After world war II (WWII), Poland did not restore its statehood. With the implicit cooperation of the victorious Allies, the Soviet Union, which had attacked Poland as a Hitler ally in 1939, eventually took control of the Polish territory after the significant conflict concluded. Poland was the first European country to enter the Second World War when it began on September 1, 1939[1]. Poland was also the first country to declare war on Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union after they joined forces to topple the international order. The discussion on Poland’s post-war history is valid to determine the impact on producing advanced political, social, and economic constructs.
In an attempt to reclaim their freedom, the Polish people surreptitiously organized the Polish Underground State. Polish soldiers battled heroically to liberate their homeland from Nazi oppression throughout WWII and the following decades. The year 1945 was more of a watershed moment than the end of hostilities in Poland. The Polish independence struggle lasted long into the 1950s, with the last known partisan murdered by Soviet forces in 1963. Despite this, it is thought that the final partisan in hiding was active until 1982. Even while under Nazi and, subsequently, Soviet rule, he never stopped fighting.
The German army fought the Polish army for 17 days without getting reinforcements. As a result, one-third of their tank force was destroyed[2]. A powerful ally was required for Adolf Hitler’s quick victory. Invading Poland without it would have been far riskier than it was. In general, Eastern Europe was divided between German and Soviet spheres of influence, and Poland, in particular, was separated into two occupation zones as a result of a secret protocol linked to the Soviet Union-Germany alliance deal. German forces, which had invaded Poland earlier and thus occupied more territory, were required by the agreement to withdraw. As a result, Poland is divided geographically down the center. Polish authorities were forced to flee their homeland. It began in France and expanded to a broader extent throughout the United Kingdom once that country caved.
Over 200,000 people are estimated to have participated in partisan activities in the years following WWII’s end. They fought for liberty while trying to calm a national panic. The insurrection in Poland at this period is commonly referred to as the Polish anti-communist uprising. The years 1944-1947 witnessed the most intense fighting between independence fighters and the Soviet occupant of their territory. The Soviet Union’s frontline troops were the NKVD’s mechanized brigades. They were special forces formed specifically to eliminate partisan organizations. These teams were armed with heavy machine guns and armored combat vehicles.[3]. As a result, partisans equipped simply with light weapons were severely outgunned.
Fighting continued over Polish territory until the 1950s. Poland’s armed forces formally presented their final formations before disbanding for good in 1954. When it came to military might, the National Military Union was one of the most formidable factions that had long resisted the occupation. They’d been doing it for quite some time. Sergeant Józef Franczak, a soldier in the Polish Army, was the last Polish partisan fighting Soviet-led forces in 1963. Unfortunately, he was killed in combat. According to him, World War II technically did not end in 1945. He remained partisan during the entire 18-year period. He spent the majority of his final years in hiding, knowing full well that if he were ever discovered and brought to justice, he would be executed by the Soviets.
Warrant Officer Antoni Doga was the only surviving member of the Polish Underground State who refused to surrender. Despite the communists’ relentless pursuit, he remained undercover until 1982. He was a Polish soldier before the war, and he fought in Poland’s defensive battle in 1939. As a result, he got intimately involved in the Polish conspiracy movement during the Nazi occupation of Poland. During the Soviet occupation, he was in charge of a partisan group. With so few men left, he ordered the rest to return home and continued his actions until he died in 1982.
Without the steadfast support of the Polish people, partisan groups and Polish Underground State soldiers would not have survived the battle against the Soviets. While the rest of the world was rebuilding their countries and the UK was experiencing Beatlemania, Elvis Presley’s career was just getting started. The rapid rise of the Beatles correlates with this period. The fight for national independence was not over. The Soviet Union had built its military fortifications successfully. They instilled fear in the Polish people and eventually took control of the government, economy, and culture.
Polish people were the first in Soviet history to be picked out for annihilation because of their nationality. During the Polish Operation in 1937 and 1938, about 140,000 people were tormented, and 111,000 died as a direct result of their ordeal. The single factor of whether or not someone was subject to repression was their Polish nationality. In contrast to earlier mass killings carried out for political, social, or classist reasons, this was the first genocide carried out in a communist state for national grounds.
After their united invasion of Poland, the two allies worked closely together for over two years. Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union both harbored anti-Polish sentiments. Many people, including Polish elites, were slaughtered, and millions of Poles were killed in concentration camps, frequently after being forced to work. The Soviets forcibly transferred the Polish people to cold, dry regions of the USSR. This was done on purpose. Deportation was delayed due to Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union, saving the lives of millions of Poles in the country formerly known as Poland. On the spur of the moment, the Nazis captured all of Poland.
When the Nazis launched an attack on the Soviet Union, the communists, who found themselves in an unaccustomed defensive situation, were told to organize a partisan movement. It was impossible since Hitler and Stalin collaborated closely until 1941. Soviet Russian partisans and communist-affiliated militias openly opposed the Polish Underground State. The anti-Nazi resistance movement in Poland had been active since 1939, and at that time, the majority of the country’s young people had joined it. As a result, the communists had to rely mainly on criminal gangs and street thugs for new members.[4]. In exchange for the steadfast loyalty of the communist regime, a secure political sanctuary was guaranteed. The communists let these gangs continue their criminal acts under the guise of “partisan units of the People’s Army and the People’s Guard.”
The most substantial Polish Underground State military formation, the Home Army, was pitted against units loyal to Joseph Stalin because the Soviet Union was an ally of the United Kingdom, where the Polish Government-in-Exile was situated at the time.[5]. The National Military Forces (or National Defense Forces) were a close second in terms of the Underground State’s armed forces. The primary purpose of this organization was to oppose communist banditry as hard as possible. Partisans linked with the Communist Party were not particularly successful in the war, but they committed ceaseless acts of pillaging, raping, and murder on innocent civilians. The vast majority of them were uneducated slobs who didn’t care about personal hygiene. They were charged with gathering information about members of the Polish Underground State’s institutions in particular. That was their primary responsibility. Data was collected and wirelessly transferred to Soviet headquarters. Because of the information obtained about its members, the Polish resistance movement was eventually disbanded.
Due to a lack of training and ammunition, communist fighters rarely fought German forces throughout WWII.[6]. They focused on detonating explosives on railroad tracks to slow down German supply trains headed to the eastern front. The Germans replied by killing a large number of innocent individuals. Communist partisans regarded both the German army and the Polish Underground State as deadly adversaries.[7]. Both were regarded as impediments to the accomplishment of a global insurrection. As a result, while Poland was under Nazi German occupation, many Polish civilians active in the resistance movement were murdered or attacked by communist partisan troops.
The front lines were withdrawn into prewar Poland in 1944. When the Germans withdrew from Poland, the Red Army was able to make further advances[8]. The NKVD had dispatched forces to assist them. Poles believed that the Red Army that attacked their country in 1939, when Hitler’s forces were allied with them, was the same force that attacked them now. The Soviets did not change their attitude toward Poles or the fight for Poland’s independence. Following the Soviet army’s advance, the NKVD units were tasked with conducting systematic searches, arrests, investigations, assassinations, and deportations of Polish citizens involved in the resistance effort.
The Soviet Union was the world’s first communist country. In all areas of policymaking, including international and domestic affairs, economy, and social welfare, the nation’s political authority was guided by communist ideas. It is impossible to appreciate the character and achievements of the world’s first communist state, the Soviet Union, without first grasping communist ideology’s ideals. These ideas are represented through state emblems of the Soviet Union.
In this illustration, a hammer and sickle sit above the world. The hammer and sickle symbolized Soviet and communist ideology. Because a worldwide revolution had occurred and a class conflict was unavoidable, the state was founded. Both are central to Karl Marx’s and the Soviet Union’s beliefs.[9]. The communist state would take ultimate control of all nations in the case of a worldwide revolution. It is clear how the need to adjust social environments is an imperative process that was needed to establish high standard political operations. Communist theorists frequently suggest that communist and capitalist nations cannot live peacefully together. The Soviets sought to start a global war. If all capitalist countries destroyed each other, the Soviets might take over. As a result, the Soviet Union was never prepared for a defensive war, preferring to rely on offensive measures.
Bibliography
Alpidovskaya, M. L., and Elena G. Popkova. Marx and Modernity: A Political and Economic Analysis of Social Systems Management. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing Inc., 2019.
Charnysh, Volha. “Diversity, Institutions, and Economic Outcomes: Post-WWII Displacement in Poland.” American Political Science Review 113, no. 2 (2019): 423–41. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003055419000042.
Hackmann, Jörg. “Defending the ‘Good Name’ of the Polish Nation: Politics of History as a Battlefield in Poland, 2015–18.” Journal of Genocide Research 20, no. 4 (2018): 587–606. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623528.2018.1528742.
Harrison, Kevin, and Tony Boyd. “The role of ideology in politics and society.” In Understanding political ideas and movements, pp. 135-153. Manchester University Press, 2018.
Sternfeld, Lior. “‘Poland Is Not Lost While We Still Live’: The Making of Polish Iran, 1941–45.” Jewish Social Studies 23, no. 3 (2018): 101–27. https://doi.org/10.2979/jewisocistud.23.3.04.
Subotic, Jelena. “Political Memory, Ontological Security, and Holocaust Remembrance in Post-Communist Europe.” European Security 27, no. 3 (2018): 296–313. https://doi.org/10.1080/09662839.2018.1497980.
[1] Charnysh, Volha. “Diversity, Institutions, and Economic Outcomes: Post-WWII Displacement in Poland.” American Political Science Review 113, no. 2 (2019): 423–41. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003055419000042.
[2] Ibid
[3] Alpidovskaya, M. L., and Elena G. Popkova. Marx and Modernity: A Political and Economic Analysis of Social Systems Management. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing Inc., 2019.
[4] Harrison, Kevin, and Tony Boyd. “The role of ideology in politics and society.” In Understanding political ideas and movements, pp. 135-153. Manchester University Press, 2018.
[5] Hackmann, Jörg. “Defending the ‘Good Name’ of the Polish Nation: Politics of History as a Battlefield in Poland, 2015–18.” Journal of Genocide Research 20, no. 4 (2018): 587–606. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623528.2018.1528742.
[6] Sternfeld, Lior. “‘Poland Is Not Lost While We Still Live’: The Making of Polish Iran, 1941–45.” Jewish Social Studies 23, no. 3 (2018): 101–27. https://doi.org/10.2979/jewisocistud.23.3.04.
[7] Subotic, Jelena. “Political Memory, Ontological Security, and Holocaust Remembrance in Post-Communist Europe.” European Security 27, no. 3 (2018): 296–313. https://doi.org/10.1080/09662839.2018.1497980.
[8] Hackmann, Jörg. “Defending the ‘Good Name’ of the Polish Nation: Politics of History as a Battlefield in Poland, 2015–18.” Journal of Genocide Research 20, no. 4 (2018): 587–606. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623528.2018.1528742.
[9] Sternfeld, Lior. “‘Poland Is Not Lost While We Still Live’: The Making of Polish Iran, 1941–45.” Jewish Social Studies 23, no. 3 (2018): 101–27. https://doi.org/10.2979/jewisocistud.23.3.04.
write