Army of General Anders. The hardships that accompanied the formation of the Polish army
The famous Polish general was born on August 11, 1892 in the family of a German nobleman, whose ancestors settled in the Commonwealth several centuries ago. Vladislav finished high school in Warsaw and wanted to become an engineer. However, his dream did not come true. In 1913, having barely received a diploma from the Polytechnic Institute in Rudza, he was drafted into the Russian army. First World War found Anders at the cavalry school for reserve officers. Having received the rank of lieutenant, he was sent to the dragoon regiment. 1914 was a turning point in the life of Vladislav Anders. To the surprise of those around him, the graduate engineer showed extraordinary abilities for military affairs, which, coupled with amazing courage, determined his future fate. Soon Anders was already in command of a squadron and had three wounds received in dashing cavalry attacks. At the beginning of 1917, the young officer was sent to the Academy General Staff in Petrograd, after graduation accelerated course which he was promoted to the rank of captain.
In the Russian army
After the February Revolution, the provisional government declared the independence of Poland, whose territory was completely occupied by German and Austrian troops. Trying to play the Polish card, Kornilov in July 1917 ordered the commander of the Western Front, Denikin, to form a corps from the Poles, headed by Lieutenant General Jozef Dovbor-Musnitsky. By that time, the Americans in France were trying to form the Polish army, and the Austrians and Germans on the Eastern Front. In August, Dovbor-Musnitsky became the head of the 1st Polish Corps stationed in Eastern Belarus. Parts of the Polish legionnaires did not succumb to the general decay that engulfed the Russian army, and as a result turned out to be Denikin's only combat-ready unit. Captain Anders arrived at Dovbor-Musnitsky directly from the Academy and took part in the creation of the 1st Lancers Regiment. Having successfully completed this task, he was appointed chief of staff of the 1st Polish division. When the Bolsheviks came to power in Petrograd, the 25,000th Polish corps had 3 infantry divisions (12 regiments), 3 cavalry regiments and heavy artillery. General Dovbor-Musnitsky refused to obey Lenin's orders and on January 12, 1918 declared war on Soviet Russia. The next day, Anders' division occupied Rogachev. Soon the Polish legionnaires captured Bobruisk, Mogilev and Minsk. But, the offensive of the Poles was stopped by the Red Guards under the command of Vatsetis. On January 31, the 1st Polish division was driven out of Rogachev. By order of Dovbor-Musnitsky, the remnants of the division began to retreat to Bobruisk, where a month later they surrendered to the Germans, who, under the terms of the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty, occupied Belarus.
After the disbandment of the 1st Polish Corps in May 1918, Anders, together with Dovbor-Musnitsky, returned to Poland, where in January 19, already with the rank of lieutenant colonel, he became chief of staff of the Greater Poland Army formed by the general in the Poznan region. Dovbor-Musnitsky supported the demand of the population of Poznan to join the newly created Polish Republic. The troops subordinated to him began fighting against the German army, which continued until February 16, when the Wielkopolska lands liberated from the Germans officially came under the rule of Warsaw. After this, the units of Jozef Dovbor-Musnitsky joined the Polish army. In April 1919, Vladislav Anders received an order to form the 15th Poznań Lancers, at the head of which he took part in the Soviet-Polish war.
General Dovbor-Musnitsky with his staff, 1918
After the defeat of the Red Army and the signing of the Treaty of Riga, which assigned to Poland the entire Vilna region, half of Belarus and part of Western Ukraine, Lieutenant Colonel Anders was sent to study in Paris. The French, who actively helped the Poles to fight the Bolsheviks, after the end of the war, took up the organization and arming of the army of the young state. In 1923, Anders returned from France and enrolled in courses for senior officers in Warsaw. Having received a doctorate in military sciences and the rank of colonel, in 1925 Vladislav Anders again visited France. At the equestrian competitions in Nice, he led the Polish team that won the Nations Cup.
Anders' career took a sharp turn in the year. On November 25, he became the military commander of Warsaw. On May 12, 1926, when Piłsudski raised an anti-government rebellion, Anders headed the headquarters of General Rozwadski, whose troops opposed the putschists. Street fighting began in Warsaw, and by the end of May 13, Anders managed to push the enemy back. But, the railroad strike organized by the communists did not allow troops loyal to the government to be transferred to the capital. On May 14, under the threat of the outbreak of civil war, the government resigned. Half a month later, Professor Mościcki, a protege of Piłsudski, became president of Poland, and a "sanation" regime was established in the country.
For organizing resistance to the putschists, Colonel Anders was transferred to the post of chief of staff of the inspector general of the cavalry, and then completely sent to the troops. In 1928, he was appointed commander of the Volyn Cavalry Brigade, where he served for almost ten years. But, the new government could not forget the street fighting in the capital, when the colonel almost thwarted all the plans of the “reorganization” supporters. Vladislav Anders was accused several times of wasting state fodder on his own horses, until finally the court of the Lvov Military District in 1937 transferred him to the post of commander of the Novogrudok cavalry brigade. However, Anders was not left alone there either. The court of honor in Warsaw opened a new case against him, which threatened the colonel with dismissal from the army. Proceedings continued until the very beginning of the war, when german army quickly "reconciled" opponents and supporters of "reorganization".
Commander of the Novogrudok Cavalry Brigade
In the face of a military threat, on March 23, 1929, the War Department announced a partial mobilization. The fully mobilized Anders brigade was redeployed from Western Belarus to northern Poland. According to the operational plan "Zachod" ("West"), the Novogrudok Cavalry Brigade was part of the Modlin Army under the command of General of the Brigade Emil Karol Predrimirsky-Krukovich. This group, the thunder of Novogrudok, which included the Mazovian Cavalry Brigade, the 8th and 20th Infantry Divisions, was supposed to cover the border of Poland with East Prussia north of Plock and Modlin. Early in the morning of September 1, units of the 3rd Army of Kühler crossed the Polish border in the area where General Predrimirsky-Krukovich was located and attacked in the direction of the city of Mlawa. The German Panzer Division "Kempf" hit the orders of the 20th Infantry Division, but met with fierce resistance from the Poles. Having lost 21 tanks, the Germans retreated and regrouped their forces. Now the tip of the tank wedge bit into the eastern flank of the Modlin army, which was defended by the Mazovian brigade. On the first day of the combat brigade Anders, located on the western flank of the army, almost did not take part in major battles, since the enemy was advancing to the east. The next day, after a massive artillery barrage, the Germans again attacked the Modlin army. The battle near Mlava flared up with renewed vigor. By September 4, the army of General Predrimirsky was on the verge of disaster. After three days of bloody battles with superior enemy forces, the 20th and 8th divisions practically ceased to exist. On the corpses of Polish soldiers, German tanks broke into Mlawa, and the fairly battered Novogrudok brigade, united with the remnants of two divisions in the Anders task force, began to retreat to Plock. By order of the command, the Modlin army was to take up defense at the Vistula-Narew line and cover Warsaw from the north. Anders' group was located in the area of Plock and Modlin, but the enemy attacked the Poles to the east, where the Vyshkow and Narev task forces managed to gain a foothold. It was here that the German 3rd Army decided to bypass the capital in order to subsequently close the encirclement around it. The offensive began on September 7, and three days later the troops of General Anders were transferred near Minsk-Mazowiecki to the southeast of Warsaw. There, now General Vladislav Anders, who, as a reinforcement, received everything that was left of the Volyn Cavalry Division under his command, had to defend the Vistula south of the capital, preventing the Wehrmacht from completing the encirclement. On September 13, Guderian broke through the Poles' defense line at Minsk-Mazowiecki and bypassed the capital from the west. Warsaw was completely surrounded two days later. After the defeat near Warsaw, Anders' group began to retreat to Lvov, where the Poles were to be given one of last battles in this company. On September 16, the remnants of the Krakow and Lublin armies under the command of General of Division Tadeusz Piskor also began to retreat to the Lviv region, where General Sosnowski tried to create a new line of defense. The command expected to gain a foothold in the eastern regions of Poland and continue to resist the aggressor. The next day, all these plans were buried by the Red Army's invasion of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. When Piskora concentrated his forces in the Krasnobrody area, his troops were unexpectedly attacked by the 22nd Panzer Corps of the 14th Army of General von List. Soon, the Poles were surrounded north of Tomaszow-Lubelski, and on September 20, General Piskor, along with 11 thousand of his soldiers and officers, capitulated. Division General Stefan Deb-Bernatsky, commander of the army group, the backbone of which was the remnants of the Prussian army, not knowing about Piskor's surrender, tried to unblock the boiler near Tomaszow Lubelski. The general wanted to save his comrades in arms and go with them to Hungary. He divided all the forces at his disposal into two groups. General Predrimirsky led the 1st, 41st Infantry Divisions, Volkowski and Mazovian Cavalry Brigades, which were supposed to hit Tomaszow. General Krushevsky, whose target was Krasnobrody, received under his command the 10th, 39th divisions. The group of Vladislav Anders, reinforced by the Kresovskaya cavalry brigade, was supposed to act independently in the direction of Stanislavov, Josefov and Sopotskovo.
On September 22, the troops of Deb-Bernatsky went on the offensive, doomed to failure in advance - they were met by the tank units of the Wehrmacht, released after the fall of Lvov and the surrender of Tadeusz Piskor's group. On September 23, the Deb-Bernatsky group was surrounded by German and Soviet troops. The next day, General Vladislav Anders gathered everything that was left of the Novogrudok, Kresovskaya, Mazovetskaya and Vilna cavalry brigades and began to make his way through the locations of the Red Army and the Wehrmacht to the Hungarian border. On September 29, Anders was seriously wounded in a battle with Red Army units and was taken prisoner. First, he was placed in a military hospital in Lvov, and when Anders' health improved a little, he was transferred to the inner prison of the NKVD in Lubyanka.
After the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR, Stalin dramatically changed his attitude towards the Poles. July 30, 1941 soviet ambassador Maysky and Vladislav Sikorsky signed a cooperation agreement in London. In the secret protocol to the treaties, it was stipulated that Soviet Union grants amnesty to all Polish citizens who find themselves on its territory. A few days later, Anders, like thousands of other Polish prisoners of war, was released. On August 4, Vladislav Anders received the rank of division general and was appointed commander of the Polish armed forces in the USSR. He was fluent in Russian and was considered a specialist in Russia, therefore, in the opinion of the London government in exile, there was no better candidate for this position. In accordance with the concluded Soviet-Polish military agreement, only land military units were formed on the territory of the USSR. The pilots and sailors released from captivity were transported to Great Britain, where they were supposed to join the Polish units created by the emigrant government. Servicemen from the Polish armed forces formed in the USSR swore allegiance to the Sikorsky government and, at the end of the war, had the right to freely return to their homeland.
Signing of the Soviet-Polish treaty, 1941
The first stumbling block was the question of the size of the Polish army in the USSR. According to the data of the government in exile, there were 1,250,000 Polish citizens on the territory of the Soviet Union, who were deported to Siberia and the Urals in 1940, including 180,000 prisoners of war captured in August 1939, and 150,000 Poles called up to the Red Army. However, the Kremlin acknowledged the presence of only 20,000 prisoners. Therefore, after some discussions at a meeting at the General Staff of the Red Army, it was decided to form only two Polish infantry divisions and one reserve regiment. In Totsk, the 6th Infantry Division was formed under the command of General of the Brigade Karashevich-Tokarevsky. General Borut-Spikhovich was given command of the 5th division, which was stationed at Tatishchev, northwest of Saratov. Soon the total number of Anders' army reached 40 thousand people.
On December 3, 1941, General Sikorsky arrived in Moscow. On the same day, he, along with Anders and the Polish ambassador Kot, met with Stalin. Despite a significant thaw in relations, the Polish government in exile had many complaints against the Kremlin. Although all Poles were officially amnestied, many of the mines were still kept in concentration camps and places of forced settlement, preventing them from reaching the place where Anders' army was formed. In addition, thousands of Polish officers disappeared without a trace. Soviet captivity. During the negotiations, Stalin agreed to release the remaining imprisoned Polish citizens, but this only applied to ethnic Poles. The Kremlin said that the Ukrainians, Belarusians and Jews who lived in the Commonwealth, immediately after the "reunification" automatically became Soviet subjects, so he is free to do whatever he wants with them. When Vladislav Sikorsky asked where thousands of officers had gone, Stalin answered without batting an eyelid that they fled the USSR through Manchuria. Outraged, Anders declared that this was impossible, but the Soviet leadership continued to insist on its own.
Six months later, in the summer of 1942, during the construction of a bunker for Hitler near Smolensk, the Germans discovered the places of mass executions by the NVKD of “escaped” Polish soldiers On April 13, 1943, the German radio would notify the world community about the terrible find in the Katyn Forest, and their fate ceased to be a secret for Sikorsky and Anders. In the meantime, the Poles demanded that the USSR return the officers according to the lists transferred to Moscow. The Soviet government denied responsibility for this barbaric act for decades. Trying to cover up the traces of the crime, in 1959 the chairman of the KGB of the USSR Shelepin ordered the destruction of all records of more than 20 thousand Polish officers who were shot by the decision of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in April 40th. Only in the early 90s, Russia officially recognized that this execution was the work of the NKVD.
At the Sikorsky-Stalin negotiations, the Polish side managed to more than double Anders' army. Another 4 divisions were created, which were to be armed by England and the USA. However, the Soviet government did not agree to hand over the Belarusians and Ukrainians to Anders. In addition, the authorities in every possible way interfere with the recruitment of Poles into the army. At the same time, Stalin increasingly insistently asked the general to allow the use of his divisions on the Soviet-German front. But Vladislav Anders did not want to fight with the Red Army and obey the orders of the Soviet command. A significant role here was played by the years spent by the general in the Lubyanka prison, and thousands of Polish officers who disappeared without a trace in the Russian expanses. As a result, it was decided that the Polish units would leave the territory of the USSR and unite with British troops in the Middle East. On January 13, 1942, Anders' army began to redeploy to Central Asia.
When Moscow realized that it would not succeed in using the Poles, the position of General Anders' troops deteriorated significantly. Difficulties began with the supply of food and medicine, which immediately caused an increase in diseases.
Sikorsky inspecting the Polish units of Andres in the winter of 1941
On March 8, General Vladislav Anders arrived at the Kremlin, where last time met with Stalin. Moscow allowed the evacuation of the Polish army to Iran to begin. At the time of Krasnovodsk, an evacuation point was created on the shores of the Caspian Sea, which on March 24 received the first soldiers of the Anders army. Within 4 months, 77,000 Polish military personnel and 35,000 civilians were transported to the Iranian city of Pahlavi on the other side of the sea. On August 1, 1942, the evacuation ended.
On August 12, Sikorsky issued a regulation on the Polish Army in the East (APW - "Armia Polska na Wschodzie"), of which General Anders was appointed commander. Forces subordinate to him, stationed in Iraq 140 kilometers northeast of Baghdad, consisted of the 3rd, 5th, 6th and 7th Infantry Divisions, tank brigade and the 12th Lancers. These units, located in training camps, underwent intensive combat training under the supervision of British military advisers. Soon, the 3rd division of the Carpathian riflemen of General Kopansky, as the most combat-ready formation of the APV, on the orders of Auchinleck, was pulled up to the Turkish border in the area of the city of Mosul.
Anders Army in Iraq
On July 21, 1943, the new president of the Polish government in exile, General Sosnowski, transformed the APW into the 2nd Polish Corps. The commander of the new formation, which included the 3rd division of the Carpathian riflemen (General Bronislav Bukh), the 5th Kresovskaya infantry division (General Nikodem Sulik), the 2nd Warsaw tank brigade (General Bronislav Rakovsky), the artillery corps (General Roman Odzerinsky ) and the 12th Podolsk Lancers Regiment, Vladislav Anders was appointed. The allied command decided to use his corps in the battles for Italy.
On December 15, 1943, the first 8,000 soldiers of the 2nd Polish Corps landed in Taranto in southern Italy, and before the beginning of April the entire corps was transferred to the Apennine Peninsula. The 2nd Polish Corps received its baptism of fire during the assault on the "Gustav Line" - the German defensive fortifications that protected the southern approaches to Rome. In March, Kesselring's troops successfully defeated an attempt to break through the defensive line in the Monte Cassino area and stopped the advance of the Anglo-American troops deep into the peninsula.
The command of the 8th British Army instructed General Anders to storm the positions of the Germans in the central part of the fortifications created on the tops of Monte Cairo, Monte Cassino, where the medieval monastery was located, and Colle St. Angelo. On the night of May 12, with the support of British and American artillery, the 5th Kresovskaya Infantry Division and the 3rd Division of the Carpathian Riflemen began to climb the mountain range. Parts of the 10th Wehrmacht Army, entrenched in the mountains, met the Poles with heavy fire. But, Anders' soldiers were able to get closer to the enemy's positions, and in the predawn twilight a bloody battle ensued. After years of waiting, the Poles finally got the opportunity to avenge August 39th. Vladislav Anders managed to tie up the Wehrmacht forces, which allowed the 13th British Corps to advance along the Rapido River deep into the enemy positions. On May 18, units of the 5th Kresovskaya Division captured the enemy bunkers at Colle Saint Angelo and a few hours later joined the forward detachments of the 3rd Division. The next morning, Cassino was taken. Polish soldiers solemnly hoisted a white and red flag over the ruins of the monastery. The road to Rome was open.
Anders near Monte Cassino
After the victory at Monte Cassino, the 2nd Polish corps was transferred to the Adriatic front, where it began to move north along the coast. Anders' corps ended the war on April 21, 1945 in Bologna. During the fighting, his losses in killed amounted to 174 officers and 2023 soldiers. Back in February 1945, the general became commander in chief of the Polish armed forces in the West. Anders could no longer do anything for Poland, but he managed to save 200 thousand of his subordinates from repatriation to their homeland. The communists stripped Anders of his Polish citizenship.
On May 12, 1970, Vladislav Anders died in a London clinic. According to the will, the general was buried in the military cemetery in Monte Cassino next to his soldiers who died in May 44th.
Polish military cemetery at Monte Cassino
“Who can resist in an unequal dispute: Puffy Lyakh, or faithful Russian?”
In order to feel what was going on in the brains of the current "legend" of Poland, General W. Anders, let's start with an episode that happened three months before the meeting.
In September 1939, he was captured by the Soviets, cured, released in September 1941, and chosen to command the emerging Polish military units. They sewed a general's uniform. Dressed. And it began.
Stanislav Kunyaev in the book "The Gentry and Us" writes:
“... The general was the first to give his entourage an example of gentry behavior. The writer and journalist Alexander Krivitsky, a friend of Konstantin Simonov, who interviewed Anders in December 1941 at the Moskva Hotel, recalls:
“General Anders stood in front of me at full height already in a jacket, fastening his waist belt and adjusting his shoulder belt. He fastened his saber with an intricately decorated hilt at his left hip - probably he was going to some kind of reception. He was bursting with self-satisfaction.
- While the Russian is fumbling with a holster and pulling out a pistol, the Pole will pull the blade out of its sheath and ... j-i-ik! - Anders picturesquely showed in the air how easily and quickly he will cope with the saber and the enemy.
- But sir general- I said as calmly as possible, - despite such an advantage of yours, we have been fighting for a long time, and you still keep your sword in the scabbard, - he threw a glance at me, from a series of those that should kill».»
In a Russian person, such behavior will cause a smile, but the Poles are not like that: Anders quite seriously decided to circle Joseph Vissarionovich around his finger.
“... December 1941 is coming.
Anders understands that the fate of the future Polish Army and its fate depend on Stalin. He does not want the Poles to fight on the Eastern Front side by side with the Soviet units, his secret dream is to gather all the Poles from the Soviet camps as soon as possible, save them as much as possible from domestic and food troubles in a foreign land and somehow get Stalin that they be given the opportunity (incredible in a bleeding country!) to evacuate to Central Asia, and from there to the Middle East under the command of the British, closer to Europe, to London, where the Polish government sits in exile. Deep down he is horrified that the Poles will have to fight grueling battles with the Germans in Russia, but at the same time he needs to convince Stalin that the Poles are brave warriors, that they are ready to fight for their native Poland, not sparing their lives.
Both generals pour out belligerent phrases, thinking that Marshal Stalin will take their words at face value.
« We all, without exception, love our Fatherland and want to enter it first, we want to go into battle as soon as possible."(Anders). " We want our blow to be strong. Only then will we achieve our goal - we will raise morale not only among our soldiers, but above all in Poland. Perhaps we will be able to form part of the army in Iran, and then it, together with those units that remain in the USSR, will go to the front"(Anders).
General Sikorsky echoed him:
« I propose the withdrawal of the entire army and the entire manpower reserve to Iran, where the climate, and also, no doubt, the American-British assistance provided to us, will probably give people for a short time come to our senses and we will form a strong army. This army will then return here to the front to take its place on it. This is agreed with Churchill. For my part, I am ready to officially announce that the army will return to the Russian front and that it can be reinforced by several British divisions.».
That's how two Polish talkers chattered, not realizing that Stalin sees their two-hearted game.
The Soviet leader immediately realizes how the Poles yearn to “go into battle as soon as possible” and “enter” Poland “first”, and immediately makes it clear to the Polish rhetoricians that he understood their pitiful diplomatic game - and his answer to the Poles reminds us of the dialogues of Shakespearean tragedies :
« I am an experienced and old person. I know that if you go to Iran, you will never come back here. I see England has a lot of work to do and needs Polish soldiers.».Anders begins to bargain - he asks for an increase in the number of rations for the Poles, he asks for weapons, transport, uniforms, but it is already clear to Stalin that Anders wants to enter Poland, liberated by proxy, as her "liberator". And the general himself in his memoirs does not hide the fact that he wanted to circle Stalin around his finger:
« Offensive in Europe- Anders thought, talking with Stalin, - should go through the Balkans, which would be most pleasant for Poland, because at the time of the defeat of the Germans(with our troops! - St. K.) the territory of Poland would include the power of Western states and the Polish army».
Having read these hidden thoughts of the gentry, Stalin, with his characteristic foresight and directness, summed up their discussion:
« If the Poles do not want to fight, let them leave. We won't keep them. If they want, let them leave... I am 62 years old, and I know: where the army is formed, it remains there... We can do without you. We can give all. We can handle it ourselves(Let's not forget, the conversation is in December 1941! - St. K). We will liberate Poland and then we will give it back to you.»…
But they never gave it to Anders and the Polish government in exile, which he represented.
On August 3, 1944, a delegation of this government headed by Prime Minister S. Mikolajczyk arrived in Moscow with great ambition to "share the pie".
From how Stalin politely “hooked off” the “Polish government in exile”, read in the transcript of the negotiations of the “puffy Poles” with Joseph Vissarionovich (
The Second World War, among other things, left behind many examples of the specific, which, decades later, is understood only by a few. There was at that time such an anecdote: “What is the Second World War? This is an attempt by the USSR, England and the United States to force Anders' army to fight." General Vladislav Anders is a revered figure in today's Poland - national hero fighter against Nazism and communism. Soviet people Anders was remembered differently - as a person, in the most dashing war time drinking and walking at the expense of the Soviet Union, and then without a twinge of conscience left the battlefield.
Hero of the Imperial Army
Vladislav Anders was born in the Russian Empire, in the Kingdom of Poland, in a family of petty gentry, on August 11, 1892.
He did not think about a military career, dreaming of becoming an engineer. But after graduating from the Polytechnic Institute in Riga, Anders was drafted into the Russian army. The young Pole was sent to an officer's school, after graduating from which he ended up in the 3rd Dragoon Regiment.
The First World War had already begun, and Lieutenant Anders showed himself with better side. He was awarded several times and wounded three times. The officer who proved himself was sent to study at the Academy of the General Staff in Petrograd. After the crash course, the day before February Revolution, he was released from the Academy with the rank of captain. By order of the Provisional Government, national Polish units were formed, and Anders was appointed chief of staff of the 7th Polish Rifle Division. After October 1917, Anders fought with the Bolsheviks, first in Belarus, and then, already as part of the army of independent Poland, on the fronts of the Soviet-Polish war of 1919-1921.
Soviet captivity after the battle with the Germans
After graduating from the Higher military school in Paris, in 1925, Colonel Anders became the military commandant of Warsaw. However, further his career growth slowed down - Anders was an opponent of Marshal Pilsudski, who established an authoritarian regime in the country.
By the beginning of World War II, Anders commanded the Novogrudovskaya cavalry brigade. The rapid successes of the Germans in September 1939 led to the fact that under the command of Anders was a whole group of Polish units, although they had already suffered serious losses.
Anders was promoted to the rank of general. Having distinguished himself in a number of skirmishes with the Germans, the general began to withdraw his units to Lvov.
Anders could not change the situation at the front. He wanted to break through to Hungary, then to move to France. But on September 28, 1939, the general was captured by Soviet troops, who were conducting an operation to return the territories of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus.
Captured Anders, after being treated for another wound, was placed in the inner prison of the NKVD in Lubyanka.
Pan Commander
Relations between the government of the USSR and the so-called government of Poland in exile, which was in London, were absent. The situation began to change after the German attack on the USSR in June 1941. With the mediation of Great Britain, the USSR and Poland began rapprochement.
On July 30, 1941, a political agreement was signed in Moscow, according to which the USSR recognized the Soviet-German treaties of 1939 "concerning territorial changes in Poland as invalid."
For the Polish military and civilians who were imprisoned or exiled in the USSR, an amnesty was declared.
The parties also agreed to create a new Polish army in the Soviet Union. By decision of the head of the Polish government, General Vladislav Sikorsky, Vladislav Anders, who was promoted to the rank of divisional general, was appointed commander.
It was assumed that the army would be formed from Polish citizens located on the territory of the Soviet Union, partly by conscription, partly on a voluntary basis.
How to use the enemy
This plan did not take into account one thing - the furious unwillingness of General Anders to fight "on the side of the Soviets."
The general considered the Bolsheviks eternal enemies, expressed confidence in their inevitable defeat from the Germans. There were even those around Anders who considered it necessary to establish ties with the Third Reich, so that the Poles would be among Hitler's allies after the defeat of the Soviets.
But Anders considered the consent of the Russians to the formation of an army useful, and intended to take full advantage of it.
Upon release, all former Polish prisoners of war were given a one-time gratuitous allowance. Privates received 500 rubles each, majors and lieutenant colonels - 3 thousand rubles each, colonels - 5 thousand rubles each, generals - 10 thousand rubles each, and personally General Anders - 25 thousand rubles. In total, grants were issued in the amount of 15 million rubles.
On August 22, 1941, at a meeting at the General Staff of the Red Army, points for the formation of Polish military formations were determined. It was decided to deploy the army headquarters in Buzuluk, the 5th infantry division in Tatishchev, near Saratov, the 6th infantry division in Totsk (near Buzuluk), the reserve regiment in the village of Koltubanovskoye.
“In Buzuluk, the headquarters received at its disposal a beautiful house, a hotel for officers, a five-room mansion for the army commander and a number of other premises where collection point for the new arrivals, the commandant's office of the garrison, the departments of the headquarters and the department of social care, ”recalled the officers of the Anders army.
Polish army in Central Asia
In accordance with the agreement of August 14, 1941, the "Army of Anders" was considered as "part of the armed forces of the sovereign Polish Republic", to which its military personnel would swear allegiance. At the end of the war, the army was to return to Poland. In accordance with the agreement, the Polish military units were to be sent to the front when they reached full combat readiness.
In September and October 1941 alone, the USSR handed over weapons to the Anders Army for one infantry division: 40 artillery pieces, 135 mortars, 270 heavy and light machine guns, 8451 rifles, 162 submachine guns, 1022 pistols and revolvers.
At the same time, Great Britain supplied uniforms for Anders' army.
The general expressed dissatisfaction with the supplies, which he considered insufficient. But in fact, the Polish army was supplied as much as possible. There were not enough weapons and ammunition at the front, where the enemy came close to Moscow.
In December 1941, at the insistence of Anders, the head of the Polish government obtained permission from the USSR to increase the Polish army in the USSR to 96 thousand people.
December 25, 1941 State Committee Defense of the USSR adopted a resolution “On the Polish Army on the Territory of the USSR”, which determined its strength (96 thousand people), the number of divisions and deployment (headquarters and its institutions in Yangi-Yul of the Uzbek SSR, divisions in the Kirghiz, Uzbek and Kazakh SSR). In fact, Anders' army headquarters was located in the village of Vrevskiy, Yangiyul district, Tashkent region, Uzbek SSR.
“We will recapture Poland and then we will give it back to you. But what will people say to this…”
By January 1942, the Soviet Union had spent 69 million rubles on Anders' army, transferring thousands of weapons and tens of thousands of uniforms.
And all this during the period of the most difficult retreat, and then the battle near Moscow. The Soviet government was extremely interested in the help of the Polish units.
But in early December 1941, at a meeting with Stalin, Anders and Sikorsky convinced Stalin that Polish units should be sent for further training to Iran. They say that there are the most suitable conditions for this.
Stalin's reaction, according to the transcript of the conversation, was as follows: “Comrade. Stalin points out that we cannot force the Poles to fight ... If the Poles do not want, then we will manage with our own divisions.
The situation slowly began to heat up. The secret services reported that anti-Soviet sentiment reigned in Anders' army, the officers were not going to enter the war until it crossed into Poland, and they directly spoke about the future "confrontation with the Soviets."
The Kremlin began to cool off both to Anders and to the “Polish project” in general. The general's new requests for supplies were increasingly denied. Anders complained to London, from where they tried to influence an ally.
On March 18, 1942, at the next meeting of the general with Stalin, an agreement was reached on the transfer to Iran of that part of the Polish units, the supply of which was denied. The conversation about the possible participation of the Poles in the battles with the Germans again did not stick. Stalin, to whom, it seems, everything has already become clear in this matter, remarked: “If the Poles do not want to fight here, then let them say directly: yes or no ... I know where the army is being formed, so it will remain there ... We can do without you . We can give all. We'll handle it ourselves. We will recapture Poland and then we will give it back to you. But what will people say to this…”
Iran instead of Stalingrad
Anders did not understand all the far-reaching consequences of these words. He thought he had achieved his main goal. At the beginning of the summer of 1942, the final decision was made to transfer Anders' army to Iran.
On July 31, 1942, the general received a final evacuation plan approved by Stalin. Anders, in response, thanked the Soviet leader for his help and said: "The strategic center of gravity of the war is currently moving to the Near and Middle East." And at that very time, one of the main battles of the war, the Battle of Stalingrad, was gaining momentum.
To top it off, Anders expressed the hope that the Soviet government would continue to recruit Poles on its territory, so that they would enter the Polish army as reinforcements.
How they managed to respond diplomatically to all this is a mystery. More than 90 thousand Poles dressed, equipped, armed, fed at the expense of the warring country, so that later, in the very Hard time, to fight solely in their own interests. But those shells and cartridges that the Poles received did not get to the fighters who fought on the front line. But the bread that they ate was not given to ordinary citizens.
It was clear that neither General Anders nor his army would ever be real allies for our country.
Anders' desertion hit relations between the USSR and the Polish government in exile. The Soviet side considered that it was free from obligations, and began to implement its "Polish project".
In March 1943, the Union of Polish Patriots was created in the USSR, uniting supporters of leftist views. On the initiative of the Union, in May 1943, the formation of the 1st Polish Infantry Division named after Tadeusz Kosciuszko began.
The division was recruited from those Poles who did not follow Anders, sharing the opinion that his act was desertion. In October 1943, in the battles on the territory of Belarus, the division received a baptism of fire.
It is embarrassing to talk about the exploits of the Anders army in the Middle East - it was too small compared to what was happening then on the territory of the USSR.
The greatest feat of the Anders army, transformed into the 2nd Polish Corps, consisting of british army, began fighting in Italy. In May 1944, Anders' soldiers took part in breaking through the German defensive Gustav Line, which covered Rome from the south. The corps also distinguished itself in the battle for Ancona and in the capture of Bologna.
For comparison, two armies of the Polish Army fought on the Soviet-German front. The number of Polish troops who fought together with the Red Army reached 330 thousand by the end of the war against 75 thousand under the command of General Anders.
The armies of the Polish Army liberated the territory of Poland, cleared Warsaw of the Germans. Together with Soviet soldiers they stormed Berlin.
Specific Hero
General Anders looked at the exploits of his compatriots from the side, not hiding his hatred. The fact is that after the liberation of Poland, a pro-Soviet government was created on its territory. The United States and Great Britain, although without much pleasure, recognized the new government, denying legitimacy to Polish emigrants in London.
As Stalin said, Poland was conquered and given to the Poles. But not for those who fled, but for those who fought the Nazis, sparing no effort. Anders could not come to terms with this. Until the end of his life, he was one of the leaders of the Polish emigration, hoping for a war between the West and the USSR, and the overthrow of the communist regime.
Anders did not live to realize his dream - he died in London in May 1970. But in today's Poland, Wladyslaw Anders is one of the most revered figures.
Anders' army and Beurling's army
Even before the start of the Great Patriotic War, in September 1940, the Soviet government decided to create a Polish division on the territory of the USSR. In the prisoner of war camps, the command staff was selected - 3 generals, 1 colonel, 8 lieutenant colonels, 6 majors and captains, 6 lieutenants and second lieutenants. But the order to form a Polish division was signed only on June 4, 1941.
With the outbreak of World War II, the Soviet government and the Polish government in exile in London, with the help of British diplomats, somehow settled their relations.
On July 30, 1941, in London, the USSR Ambassador I. M. Maisky and the Polish Prime Minister V. Sikorsky signed an agreement in which the Soviet side recognized its agreements with Germany regarding territorial changes in Poland as invalid. The parties took a mutual obligation to assist each other in the war against Hitler.
The cadres of the future Polish army, which was supposed to be formed in the USSR, were in the position of prisoners of war soldiers and imprisoned officers. On August 12, 1941, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet issued a decree on amnesty for Polish officers. Polish prisoner of war camps were renamed the camps of the Polish army in the USSR.
On the eve of Prime Minister Sikorsky's visit to the USSR (end of November 1941), the leadership of the NKVD compiled information for Stalin about Polish prisoners of war and about the mood in Anders' army. The first of the documents indicated that a total of 130,000 Polish military personnel entered the NKVD camps. Of these, 43 thousand were transferred to the Germans (before their invasion); sent through the 1st special department at the disposal of the UNKVD 15 thousand; sent to the points of formation of the Polish army 25 thousand.
The Sikorsky government appointed General Vladislav Anders as commander of the Polish units being formed in the USSR. In September 1939, Anders commanded the Novogrudok Cavalry Brigade and on September 30 was taken prisoner by the Red Army. Initially, he was in the hospital, and since December 1939 - in prison. Anders was extremely anti-Soviet, but our government agreed to his appointment to the post of army commander.
By November 30, 1941, the Polish army in the USSR consisted of 40,961 people: 1,965 officers, 11,919 non-commissioned officers and 27,077 soldiers. The 5th Infantry Division (14,703 men), the 6th Infantry Division (12,480 men), a reserve regiment (8,764 men), an army headquarters, a construction unit and an assembly point were formed. Since December 1941, the redeployment of Polish formations and rear units from the Volga region to Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan) began.
The Soviet government hoped that in late 1941 - early 1942, Anders' units would take part in the battles on the Soviet-German front. Needless to say, the situation there was critical. But the Polish officers categorically refused to fight on the Eastern Front.
Even before June 22, 1941, many Polish officers wrote tearful collective letters to the German embassy in Moscow with a request to rescue them from the Soviet camps. Usually such letters ended with the words: "Heil, Hitler!"
Historian Yuri Mukhin cites several statements by Poles in the autumn of 1941: “Kovtsun, colonel of the Polish army: “Hitler will come soon, then I will show you what a Polish colonel is!”
Weaver, policeman: "Now they want to free us Poles and form troops, but we will show as soon as we get weapons - we will turn them against the Russians."
Major Gudanovsky: “We Poles will turn our weapons on the Soviets, avenge our suffering in the camps. As soon as they take us to the front, we will direct our weapons against the Red Army.
Lieutenant Korabelsky: “Together with America, we will use the weakness of the Red Army and will dominate Soviet territory.”
Captain Rudkovsky: "The Bolsheviks are on the verge of death, we Poles are just waiting for them to give us weapons, then we will finish them off."
Lieutenant Lavitsky: “You soldiers, do not be angry with the Soviets yet. When we defeat the Germans, then we will turn our rifles on the USSR and make Poland the way it used to be.”
Lieutenant Vershkovsky: “We will not fight against Germany with the Soviet Union. They stabbed us in the back together and put us in concentration camps. For this, we, the time will come, will take revenge. In this war, the Poles will fulfill the role of the Czech army during the civil war."
On September 29, 1941, General Sikorsky sent from London to General Anders in the USSR a "strictly secret instruction" which stated:
"one. The first and most serious task is to establish radio communications:
a) with the High Command in England (center);
b) with the commandant's office of the military organization in Poland;
c) with reconnaissance dances in the territories occupied by the Germans;
d) then, later, with the bases "Anna" and "Bey", the latter - by special order.
2. Organization and maintenance of courier communication with Poland and the center.
3. Provision of material assistance and assistance by people to the military organization, i.e. sending personnel, equipment, special materials and money to Poland by air or land, in accordance with the directives of the Supreme Leader.
4. Mediation from the territory of the USSR in the intelligence work carried out by the SVB in the homeland and in the territories occupied by the Germans. This issue is provided for by the reconnaissance instruction.
Thus, Anders was instructed to create a secret intelligence center in the USSR, subordinate to London. This intelligence center was supposed to be secret from Soviet authorities conduct reconnaissance and sabotage activities both on the territory of the General Government and on the territory of the USSR.
The Soviet government assumed that the Polish units would fight on the Eastern Front under the command of our military leaders. By the way, in 1941-1945. this was quite common in the armies of many countries. For example, a French squadron fought in the USSR, later reorganized into a regiment, the Normandie Neman; in Germany - the Spanish "blue division", the French division of the SS "Charlemagne" and other units.
But Anders and Co., on the one hand, wanted to “keep weapons at their feet”, and on the other hand, to become a “state within a state” and, among other things, engage in espionage.
Stalin already in December 1941 realized that Anders and his subordinates did not want to fight on the Eastern Front. The chairman of the State Defense Committee openly told the Polish commander: “We will take Poland and hand it over to you in six months. We have enough troops, we can manage without you. But what will the people who find out about it say then?”
As a result, the Soviet government was forced to agree to the evacuation of Anders' army through Iran to the Middle East. In March-April 1942, 43,000 Polish troops passed through Iran. In July - August (that is, at the beginning Battle of Stalingrad) the second stage of the evacuation of Polish military personnel was carried out. In total, 114.5 thousand Polish military personnel and members of their families left the USSR in 1942.
Most of the Poles (69,917) were evacuated to Iran by the ships of the Caspian Flotilla. On this occasion, the fashionable “Soviet Russian poet” (as Wikipedia says about him) Boris Slutsky wrote:
I see today
What I saw yesterday:
Here they go up the gangplank
Skinny officers?
Taken out of pocket
Thirty and immediately tear,
And pink for stern
Thirty swim, swim.
The transportation of 70,000 Poles seriously disrupted the work of the Caspian Flotilla: military transportation was delayed, as well as the evacuation of the population. Let's imagine a picture: hungry women and children who have to wait on the shore for evacuation, watch how proud gentlemen tear money ...
Curiously, did Mr. Slutsky know that Anders ordered the Polish soldiers to “surrender the Soviet currency, hand over to the Polish civilian population things of Soviet origin”?
The Polish population badly needed Soviet money for a variety of needs - from meeting the personal needs of generals to conducting intelligence. As a result, money was voluntarily-compulsorily taken away from the rank and file, and the officers defiantly tore it on the decks of ships.
By the way, such an event did not harm, but benefited the People's Commissariat of Finance of the USSR - the gentry helped keep the ruble from inflation.
Boris Abramovich might not have known the report of Lavrenty Beria to the GKO, which stated: “General Anders, although he accepts Jews - Polish citizens - into the Polish army, nevertheless openly displays anti-Semitic sentiments. The commander of the 6th Infantry Division, Tokazhevsky, requested from the reserve regiment to replenish the division 1,000 soldiers of the “Roman Catholic faith”. There was a case when in a reserve regiment all Jewish soldiers were asked to step out of line for a medical examination, after which a significant number of Jews were dismissed from the army. Jews are systematically abused by the soldiers and officers of the Polish army.” But Boris Abramovich could not be unaware of the anti-Semitism of Polish officers in general.
Why did he write this? Yes, the fashion was to write like that. Remember Onegin: “Summon Phaedra, Cleopatra, Moina so that they can only hear him.”
Well, when needed Soviet poet Comrade Slutsky is at his best. For example, on October 31, 1958, at a meeting of the Writers' Union, Sergei Abramovich angrily denounced Boris Pasternak.
The units of General Andres, taken out of the USSR, guarded the British oil fields in Iran for several months. Then they, together with the Polish units formed in England, took part in the battles in North Africa, Italy and France.
The most successful battle of the Polish troops in the west is considered the "battle of Monte Cassino". The London government in exile even created a special award - the "Cross of Monte Cassino", and the poet Felix Konarsky wrote the hymn song "Red poppies on Monte Cassino". In the works of Polish historians, Monte Cassino became almost the decisive battle of World War II worse than Leonid Brezhnev's Little Land.
What really happened there? The Abbey of Monte Cassino was founded by Saint Benedict in 524. On February 11, 1944, the 34th and 26th American and 4th Indian divisions tried to capture the approaches to the abbey, but were repulsed by German paratroopers.
Moreover, there were no Germans in the monastery itself, but in addition to the monks, hundreds of Italian refugees accumulated there. On February 15, 229 American bombers, including 142 B-17 flying fortresses, dropped 1,150 tons of bombs on the monastery. The next day Monte Cassino was bombed by 59 aircraft. And only on February 17 the ruins of the monastery were occupied by the 1st battalion of the German 3rd parachute regiment, the rest of the battalions and the 4th Parachute Regiment took up positions near the monastery.
Allied attacks followed one after another.
On March 15, the monastery was bombed by 600 aircraft, and the Allied artillery fired 196,000 shells at it.
Then the 4th Indian, 2nd New Zealand and 78th British divisions went to storm Monte Cassino, and only the New Zealanders had about 400 tanks. True, the battalion of paratroopers that defended the monastery received reinforcements in the form of the 2nd battalion of the 1st parachute regiment, after which the Germans launched a counterattack.
In the end, about 100 thousand allied soldiers were pulled up to the monastery - Americans, French, Moroccans, including the Polish corps.
As a result, the Germans suffered heavy losses, and on May 18, on the orders of Kesselring, the paratroopers left the monastery and retreated in an organized manner along the Monte Cassino - Rome highway. On the same day, the Polish flag was raised on the ruins. Needless to say, Western and Polish historians have not yet calculated the ratio of losses on both sides during this five-month battle.
And the Italians counted. In the Monte Cassino area, 10,000 civilians were killed and over 5,000 women were raped. The oldest of them was 85 years old. It is curious that the Italians do not blame paratroopers for this at all.
In February 1943, the GKO decided to form new Polish units in the USSR. As early as June 22, 1941, 13 Polish officers, led by Lieutenant Colonel Sigmund Berling, sent a letter to the Soviet government asking for permission to fight for their homeland against Germany. Later, Berling was appointed chief of staff of the 5th Infantry Division in Anders' army, but he refused to go to the Middle East with a group of officers and remained in the USSR.
In April 1943, Beurling sent a letter to the leadership of the USSR, where he proposed to form Polish units in the USSR. It is clear that Beurling's letter was agreed in advance with the relevant authorities, up to the Supreme Commander.
On May 14, 1943, in the Seletsk military camps near Ryazan, the formation of the 1st Polish Infantry Division named after. Kosciuszko. Berling, who by that time had become a colonel, was entrusted with the command of the division.
The commanders were appointed Polish officers who remained in the USSR and joined the Union of Polish Patriots on March 15, 1943, headed by the writer Wanda Wasilewska.
On July 15, 1943, the Soviet command seconded 325 Soviet officers to the 1st Polish Infantry Division.
On July 25, 1943, a military court of the Polish government-in-exile declared Colonel Berling a deserter and sentenced him to death.
In August 1943, the 1st Polish Infantry Division, together with the 1st Polish Tank Regiment. Heroes of Westerplatte and the 1st Fighter Aviation Regiment "Warsaw" (32 Yak-1 aircraft) made up the 1st Polish Corps (12,000 people), now led by Major General Sigismund Berling.
I note that the personnel of the Polish units were recruited both on a voluntary basis and by conscription. Along with these Poles, Russians, Byelorussians, Tatars, Jews, etc., served both as officers and privates.
On October 12, 1943, the first formations of this corps were the 1st Infantry Division named after. Kosciuszko and the 1st Tank Regiment. Heroes of Westerplatte - about 12 thousand soldiers, along with the Soviet divisions of the 33rd Army Western front took part in the offensive near the town of Lenino, at the so-called Smolensk Gates.
The losses of the division amounted to 25% of the personnel (502 killed, 1776 wounded and 663 missing). On October 14, the Polish division was withdrawn for reorganization.
In April 1944, the 1st Polish Corps was deployed to the 1st Polish Army, and Berling accordingly became a lieutenant general. By the middle of 1944, the 1st Polish Army included 4 infantry divisions and one cavalry division, 5 artillery brigades and other units; only about 90 thousand people. Polish aviation also appeared, which included two air regiments ("Warsaw" and "Krakow").
In July 1944, the 1st Polish Army began hostilities. She was operationally subordinate to the 8th Soviet guards army 1st Belorussian Front and participated in the crossing of the Bug. The army became the first Polish unit to cross the borders of Poland.
On July 21, 1944, the 1st Polish Army was merged with the partisan Army of the People (18 brigades, 13 battalions and 202 detachments) into a single Polish Army.
On July 26, the 1st Polish Tank Corps was formed under the command of Colonel Jan Rupasov (later Brigadier General Josef Kimbar).
On September 14, 1944, the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front, together with the 1st Army of the Polish Army, liberated the suburbs of Warsaw - Prague. On September 15, all 15 divisions of the Polish Army were relocated here.
At the end of October 1944, 11,513 Soviet officers served in the Polish Army. In general, about 40% of the officers and non-commissioned officers of the Polish Army were Soviet servicemen of non-Polish nationality.
In Szczecin, the Polish 1st Army stopped to regroup, as its losses amounted to 5,400 killed and 2,800 missing. By the beginning of the spring offensive of 1945, the 2nd Polish Army was formed under the command of Lieutenant General of the Red Army, and then the Polish Army Karol Karlovich Swierchevsky. The army consisted of the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th infantry divisions and the 1st Polish armored corps. The 2nd Polish Army was part of the 1st Ukrainian front and operated north of the Czechoslovak border.
Total Polish Army for 1943–1945 on the Eastern Front lost 24,707 killed and 44,223 wounded. By June 1945, the Polish Army numbered about 400,000 people. Such a sharp increase in the number of troops occurred both due to mobilization behind the Curzon line, and due to the influx of recruits from the USSR.
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Material from Wikipedia
Anders Army is a Polish military formation, part of the armed forces of the sovereign Polish Republic, created by the Soviet government and General Vladislav Anders in 1941-1942 on the territory of the USSR by agreement with the Polish government in exile from Polish citizens who were on the territory of the USSR (including refugees , interned soldiers of the Polish army and amnestied prisoners).
In July 1943, Anders' army units were reorganized into the 2nd Polish Corps as part of the British Army.
background
The first attempt to create Polish armed formations in the USSR was made in the autumn of 1940. November 2, 1940 L.P. Beria proposed to form a division from the Polish prisoners of war who were in the USSR, which would be used in the war against Germany and become the basis of the Polish armed forces controlled by the USSR.
The People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs selected 24 former Polish officers (three generals, one colonel, 8 lieutenant colonels, 6 majors and captains, 6 lieutenants and second lieutenants), who sought to participate in the liberation of Poland. Some of these officers (Zygmunt Berling's group, General Marian Janušaitis) considered themselves free from any obligations in relation to the government of Vladislav Sikorsky, others (Generals Mieczysław Boruta-Spechowicz and Vaclav Przezdetsky) declared that they could only participate in the war on the side of the USSR against Germany at the direction of the "London" government of Poland in exile.
On June 4, 1941, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks decided to create the 238th Rifle Division of the Red Army from Poles and people who know the Polish language by July 1, 1941. The formation of the division was entrusted to the Berling group, but before the German attack on the USSR, they did not manage to form the Polish division.
The beginning of the war created a new situation and prompted the Soviet leadership to cooperate with the government of V. Sikorsky.
Agreement on the formation of the Polish army in the USSR
On July 30, 1941, in London, the USSR Ambassador to Great Britain I. M. Maisky and the Polish Prime Minister V. Sikorsky signed an agreement on the restoration of diplomatic relations and mutual assistance in the fight against Germany, which provided for the creation of Polish military units on the territory of the USSR.
Together with the agreement, a protocol was adopted: "The Soviet government grants amnesty to all Polish citizens currently imprisoned on Soviet territory as prisoners of war, or on other sufficient grounds, from the time diplomatic relations are restored."
Soon, Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs, Commissar of State Security of the 3rd rank V.V. and BSSR) as of August 1, 1941. The certificate provided the following data on the number of special settlers:
Former prisoners of war 26,160 people
Osadnikov and foresters 132,463 people
Convicted and investigative 46,597 people
Refugees and families of the repressed 176,000 people
Total 381,220 people
On August 12, 1941, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued a decree on amnesty for Polish citizens on the territory of the USSR. On the same day, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks adopted a resolution "On the procedure for the release and direction of Polish citizens amnestied in accordance with the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR."
On August 14, 1941, a military agreement was signed, which provided for the creation of a Polish army on the territory of the USSR as soon as possible to fight against Nazi Germany together with the troops of the USSR and other allied powers. In accordance with the agreement, the total number of Polish military units in the USSR was set at 30,000 servicemen. To train the Polish army, the USSR provided the Polish side with an interest-free loan in the amount of 65 million rubles (subsequently increased to 300 million rubles). In addition, the USSR provided the Polish side with an interest-free loan in the amount of 100 million rubles to assist Polish refugees on the territory of the USSR, and also allocated an additional 15 million rubles as a non-refundable allowance to the officers of the Polish army being formed.
In addition, the government of the USSR allowed the opening of 20 representative offices of the Polish embassy in the country (with 421 staff members), agreed to publish and distribute the newspaper Polska (Poland) and conduct social and political activities.
To arm the Polish units, the government of the USSR provided weapons free of charge.
The army was seen as "part of the armed forces of the sovereign Polish Republic", to which its military personnel would swear allegiance. At the end of the war, the army was to return to Poland. It was supposed to move the Polish units to the front only when they reached full combat readiness.
On August 6, General Władysław Anders was appointed commander of the Polish army.
Formation of the "Army of Anders"
On August 16, 1941, in a conversation with Major General A.P. Panfilov, V. Anders, authorized by the General Staff of the Red Army for the formation of the Polish army on the territory of the USSR, and the head of the Polish military mission in the USSR, Z. Shishko-Bogush, proposed the procedure for the formation of the Polish army:
staffing was to be done at the expense of volunteers and by conscription;
first of all, two light infantry divisions of 7-8 thousand people each and a reserve unit were to be formed; the timing of their formation had to be compressed in order to ensure their entry into the combat zone as soon as possible. The calendar dates for the completion of the formation of these formations were to depend on the degree of receipt of weapons, uniforms and other stocks of material supplies. Polish generals reported that they expect to receive uniforms and equipment from England and the USA, small arms and ammunition from the USSR.
An agreement was reached on the creation in Gryazovetsky, Suzdalsky, Yuzhsky and Starobelsky camps of the NKVD for prisoners of war draft commissions, which will include representatives of the Polish command, the Red Army, the NKVD of the USSR and a medical doctor.
As Panfilov reported to the Chief of the General Staff, representatives of the Red Army and the NKVD "in order to strengthen our influence on the Polish formations" were given the right to reject persons entering the Polish army.
On August 19, at the second meeting of the mixed Soviet-Polish commission on the formation of the Polish army, V. Anders and Z. Shishko-Bogush were informed that the command of the Red Army was satisfying their request to form two rifle divisions and one spare regiment, the deadline for their readiness was determined by October 1, 1941. The number of divisions was determined at 10,000 people each, the reserve regiment - 5,000. State Security Major G. S. Zhukov handed over to V. Anders a list of officers for 1,658 people, located in the USSR. At the same meeting, it was decided to deploy formations in military camps near the villages of Totskoye (Chkalovsk region) and Tatishchevo (Saratov region), headquarters - in Buzuluk (Chkalovsk region).
However, the NKVD was in no hurry to implement the decree and resolution of the Council of People's Commissars and the Central Committee of the VKB (b) of August 12, 1941 on amnesty. Beria's directive No. 00429 was sent to the prisoner of war camps, ordering to strictly maintain the regime, and for prisoners of war and internees to continue to comply with it. Special departments of the camps continued to intensively recruit agents.
On August 23, 1941, the Soviet-Polish draft commissions arrived at the prisoner of war camps, and after completing their work on September 2-6, the vast majority of Poles were sent to form the Polish army in Buzuluk, Tatishchevo and Totsk. By September 12, 24,828 former prisoners of war had arrived there.
On October 1, Beria announced that out of 391,575 Polish citizens who were in places of detention and in exile, by September 27, 50,295 people had been released from prisons and Gulag camps, 26,297 from prisoner of war camps, and, in addition, 265,248 special settlers. By this time, 25,115 former prisoners of war had been sent to form the Anders Army. 16,647 people released from prisons, camps and special settlements also arrived there; another 10,000 were on the way. By this time, two Polish divisions and a reserve regiment were formed, staffed by former prisoners of war (23,851 people) and, in part, selected Poles from among former prisoners and special settlers (3,149 people).
After being in prisons, camps, and special settlements, people ended up in the army extremely exhausted. Living conditions in the emerging 5th and 6th divisions and the reserve regiment were disastrous. Due to the lack of forest, the construction of heated dugouts was delayed, most people were placed in tents. Due to the spontaneous arrival at the place of formation of all those who wanted to join the army, as well as civilians (including women and children) for whom food was not provided and who had no means of subsistence, the rations allocated for the Polish army were divided and on these people.
The formation of the army took place in difficult conditions: there were not enough uniforms, utensils and bakeries, building materials, vehicles.
Starting from September 12, 1941, Anders repeatedly appealed to the authorities, seeking to improve the supply and conditions for the emerging divisions, and asked to begin the formation of several new divisions in Uzbekistan. The Soviet leadership agreed to increase the size of the army to only 30,000 people, pointing out that the lack of weapons and food for them was an obstacle to the formation of new divisions. In this regard, the government of V. Sikorsky raised the issue of transferring part of the Polish military to Iran.
In October 1941, the former Prime Minister of Poland, an employee of the Polish embassy in Moscow, Leon Kozlovsky, enlisted in Anders' army on the personal order of General Anders, received a travel certificate from him and left for Moscow, after which, together with two accompanying officers, he crossed the front line, came into contact with the Germans and arrived in Warsaw. Kozlovsky's meetings with the Germans became known to the Soviet leadership, Anders declared Kozlovsky a traitor, but the incident caused a deterioration in attitude Soviet side to Anders' army.
On November 6, Panfilov informed Anders that the total number of his army for 1941 was determined at 30,000 people, and offered him "the surplus of personnel available in the area<…>send to the appropriate, at the request of the sent, areas for residence.
At the end of November, Prime Minister V. Sikorsky arrived in the USSR, and on December 3, 1941, he had a conversation with Stalin on two issues - the Polish army on the territory of the USSR and the situation of the Polish population.
On December 4, 1941, the Declaration of the Government of the Soviet Union and the Government of the Republic of Poland on Friendship and Mutual Assistance was signed, according to which the government of V. Sikorsky reaffirmed the obligation to "wage war against the German robbers hand in hand with the Soviet troops." Also, an agreement was reached to increase the total number of the Polish army in the USSR from 30 thousand to 96 thousand people.
As a result of the negotiations, an agreement was reached on the creation of seven Polish divisions in the USSR and on the possibility of withdrawing to Iran the Poles not involved in these formations. The place of formation of new parts was determined by Central Asia.
In December 1941, the officers of the Anders army were dressed in English uniforms, the soldiers were dressed in English-style uniforms, American overcoats and the Red Army winter uniform (quilted trousers, padded jackets and earflaps).
On December 25, 1941, the State Defense Committee of the USSR adopted a resolution “On the Polish Army on the Territory of the USSR”, which determined its strength (96 thousand people), the number of divisions and deployment (headquarters and its institutions in Yangi-Yul of the Uzbek SSR, divisions in the Kyrgyz, Uzbek and Kazakh SSR). In fact, Anders' army headquarters was located in the village of Vrevskiy, Yangiyul district, Tashkent region, Uzbek SSR.
From the beginning of 1942, the question of the timing of sending Polish divisions to the front came to the fore. In February 1942, the government of the USSR turned to the Polish side with a request to send the 5th Infantry Division to the front, the training of which had been completed by that time. V. Anders rejected the possibility of entering into battle one separate division, the decision he made was supported by V. Sikorsky.
During a trip to the places of deployment of the Polish army, Sikorsky said that the Polish army would be ready to fight against the Wehrmacht by June 15, 1942.
The GKO resolution on the redeployment of the 5th and 6th divisions to Central Asia and the formation of an additional four divisions was carried out slowly.
As before, there were difficulties in providing uniforms, food, supplies of weapons, vehicles, fuel, tents for housing, allocation of premises for headquarters organizations, etc.
the distribution of food, clothing and other property provided for the army of Anders was carried out by responsible persons appointed by the command of the army of Anders; at the same time, there were cases of theft of food, clothing and other goods sent for the army of Anders, by persons responsible for the distribution of these goods among the personnel of the Polish units
As of March 1, 1942, there were 60,000 people in the Polish army in the USSR, including 3,090 officers and 16,202 non-commissioned officers. Beria stated anti-Soviet sentiments in the army, including among the rank and file, unwillingness to go into battle under Soviet leadership.
Withdrawal of Anders' army to Iran
The threat to British colonial interests in the Middle East from the Axis powers, the difficulties in delivering new contingents of British troops there prompted Churchill to use Polish troops to guard oil regions and other facilities.
On August 23, 1941, Churchill, in a conversation with Sikorsky, expressed an interest in having Polish divisions located in places where, if necessary, contact with British troops was possible (for example, in the Caucasus). Sikorsky promised to give Anders the appropriate instructions.
On August 28, 1941, V. Sikorsky sent an instruction to the ambassador in Moscow S. Kot, which spoke of the need to prepare a plan for the withdrawal of the future Polish army from the USSR to the Middle East or to India or Afghanistan. In an instruction dated September 1, 1941, to General W. Anders, Sikorsky directly pointed out the undesirability of using Polish troops on the Soviet-German front.
Ambassador S. Kot, who arrived in the USSR on September 4, 1941, brought instructions that contained a demand to do everything to protect them from "Soviet propaganda", and to conduct the formation itself in such a way that, using any pretext (for example, any difficulties), evacuate the army to areas controlled by England. In the implementation of the evacuation plans, the decisive role was assigned to the diplomacy of the Western allies. Anders met these instructions with satisfaction, for they fully corresponded to his desires.
In September 1941, Sikorsky sent an instruction to the command of the Polish army in the USSR to achieve the transfer of Polish troops to the south. At the same time, seeing the benevolent attitude of the Soviet side towards the Polish units, Anders and Kot had the idea to increase the planned size of the army. In September, the Polish Prime Minister asked Churchill for weapons for new divisions, the absence of which, in his opinion, was the only obstacle to the creation of a 100,000-strong Polish army. But at a conference in Moscow, Great Britain and the United States refused special supplies for the Polish army.
At the beginning of October 1941, V. Anders turned to the government of the USSR with a request to form new divisions, including two in Uzbekistan, where the Polish population poured.
On October 14 and 22, 1941, S. Kot, in conversations with the leaders of the NKID of the USSR, expressed the desire of the Polish side to create new divisions and raised the issue of Sikorsky's visit to the USSR. A favorable response was immediately received to the last proposal, with regard to the new Polish divisions, the Soviet side stated that the only obstacle was the lack of a sufficient amount of weapons. The ambassador was also informed about the shortage of weapons among the Soviet troops fighting at the front, and about the great food difficulties in the USSR. Kot, on the other hand, told London and the US and British ambassadors to the USSR that the Soviet Union did not want a larger Polish army to be created on its territory, that is, a pretext for transferring the army had been invented.
On November 10, 1941, the government of the USSR was handed a memorandum from the US government, which directly spoke of the desirability of the withdrawal of the Polish army from the USSR to Iran.
In March 1942, the government of the USSR announced that due to the aggravation of the food situation in the USSR, the number of food rations for Polish military units in the USSR that did not take part in hostilities would be reduced to 44,000.
At this time, the number of Anders's army was 73 thousand military personnel and 30 thousand civilians who were with the army (mainly members of the families of military personnel).
In a conversation between Stalin and Anders on March 18, 1942, a compromise solution was reached: to keep the previous number of rations in March, reducing it to 44,000 in April; over 44 thousand Polish troops to be transferred to Iran. At the same time, Stalin remarked: “If the Poles do not want to fight here, then let them say directly: yes or no ... I know where the army is being formed, so it will remain there ... We can do without you. We can give all. We'll handle it ourselves. We will recapture Poland and then we will give it back to you. But what will people say to this…”
At the end of March 1942, the first stage of the evacuation of Anders' army to Iran was carried out - 31,488 servicemen of the Polish army and 12,400 civilians left the USSR.
In early April 1942, after the completion of the evacuation, the Polish government began to insist on continuing conscription to Polish units, maintaining evacuation bases, improving supplies, etc. At the same time, the Polish military and political leadership still refused to send military units to the Soviet German front. The position of the Polish leadership led to the complication of relations between the USSR and Poland, and the proposals of the Polish side to further increase assistance to the Anders army were rejected. In June 1942, V. Anders raised the issue of evacuating the entire Polish army from the territory of the USSR to V. Sikorsky.
Anders, having met with understanding and support from Churchill, obtained the consent of the Sikorsky government to withdraw the army to Iran.
The government of the USSR assessed the refusal of the Polish government to send the military units of the Anders army formed in the USSR to the Soviet-German front and the evacuation of the Anders army to Iran in a difficult situation at the front as a refusal by the Polish side to fulfill the interstate agreements concluded with the USSR. At the same time, the government of the USSR did not oppose the withdrawal of the Polish army from the territory of the USSR.
On July 31, Anders, having received a plan for the evacuation of the Polish army from the USSR to Iran approved by Stalin, expressed gratitude to the Soviet leader and expressed confidence that "the strategic center of gravity of the war is currently moving to the Near and Middle East," and also asked Stalin to resume the call Polish citizens and sending them to his army as reinforcements.
From the Poles and Polish citizens who remained in the USSR after Anders' army left for Iran, in May 1943, at the initiative of the Union of Polish Patriots, the First Polish Infantry Division named after Tadeusz Kosciuszko was formed (and later other Polish military units).
Parts of Anders in the Middle East
On August 12, 1942, Anders' army received the new name "Polish Army in the East".
On September 1, 1942, the evacuation of Anders' army was completed. In total, during the two evacuations, 75,491 military personnel and 37,756 civilians left the USSR.
69,917 people arrived in Pahlavi, of which 41,103 were military. The national composition of Anders' army was heterogeneous: in addition to Poles, there were Jews, a large number of Ukrainians and Belarusians (up to 30%).
During this period, Anders' army consisted of: 3rd, 5th, 6th and 7th infantry divisions, a tank brigade and the 12th uhlan regiment. In Palestine, Anders' army included the 3rd division of the Carpathian riflemen, formed from Polish soldiers who managed to escape to Lebanon after the defeat of Poland, and several smaller Polish units that were part of the British army.
On July 22, 1943 Anders' Army was reorganized into the 2nd Polish Corps as part of the British Army. The corps numbered 48 thousand military personnel and was armed with 248 artillery pieces, 288 anti-tank weapons, 234 anti-aircraft weapons, 264 tanks, 1241 armored personnel carriers, 440 armored cars and 12,064 vehicles. The British command, however, for a long time did not want to include Polish air units in the corps.
The structure of the body included the following parts and connections:
3rd Carpathian Infantry Division (commanded by Major General Bronislav Duch) - 1st, 2nd, 3rd Carpathian Rifle Brigades and 12th Podolsk Lancers Regiment;
5th Kresovaya Infantry Division "Bison" (commander - Brigadier General Nikodem Sulik) - 4th Volyn, 5th Vilna, 6th Lvov and since 1945 - 7th Volyn brigade and 15th Poznan Ulansky regiment;
The 2nd Polish Armored Brigade (since 1945 - the Polish 2nd Warsaw Armored Division, commander - Brigadier General Bronislaw Rakovsky), consisted of the 4th, 6th, 14th Greater Poland (since 1945) armored regiments and 1- th Krechovsky Lancers Regiment.
2nd Artillery Corps (commander - Brigadier General Roman Odzerzynsky): 9th Medium Artillery Regiment, 10th Heavy Artillery Regiment, 7th Field Artillery Regiment, 7th Anti-tank Regiment, 7th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, 8th and heavy anti-aircraft regiment.
parts of corps subordination: 1st Special Polish airborne and sabotage company; Special Carpathian Lancer Regiment; medical, quartermaster and other units.
In 1945, the number of the corps grew to 75 thousand (including due to replenishment by Poles liberated from German camps).
2nd Polish Corps in Italy
In January 1944, the corps was sent to the Italian front as part of the 8th British Army. From January to May 1944, the Allied forces unsuccessfully tried three times to break through the German Gustav defensive line in the Monte Cassino region, which covered Rome from the south.
On May 11, the fourth general assault began, in which the 2nd Polish Corps took part. By May 18, after a week of fierce fighting, the Gustav Line was broken through in the area from the monastery of Monte Cassino to the coast. The monastery turned into a fortress was abandoned by the German units, and the Polish detachment hoisted the national white and red banner over its ruins. Near Monte Cassino, the corps lost 924 people killed, 4199 wounded (in total, 3 thousand killed, 14 thousand wounded during the war). Thus, the way to Rome was opened, taken on June 4th.
After that, the Polish corps fought almost continuously in Italy for a year, again distinguished itself in the battle for Ancona, and ended its combat path in April 1945 with participation in the capture of Bologna.
After the end of the war
Until 1946, the 2nd Polish Corps remained in Italy as an integral part of the occupying forces of the Western Allies, then it was transferred to Great Britain and disbanded there.
Most of the corps soldiers (including the commander) remained in exile.
Some of the servicemen returned to the Polish People's Republic.
Also, in 1946-1949, some former soldiers of the Anders army (mainly Ukrainians and Belarusians - natives of Western Belarus, Western Ukraine and Lithuania) returned to the USSR. In 1951, more than 4.5 thousand Andersovites and members of their families were sent to a special settlement in Irkutsk region, where they were until August 1958. In 1971, the Supreme Court of the BSSR recognized the groundlessness of the deportation of the former Andersovites.
Memory, reflection in literature and art
Polish Cross of Monte Cassino - award for participants in the battle
For the Poles, the assault on Monte Cassino became one of the symbols of heroism.
Thus, the Polish song “Red Poppies on Monte Cassino” (music by Alfred Schutz, lyrics by Felix Konarsky) is dedicated to the assault, the first verses of which were composed during the assault.
In general, Anders' army and related events are reflected in the Polish monumental and visual arts, poetry, films, literary, artistic and journalistic works (especially in the period after 1990).
In Russian uncensored poetry, the theme of the Anders army was reflected in the “Song” by Joseph Brodsky, written under the influence of “Red Poppies on Monte Cassino”, Natalia Gorbanevskaya’s poem “Like Anders’ army of soldiers ...”, etc.
Notes
^ 1 2 History of the Second World War 1939-1945 (in 12 volumes) / editorial board, ch. ed. A. A. Grechko. - T. 4. - M .: Military Publishing House, 1975. - S. 172.
^ 1 2 Polish labor movement during the war and Nazi occupation (September 1939 - January 1945) / M. Malinovsky, E. Pavlovich, V. Poteransky, A. Pshegonsky, M. Vilyush. - M.: Politizdat, 1968. - S. 111.
^ Zbigniew Załuski. Pass to history. - M.: "Progress", 1967. - S. 200.
^ Polish workers' movement during the war and Nazi occupation (September 1939 - January 1945) / M. Malinovsky, E. Pavlovich, V. Poteransky, A. Prshegonsky, M. Vilyush. M., Politizdat, 1968. p.112
^ 1 2 3 4 IN AND. Pribylov. Why Anders' army left // "Military History Journal", No. 3, 1990
^ History of the Second World War 1939-1945 (in 12 volumes) / editorial board, ch. ed. A.A. Grechko. Volume 4. M., Military Publishing House, 1975. p.177
^ Yanina Bronevskaya. Notes of a war correspondent. M., Foreign Literature Publishing House, 1956. pp. 18-19
^ Polish workers' movement during the war and Nazi occupation (September 1939 - January 1945) / M. Malinovsky, E. Pavlovich, V. Poteransky, A. Prshegonsky, M. Vilyush. M., Politizdat, 1968. p.154
^ Yanina Bronevskaya. Notes of a war correspondent. M., Foreign Literature Publishing House, 1956. pp. 20, 54
^ 1 2 3 4 5 Polish workers' movement during the war and Nazi occupation (September 1939 - January 1945) / M. Malinovsky, E. Pavlovich, V. Poteransky, A. Prshegonsky, M. Vilyush. M., Politizdat, 1968. pp. 155-156
^ "More than 4.5 thousand "Andersovites" (including members of their families) entered the special settlement in the Irkutsk region in 1951. This contingent was in the special settlement until August 1958."
V. Zemskov. Repatriation of displaced Soviet citizens // "Skepsis" of May 26, 2007
^ "on the night of March 31 to April 1, 1951, the organs of the MGB of the BSSR began a massive action to arrest and deport the families of former servicemen of the Polish armed forces in the West to the Irkutsk region for special settlements ... In total (together with family members) the number of "Andersovites", expelled from the BSSR to the Irkutsk region amounted to 4520 people ... the vast majority of them are former servicemen of formations and formations of the 2nd Polish Corps. The rest of the military formations are represented more modestly: the 1st tank division - 29 people, the Air Force - 2 people, Navy- 1 person, Separate battalion commandos - 1 person."
Yury Gribovsky (Minsk), The fate of the former servicemen of the Anders army - repatriates to Belarus // "Belarus at XX Stagodzi", issue 2, 2003