History 24/03/20 Why Stalin refused to help the uprising in Warsaw in 1944
September 27, 1939, was created by an underground “Service to Poland’s victory”, the goals of which was to fight against German and Soviet occupation and the restoration of an independent Polish state. It served as a basis for guerrilla armed groups, named in 1942, the home Army (AK) and subject to the emigre Polish government in London.
the Main tasks of the AK was the creation of a network of underground organizations and combat units, their weapons and preparing for a national uprising. Subject to the strategy of economy of forces until the decisive moment, the AK command did not encourage the immediate deployment of large-scale guerrilla warfare, allowing a single action against the occupiers: attacks on individual military units and the plundering military depots, killing officials of the occupation administration, the terrorist attacks against the Wehrmacht, sabotage in transportation, sabotage in the factories. AK also actively supplying intelligence information to the British.
the Polish underground after September 1939 were also in Western Ukraine and Western Belarus. After the occupation by German troops in the summer of 1941 there began a rivalry between the Polish and Soviet partisans, sometimes degenerating into armed struggle. AK led the fighting against the Ukrainian insurgent army (UPA)* Stepan Bandera.
at One time there was hope for peaceful relations between Soviet and Polish partisans. In July 1941, Stalin had recognized the Polish government in exile and concluded with him a Treaty by which they promised after the war to restore Poland within the borders before September 1, 1939, However, after in April 1943, the government demanded the investigation of mass executions of Polish POWs at Katyn, Stalin broke off relations with him.
In June 1943 CentralNY headquarters of the partisan movement in Moscow was sent to the partisans in Belarus Directive prescribing to eliminate the leaders of the Polish non-Communist underground, to disarm the part of AK, and where this is not possible, to introduce their people in army units, decomposing them from the inside, strongly contribute to the displacement of parts of the AK from Soviet territory. Between Soviet and Polish partisans turned armed clashes. According to historians, in Nowogrodzka AK military district in Western Belarus from 1942 to mid-1944, 45% of all military operations AK was sent against Soviet partisans. The members of those and other armed groups are also actively took revenge on the locals for supporting the “wrong” partisans.
in the Fall of 1943 it became clear that the Red army will soon enter the territory, which before the war was Polish. Emigrant government in this regard, ordered the AK to be ready for armed resistance to the attempts of the Soviet authorities to disarm it. However, I gave orders for holding the parts of the AK operation Storm. As Soviet forces approached, they had to come out of hiding to destroy the retreating German troops and to establish control over the territory that the Soviet troops had to deal already with the districts, has its own government and armed forces.
In late 1943, a separate AK commanders in the field began to engage in tactical agreement with the German administration, which the latter did not interfere with the action of AK against the Soviet partisans. However, cases such agreements remained single, and they were made without the knowledge of the emigre government and the high command of the AK. In turn, the Soviet partisans intensified their operations against AK. In February 1944 the red army occupied part of Polish territory (up to 1939) in Volhynia, where the SMERSH started to liquidate the Polish underground.
When the summer of 1944, Soviet troops launched a major offensive in Belarus, Polish the government in London July 4, issued a Directive instructing commanders of AK to provide armed assistance to the advancing Soviet troops. Part of AK with Soviet captured Vilnius on July 13. However, immediately after such joint actions of the Soviet authorities started to disarm and arrest the fighters of the AK. In response, it began guerrilla warfare against the red army. In some areas of Western Belarus they lasted a few years after the war.
on 1 August 1944 the Warsaw uprising broke out, AK prepared together with Pro-Army Nation. The relationship between the two major units of the Polish Resistance were built differently: joint action against the Germans to armed clashes with each other. However, at this time, the Soviet leadership ordered the soldiers of the Army Ludovit take part in the uprising. But the leadership in this source was in the hands of the AK, and its meaning was clear to Stalin – to put the Soviet Union before the fact of the presence in Warsaw of the Polish government, oriented to the West.
In the foreign historiography is dominated by the view that Stalin specifically did not help the Warsaw insurgents and not allowed to do the British and Americans. Soviet troops in early August, suddenly stopped the attack, being less than 100 km from Warsaw. At this time the Germans before Warsaw had few troops. The pause in the Soviet offensive, according to the West and in Poland, allowed the Germans to concentrate forces for its reflection, and also to suppress the uprising. Only 9 September Stalin had permitted British and American aircraft drop weapons to the rebels, to sit down and refuel at Soviet airfields.
Stalin was led to justify their positions such arguments. A revolt in such conditions is a crime against the people. From this it followed, it turns out that the rebellion can’t be helped, and then the Germans to suppress it. Aid to the rebels from the air, according to him, was ineffective. But thishave contradicted his own statement that Soviet troops already have rebels such assistance, so the allied aircraft, they say, are unnecessary. 2 October 1944 the Warsaw uprising was finally crushed by the Germans.
22 Jul 1944 occupied by Soviet troops on Polish territory in the city of Kholm was created by the Communist government of liberated Poland. In early 1945, a decision was made about its reorganization on the basis of a coalition with other parties, including represented in the emigrant government. At the time of the action of AK against the red army was quiet, however, with the strengthening of Pro-Soviet forces in Poland and the deployment of repression against members of the AK they were resumed and continued for some time even after the end of world war II.
* UPA – banned organization in Russia
Yaroslav Butakov
Source:
© Russian Seven
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