaw is an Alpha global city, a major cultural, political and economic hub, and the country's seat of government. Warsaw traces its origins to a small fishing town in Masovia. The city rose to prominence in the late 16th century, when Sigismund III decided to move the Polish capital and his royal court from Kraków. Warsaw served as the de facto capital of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1795, and subsequently as the seat of Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. The ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier (Warsaw)
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier ( pl, Grób Nieznanego Żołnierza) is a monument in Warsaw, Poland, dedicated to the unknown soldiers who have given their lives for Poland. It is one of many such national tombs of unknowns that were erected after World War I, and the most important such monument in Poland. The monument, located at Piłsudski Square, is the only surviving part of the Saxon Palace that occupied the spot until World War II. Since 2 November 1925 the tomb houses the unidentified body of a young soldier who fell during the Defence of Lwów. Since then, earth from numerous battlefields where Polish soldiers have fought has been added to the urns housed in the surviving pillars of the Saxon Palace. The Tomb is constantly lit by an eternal flame and assisted by a guard post provided by the three companies of the 1st Guards Battalion, Representative Honor Guard Regiment of the Polish Armed Forces. It is there that most official military commemorations take place in P ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Ludowe Wojsko Polskie
The Polish People's Army ( pl, Ludowe Wojsko Polskie , LWP) constituted the second formation of the Polish Armed Forces in the East in 1943–1945, and in 1945–1989 the armed forces of the Polish communist state ( from 1952, the Polish People's Republic), ruled by the Polish Workers' Party and then the Polish United Workers' Party. The communist-led Polish armed forces, allowed and facilitated by Joseph Stalin, were the result of efforts made in the early 1940s in the Soviet Union by Wanda Wasilewska and Zygmunt Berling. The official name of those formations were: ''Armia Polska w ZSRR'' (Polish Army in the USSR) from 1943–1944, ''Wojsko Polskie'' (Polish Troops) and ''Siły Zbrojne Rzeczpospolitej Polskiej'' (Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland) from 1944–1952 and from 1952 ''Siły Zbrojne Polskiej Rzeczypospolitej Ludowej'' (Armed Forces of the Polish People's Republic). On 7 October 1950, the anniversary of the Battle of Lenino was declared the official "Day of th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Biłgoraj
Biłgoraj ( yi, בילגאריי, ''Bilgoray'', ua, Білґорай) is a town in south-eastern Poland with 25,838 inhabitants as of December 2021. Since 1999 it has been situated in Lublin Voivodeship; it was previously located in Zamość Voivodeship (1975–1998). It is located south of Lublin and it is also the capital of Biłgoraj County. Historically, the town belongs to Lesser Poland, and is located in southeastern corner of the province, near the border with another historic land, Red Ruthenia. Biłgoraj is surrounded by a forest, with three rivers flowing through it. Etymology The name of the town probably comes from a hill called Biely Goraj, on which Biłgoraj was founded in the 16th century. Geography Biłgoraj lies in northern part of Sandomierz Basin, near Roztocze. The town is surrounded by Solska Forest, from Roztocze National Park. An average July temperature in Biłgoraj is , an average January temperature . The town is crossed by four small rivers: Biała ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Urząd Bezpieczeństwa
The Ministry of Public Security ( pl, Ministerstwo Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego), commonly known as UB or later SB, was the secret police, intelligence and counter-espionage agency operating in the Polish People's Republic. From 1945 to 1954 it was known as the Department of Security (, UB), and from 1956 to 1990 as the Security Service (, SB). The initial UB was headed by Public Security General Stanisław Radkiewicz and supervised by Jakub Berman of the Polish Politburo. The main goal of the Department of Security was the swift eradication of anti-communist structures and socio-political base of the Polish Underground State, as well as the persecution of former underground soldiers of the Home Army () and later anti-communist organizations like Freedom and Independence (WiN). The Ministry of Public Security was established on 1 January 1945 and ceased operations on 7 December 1954. It was the chief secret service in communist Poland during the period of Stalinism. Throughout ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Narodowe Zjednoczenie Wojskowe
Narodowe Zjednoczenie Wojskowe (National Military Union, NZW) was a Polish anti-Communist organization, founded in November 1944, after collapse of the Warsaw Uprising. It was among the largest and strongest resistance organisations established in the PRL in mid- and late 1940s. The NZW consisted mostly of members of the destroyed Narodowe Siły Zbrojne. NZW's first commander was Colonel Tadeusz Danilewicz, then Colonel Bogusław Banasik. The organisation was organised into sixteen "areas" and was most active in the districts of Białystok, Lublin and Rzeszów. It had several armed units, called Pogotowie Walki Zbrojnej, which fought many skirmishes with both the NKVD and the Soviet Red Army. Its headquarters were destroyed in early spring of 1946, when Stalinist secret police arrested hundreds of its members. However, several units remained active until the mid-1950s. See also * Cursed soldiers The "cursed soldiers" (also known as "doomed soldiers", "accursed soldiers" ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
NIE (resistance)
NIE (; short for ''wikt:niepodległość, niepodległość'' "independence",Jerzy Eisler, ''Zarys dziejów politycznych Polski 1944-1989'', Warszawa 1991 and also meaning "wikt:nie#Polish, no") was a Polish anticommunism, anticommunist resistance organisation formed in 1943. Its main goal was the struggle against the Soviet Union after 1944 (see Occupation of Poland (1939–45), Soviet occupation of Poland). NIE was one of the best hidden structures of Armia Krajowa, active until 7 May 1945. Its commanders were Generals Leopold Okulicki and Emil August Fieldorf. One of the first members of the organisation was Witold Pilecki. Origins of the organization date back to the second half of 1943, when on September 27, the Polish government-in-exile stated that conspirational activities should be maintained during the possible Soviet occupation of the country. Organization, statutes and structure of NIE was created by high-ranking officers of the Home Army, and among those involved were Gen ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Narodowe Siły Zbrojne
National Armed Forces (NSZ; ''Polish:'' Narodowe Siły Zbrojne) was a Polish right-wing underground military organization of the National Democracy operating from 1942. During World War II, NSZ troops fought against Nazi Germany and communist partisans. There were also cases of fights with the Home Army. At the end of the war, some units and structures of this organization cooperated with the Nazis and Gestapo (as in the case of the Holy Cross Mountains Brigade and Hubert Jura) and committed crimes motivated by antisemitism. Most NSZ units did not submit to the Polish government-in-exile and conducted fratricidal fights with other Polish partisan units. From 1944 to 1946, the NSZ fought as part of the anti-communist resistance, including after the postwar Polish People's Republic was established. History The NSZ was created on September 20, 1942, as a result of the merger of the Military Organization Lizard Union (''Organizacja Wojskowa Związek Jaszczurczy'') and part of t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Wolność I Niezawisłość
Freedom and Independence Association ( pl, Zrzeszenie Wolność i Niezawisłość, or WiN) was a Polish underground anticommunist organisation founded on September 2, 1945 and active until 1952. Political goals and realities The main purpose of its activity was to prevent Soviet domination over Poland and to fight communism. Although the pursuit of those goals was supposed to be largely peaceful, the fact of Soviet domination over Poland and the increasingly hostile and provocative behavior of local communists frequently resulted in WiN having its hand forced and in military confrontation. Although the WiN forces were well-armed and highly disciplined, they could not hope to fight a prolonged guerrilla war against the Soviet Red Army and NKVD units, a fact clearly understood by the leadership. Thus, to the extent possible WiN attempted instead to concentrate not on military action but rather on providing assistance (false documents and money) for former soldiers of Home Army, Nation ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Leopold Okulicki
General Leopold Okulicki (noms de guerre ''Kobra'', ''Niedźwiadek''; 1898 – 1946) was a general of the Polish Army and the last commander of the anti-Nazi underground Home Army during World War II. He was arrested after the war by the Soviet NKVD and died while imprisoned at Butyrka prison in Moscow. Life Okulicki was born in November 1898 in Bratucice, Bochnia County in the Austrian section of partitioned Poland (" Galicia"). His exact date of birth is unknown as the birth record was not preserved in Polish archives and Okulicki himself used two dates: 11 November and 13 November. In 1910 he joined a local gymnasium, and after 1913 he was also an active member of the Związek Strzelecki. The following year, at the age of 16, after finishing basic military training, Okulicki passed his NCO exams. After the outbreak of World War I, in October 1915, he left school and volunteered for the Polish Legions, where he served with distinction in the 3rd Legions Infantry Reg ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |