Provisional Polish Revolutionary Committee ( pl, Tymczasowy Komitet Rewolucyjny Polski, Polrewkom; russian: Польревком) (July–August 1920) was a revolutionary committee created under the patronage of Soviet Russia with the goal to establish a Soviet republic within Poland, or a

Polish Soviet Socialist Republic The Polish Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated to Polish SSR, was a proposition by the Provisional Polish Revolutionary Committee to establish a Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republic of the Soviet Union for the Poles, Polish popula ...

constituent in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

History

Polrevkom was created on 23 July 1920, in Moscow by the Polish Bureau of Bolsheviks, with chairman Julian Marchlewski. The decision was made during the initial successes of the Red Army during the Polish-Soviet War with the goal of providing administration of the Polish territories. The committee was declared "provisional", because it was assumed that after a Soviet victory the power would be transferred to the

Polish Communist Workers' Party The interwar Communist Party of Poland ( pl, Komunistyczna Partia Polski, KPP) was a communist party active in Poland during the Second Polish Republic. It resulted from a December 1918 merger of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland a ...

. The Polrevkom was assembled on 24 July in Smolensk, with its headquarters in an

armored train An armoured train is a railway train protected with armour. Armoured trains usually include railway wagons armed with artillery, machine guns and autocannons. Some also had slits used to fire small arms from the inside of the train, a facilit ...

, which quickly proceeded to Minsk (25 July), Wilno (27 July), and arrived to

Białystok Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area. Białystok is located in the Białystok Up ...

on 30 July 1920. It set up permanent headquarters in the Branicki Palace and issued public proclamations. For their efforts they received from Moscow over 2 billion rubles. It is seen, like many other Bolshevik revolutionary committees, as a Bolshevik puppet government. Evan Mawdsley, ''The Russian Civil War'', Pegasus Books, 2007
Google Print, p.255
/ref> The committee consisted of the following members: * Julian Baltazar Marchlewski (Chairman) * Feliks Dzierzynski (de facto leader) * Feliks Kon (Education) * Edward Próchniak (Secretary) * Józef Unszlicht (Party) * Bernard Zaks (Industry) *

Stanisław Bobiński Stanisław Feliks Bobiński (; russian: Станислав Янович Бобинский; 20 November 1882 – 20 September 1937) was a Soviet communist politician, journalist and military commander of Polish origin. Early years Born Novembe ...

(Agriculture) * Tadeusz Radwański (Propaganda) The Polrevkom activity was related to the North-Western Front of the Red Army. The South-Western front of the Red Army supported a similar Galician Revolutionary Committee (''Galrevkom''), seated in

Tarnopol Ternópil ( uk, Тернопіль, Ternopil' ; pl, Tarnopol; yi, טאַרנאָפּל, Tarnopl, or ; he, טארנופול (טַרְנוֹפּוֹל), Tarnopol; german: Tarnopol) is a city in the west of Ukraine. Administratively, Ternopi ...

in Eastern

Galicia Galicia may refer to: Geographic regions * Galicia (Spain), a region and autonomous community of northwestern Spain ** Gallaecia, a Roman province ** The post-Roman Kingdom of the Suebi, also called the Kingdom of Gallaecia ** The medieval King ...

. The TKRP was met with relative enthusiasm in Białystok which had about 75% Jewish and working class majority. However, as the Red Army moved on towards Warsaw, it and Polrewkom had little support from the Polish population.

Ronald Grigor Suny Ronald Grigor Suny (born September 25, 1940) is an American historian and political scientist. Suny is the William H. Sewell Jr. Distinguished University Professor of History at the University of Michigan and served as director of the Eisenberg In ...

, ''The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR, and the Successor States'', Oxford University Press,
Google Print, p.106
/ref> On 22 August 1920 the Polrevkom moved out of Białystok to Minsk with the defeat of the Red Army, and was dissolved soon afterwards. A significant number of the key persons involved were later instrumental in creation of the

Polish Autonomous District Polish National Districts (called in Russian "полрайоны", ''polrajony'', an abbreviation for "польские национальные районы", "Polish national raions") were in the interbellum period possessing some form of a na ...

within the Soviet Union.

Notes

References

Davies, Norman Ivor Norman Richard Davies (born 8 June 1939) is a Welsh-Polish historian, known for his publications on the history of Europe, Poland and the United Kingdom. He has a special interest in Central and Eastern Europe and is UNESCO Professor at ...

, ''White Eagle, Red Star: the Polish-Soviet War, 1919-20'', Pimlico, 2003, . (First edition: St. Martin's Press, inc., New York, 1972) * {{Authority control Polish–Soviet War

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

Poland–Soviet Union relations Provisional governments

Communism in Poland