Aleksander Krzyzanowski
Encyclopedia
Aleksander "Wilk" Krzyżanowski (1895–1951) was a Polish
officer
, major
, member of the Polish resistance movement in World War II
and Commandant of the Armia Krajowa
in the Vilnius Region
.
and was conscripted into the Russian Army
during the First World War, where he first started to specialize in artillery
.
After Poland regained independence in 1918 he joined the Polish military, and took part in the Polish-Soviet War
where he distinguished himself in 1919 receiving the Krzyż Walecznych
medal, and in January 1920 he took part in the heavy fighting at the Battle of Daugavpils
.
During the interwar period in the Second Polish Republic
he further continued his military career. At the time of the Nazi invasion of Poland (September 1, 1939) he was commanding the 26th Regiment of Light Artillery, attached to the Polish 26th Infantry Division
, part of the Army Poznań under general Tadeusz Kutrzeba
. His unit was destroyed during the battle of Bzura.
Soon afterward he organized a partisan unit at Świętokrzyskie Mountains
, but after this unit was defeated by the Germans he arrived in Warsaw by late October, and joined the first Polish resistance organizations, the Służba Zwycięstwu Polski. By November he was assigned to Wilno (now known as Vilnius, Lithuania), at the same time occupied by the Soviet Union
which divided Poland with the Nazi Germany according to the earlier concluded Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
.
Soon SZP was transformed into Związek Walki Zbrojnej
. When in April 1941 Soviet NKVD
arrested the commander of the ZWP in the Vilnius region, general Nikodem Sulik
, it was Krzyżanowski who de facto replaced him, and his position was officially confirmed by general Stefan Rowecki
in August. In 1942 ZWP was transformed into Armia Krajowa
(AK).
Krzyżanowski attempted to build a larger anti-German coalition and issued explicit orders that no ethnic group, including Jews, should be mistreated. He also opened negotiations with the representatives of the Lithuanian and Belorussian resistance but they were fruitless. The negotiations with the Soviets initially lead nowhere as well. The Soviet Union aimed to ultimately regain the control from Germany over the territories USSR annexed from Poland in 1939
and Stalin's aim to ensure that an independent Poland would never reemerge in the postwar period. The relationship between the Soviets and the Sikorski's Polish government in exile
, formally a commanding force of the AK, was strained at best, especially in the wake of the evidence of the mass execution of the Polish POW officers by the Soviets
that were in 1943 widely publicized by the Nazis.
As Soviet partisans increasingly engaged in terror against local population and attacked Home Army units, local AK commanders considered the Soviets as just another enemy. As ordered by Moscow on June 22, 1943 the Soviet partisans started an open fight both against the German forces and the local Polish partisans. In January and February 1944, in the wake of growing hostilities between the Soviet partisans
and the AK forces Krzyzanowski conducted a series of negotiations with Germans
. In effect of negotiations with Seidler for Rosenfield of the Nazi German Security Service
near Wilejka and Julian Christiansen, the Chief of the Vilnius Abwehr
, cooperation between Germans and the AK was established in the area of Krzyżanowski's units' operation and, according to the report of the local Nazi official "three sizeable Polish detachments came over to our side and initially also fought well." While Krzyzanowski refused to sign an explicit agreement on cooperation, the secret arrangement was made that the AK would "capture" the armaments and provisions left to them by Germans.
As a result, the AK units in the area were armed by Germans, Germans pulled off their mobilization plans in the area (leaving the territory for AK's mobilization campaign) and largely totally withdrew, German spies and agent were spared by AK members and no AK members were executed by Germans in their reprisals against the local population. However any such arrangements were purely tactical and did not evidenced a type of ideological collaboration as shown by the Vichy regime in France, the Quisling regime
in Norway or closer to the region, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
. The Poles' main motivation was to gain intelligence on German morale and preparedness and to acquire some badly needed weapons.
There are no known joint Polish-German actions, and the Germans were unsuccessful in their attempt to turn the Poles toward fighting exclusively against Soviet partisans. Such collaboration of local commanders with the Germans was generally atypical and such incidents were condemned by AK High Command.
In May 1944 Polish resistance units were attacked by the Local Lithuanian Detachment under general Povilas Plechavičius
. Krzyżanowski attempted to negotiate, but Plechavičius demanded that AK and all Polish partisans were to retreat from Wilno region and accept Lithuanian sovereignty over that territory. Krzyżanowski would not agree to such a withdrawal and the fighting escalated, eventually culminating in the Polish victory over the Lithuanian collaborationist forces in the battle of
Muravanaya Ashmyanka
of May 13-May 14. After that battle Krzyżanowski attempted to resume negotiations but was ignored by the Lithuanian side. The increasing hostilities culminated in June, when Lithuanian pro-Nazi Lithuanian Security Police
forces, which had recently suffered a loss of several members in a skirmish with AK, massacred 37 Polish civilians in Glinciszki, a village known to support the Polish partisans. Krzyżanowski ordered his forces to increase the activity against the Lithuanians in retribution and, according to the accounts published in Lithuania, his forces conducted a multitude of actions against the Lithuanian civil population. It is unclear whether he was aware of the Dubingiai incident, in which an AK unit massacred a number of Lithuanian civilians (the number of victims estimates vary between 27 and close to a hundred or more). Although the Armia Krajowa's actions are still controversial in Lithuania , a Lithuanian historian Arunas Bubnys
has stated that there were no mass murders by the AK (the only exception being Dubingiai), but that the AK was guilty only of some war crimes against individuals or selected families. He also noted that accusations of genocide or widespread activities by the AK are false and have underlying political motives , including to counteract accusations of widespread German-Lithuanian collaboration and crimes committed by units such as the Lithuanian Secret Police.
Beginning in the spring of 1944 the Polish underground was preparing for the major Operation Tempest
, which was designed to cause a large scale uprising behind the German lines to prevent the Soviet takeover of the territory by establishing a local Polish administration before the Soviet's arrival, as a sign to the entire world that the Polish government in exile
commanded significant Polish forces. Operation Tempest would also support of the Soviet Eastern Front
offensive. In June Krzyżanowski and his subordinates prepared the plan for the liberation of Wilno: Operation Ostra Brama. On 2 July 1944 he gave orders to begin the operation on the 7 July, although because of the Soviet quick advance the operation was put into effect one day early (on 6 July).
Largely in the effect of the German-AK relationship in the area, only a third of the available AK force took part in the operation against the Nazis. In the end, the Polish forces had to cooperate with the Soviets to secure Wilno. After the Poles and Soviets defeated the Germans on July 17, 1944, Polish officers, including Krzyżanowski, who had been invited to a debriefing with the Soviets, were arrested and imprisoned.
Krzyżanowski was in prison until 1947. In August 1947 he escaped but was quickly re-arrested when he approached a Polish official who worked for the Polish communists. He was repatriated to Poland in October 1947. He did not support any secret resistance against the Soviets, like Wolność i Niezawisłość, arguing that it was pointless in the face of Soviet numerical superiority and the Western betrayal
, but he remained in contact with many of his former subordinates. He was however still viewed as a danger to the state by the Polish communist regime, and was arrested in 1948 by Polish secret police, Urząd Bezpieczeństwa. In the prison his health collapsed, and he died on September 29, 1951 from tuberculosis
.
. In 1994 he was posthumously promoted to the rank of general.
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
officer
Officer (armed forces)
An officer is a member of an armed force or uniformed service who holds a position of authority. Commissioned officers derive authority directly from a sovereign power and, as such, hold a commission charging them with the duties and responsibilities of a specific office or position...
, major
Major
Major is a rank of commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every military in the world.When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicator of rank, the term refers to the rank just senior to that of an Army captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
, member of the Polish resistance movement in World War II
Polish resistance movement in World War II
The Polish resistance movement in World War II, with the Home Army at its forefront, was the largest underground resistance in all of Nazi-occupied Europe, covering both German and Soviet zones of occupation. The Polish defence against the Nazi occupation was an important part of the European...
and Commandant of the Armia Krajowa
Armia Krajowa
The Armia Krajowa , or Home Army, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...
in the Vilnius Region
Vilnius region
Vilnius Region , refers to the territory in the present day Lithuania, that was originally inhabited by ethnic Baltic tribes and was a part of Lithuania proper, but came under East Slavic and Polish cultural influences over time,...
.
Biography
Aleksander Krzyżanowski was born in BryanskBryansk
Bryansk is a city and the administrative center of Bryansk Oblast, Russia, located southwest of Moscow. Population: -History:The first written mention of Bryansk was in 1146, in the Hypatian Codex, as Debryansk...
and was conscripted into the Russian Army
Military history of Imperial Russia
The Military history of the Russian Empire encompasses the history of armed conflict in which the Empire participated. This history stretches from its creation in 1721 by Peter the Great, until the Russian Revolution , which led to the establishment of the Soviet Union...
during the First World War, where he first started to specialize in artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
.
After Poland regained independence in 1918 he joined the Polish military, and took part in the Polish-Soviet War
Polish-Soviet War
The Polish–Soviet War was an armed conflict between Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine and the Second Polish Republic and the Ukrainian People's Republic—four states in post–World War I Europe...
where he distinguished himself in 1919 receiving the Krzyż Walecznych
Krzyz Walecznych
The Cross of Valor is a Polish military decoration. It was first introduced by the Council for Defense of the State on 11 August 1920. It is awarded to an individual who "has demonstrated deeds of valor and courage on the field of battle." It may be awarded to the same person up to four times...
medal, and in January 1920 he took part in the heavy fighting at the Battle of Daugavpils
Battle of Daugavpils
Battle of Daugavpils was the final battle of the joint Polish and Latvian Operation Winter against the Red Army. It took place in late December 1919 in the area around the city of Daugavpils...
.
During the interwar period in the Second Polish Republic
Second Polish Republic
The Second Polish Republic, Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland refers to Poland between the two world wars; a period in Polish history in which Poland was restored as an independent state. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland , the Polish state was...
he further continued his military career. At the time of the Nazi invasion of Poland (September 1, 1939) he was commanding the 26th Regiment of Light Artillery, attached to the Polish 26th Infantry Division
Polish 26th Infantry Division
The Polish 26th Infantry Division was a unit of the Polish Army, which took part in the Polish September Campaign. It was formed as 4th Infantry Division in southern Poland in April 1919. Its regiments originally stationed in such towns as Cieszyn, Jarosław and Przemyśl.In 1921, the Division was...
, part of the Army Poznań under general Tadeusz Kutrzeba
Tadeusz Kutrzeba
Tadeusz Kutrzeba was an army general of the Second Polish Republic.Kutrzeba was born in Kraków, then part of Austria-Hungary...
. His unit was destroyed during the battle of Bzura.
Soon afterward he organized a partisan unit at Świętokrzyskie Mountains
Swietokrzyskie Mountains
Świętokrzyskie Mountains , are a mountain range in central Poland, in the vicinity of the city of Kielce. The mountain range consists of a number of separate ranges, the highest of which is Łysogóry . The two highest peaks are Łysica at 612 meters and Łysa Góra at 593 meters...
, but after this unit was defeated by the Germans he arrived in Warsaw by late October, and joined the first Polish resistance organizations, the Służba Zwycięstwu Polski. By November he was assigned to Wilno (now known as Vilnius, Lithuania), at the same time occupied by the Soviet Union
Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union
Immediately after the German invasion of Poland in 1939, which marked the beginning of World War II, the Soviet Union invaded the eastern regions of the Second Polish Republic, which Poles referred to as the "Kresy," and annexed territories totaling 201,015 km² with a population of 13,299,000...
which divided Poland with the Nazi Germany according to the earlier concluded Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, was an agreement officially titled the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union and signed in Moscow in the late hours of 23 August 1939...
.
Soon SZP was transformed into Związek Walki Zbrojnej
Zwiazek Walki Zbrojnej
Związek Walki Zbrojnej was an underground army formed in Poland following its invasion in September 1939 by Germany and the Soviet Union that opened World War II.The precursor to the ZWZ was the Service...
. When in April 1941 Soviet NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
arrested the commander of the ZWP in the Vilnius region, general Nikodem Sulik
Nikodem Sulik
Nikodem Sulik-Sarnowski, who used the noms de guerre "Jodko", "Jod", "Karol", and "Sarnowski" , was an officer of the Russian Imperial Army, and Generał brygady of the Polish Army.-Biography:...
, it was Krzyżanowski who de facto replaced him, and his position was officially confirmed by general Stefan Rowecki
Stefan Rowecki
Stefan Paweł Rowecki was a Polish general, journalist and the leader of the Armia Krajowa. He was murdered by the Gestapo in prison, probably on the direct order of Heinrich Himmler.-Life:Rowecki was born in Piotrków Trybunalski...
in August. In 1942 ZWP was transformed into Armia Krajowa
Armia Krajowa
The Armia Krajowa , or Home Army, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...
(AK).
Krzyżanowski attempted to build a larger anti-German coalition and issued explicit orders that no ethnic group, including Jews, should be mistreated. He also opened negotiations with the representatives of the Lithuanian and Belorussian resistance but they were fruitless. The negotiations with the Soviets initially lead nowhere as well. The Soviet Union aimed to ultimately regain the control from Germany over the territories USSR annexed from Poland in 1939
Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union
Immediately after the German invasion of Poland in 1939, which marked the beginning of World War II, the Soviet Union invaded the eastern regions of the Second Polish Republic, which Poles referred to as the "Kresy," and annexed territories totaling 201,015 km² with a population of 13,299,000...
and Stalin's aim to ensure that an independent Poland would never reemerge in the postwar period. The relationship between the Soviets and the Sikorski's Polish government in exile
Polish government in Exile
The Polish government-in-exile, formally known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in Exile , was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Poland of September 1939, and the subsequent occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, which...
, formally a commanding force of the AK, was strained at best, especially in the wake of the evidence of the mass execution of the Polish POW officers by the Soviets
Katyn massacre
The Katyn massacre, also known as the Katyn Forest massacre , was a mass execution of Polish nationals carried out by the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs , the Soviet secret police, in April and May 1940. The massacre was prompted by Lavrentiy Beria's proposal to execute all members of...
that were in 1943 widely publicized by the Nazis.
As Soviet partisans increasingly engaged in terror against local population and attacked Home Army units, local AK commanders considered the Soviets as just another enemy. As ordered by Moscow on June 22, 1943 the Soviet partisans started an open fight both against the German forces and the local Polish partisans. In January and February 1944, in the wake of growing hostilities between the Soviet partisans
Soviet partisans
The Soviet partisans were members of a resistance movement which fought a guerrilla war against the Axis occupation of the Soviet Union during World War II....
and the AK forces Krzyzanowski conducted a series of negotiations with Germans
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
. In effect of negotiations with Seidler for Rosenfield of the Nazi German Security Service
Sicherheitsdienst
Sicherheitsdienst , full title Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS, or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. The organization was the first Nazi Party intelligence organization to be established and was often considered a "sister organization" with the...
near Wilejka and Julian Christiansen, the Chief of the Vilnius Abwehr
Abwehr
The Abwehr was a German military intelligence organisation from 1921 to 1944. The term Abwehr was used as a concession to Allied demands that Germany's post-World War I intelligence activities be for "defensive" purposes only...
, cooperation between Germans and the AK was established in the area of Krzyżanowski's units' operation and, according to the report of the local Nazi official "three sizeable Polish detachments came over to our side and initially also fought well." While Krzyzanowski refused to sign an explicit agreement on cooperation, the secret arrangement was made that the AK would "capture" the armaments and provisions left to them by Germans.
As a result, the AK units in the area were armed by Germans, Germans pulled off their mobilization plans in the area (leaving the territory for AK's mobilization campaign) and largely totally withdrew, German spies and agent were spared by AK members and no AK members were executed by Germans in their reprisals against the local population. However any such arrangements were purely tactical and did not evidenced a type of ideological collaboration as shown by the Vichy regime in France, the Quisling regime
Quisling regime
The Quisling regime, or the Quisling government are common names used to refer to the collaborationist government led by Vidkun Quisling in occupied Norway during the Second World War. The official name of the regime from 1 February 1942 until its dissolution in May 1945 was Nasjonale regjering...
in Norway or closer to the region, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists is a Ukrainian political organization which as a movement originally was created in 1929 in Western Ukraine . The OUN accepted violence as an acceptable tool in the fight against foreign and domestic enemies particularly Poland and Russia...
. The Poles' main motivation was to gain intelligence on German morale and preparedness and to acquire some badly needed weapons.
There are no known joint Polish-German actions, and the Germans were unsuccessful in their attempt to turn the Poles toward fighting exclusively against Soviet partisans. Such collaboration of local commanders with the Germans was generally atypical and such incidents were condemned by AK High Command.
In May 1944 Polish resistance units were attacked by the Local Lithuanian Detachment under general Povilas Plechavičius
Povilas Plechavicius
Povilas Plechavičius was an Imperial Russian and then Lithuanian military officer and statesman. In the service of Lithuania he rose to the rank of General of the army in the interwar period...
. Krzyżanowski attempted to negotiate, but Plechavičius demanded that AK and all Polish partisans were to retreat from Wilno region and accept Lithuanian sovereignty over that territory. Krzyżanowski would not agree to such a withdrawal and the fighting escalated, eventually culminating in the Polish victory over the Lithuanian collaborationist forces in the battle of
Battle of Murowana Oszmianka
The Battle of Murowana Oszmianka of May 13–May 14, 1944 was the largest clash between the Polish resistance movement organization Home Army and the Nazi Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force ; a Lithuanian volunteer security force subordinated to Nazi Germany...
Muravanaya Ashmyanka
Muravanaya Ashmyanka
Muravanaya Ashmyanka is the village in the Hrodna Voblast of Belarus, located 11 km NW from Ashmyany and 28 km from railway station Ashmyany. In 1999, there were 338 villagers and 134 dwellings....
of May 13-May 14. After that battle Krzyżanowski attempted to resume negotiations but was ignored by the Lithuanian side. The increasing hostilities culminated in June, when Lithuanian pro-Nazi Lithuanian Security Police
Lithuanian Security Police
The Lithuanian Security Police, also referred to as Saugumas , was a Lithuanian Nazi collaborationist police force that operated from 1941 to 1944. It had a staff of approximately 400 people, 250 of them in Kaunas and around another 130 in Vilnius....
forces, which had recently suffered a loss of several members in a skirmish with AK, massacred 37 Polish civilians in Glinciszki, a village known to support the Polish partisans. Krzyżanowski ordered his forces to increase the activity against the Lithuanians in retribution and, according to the accounts published in Lithuania, his forces conducted a multitude of actions against the Lithuanian civil population. It is unclear whether he was aware of the Dubingiai incident, in which an AK unit massacred a number of Lithuanian civilians (the number of victims estimates vary between 27 and close to a hundred or more). Although the Armia Krajowa's actions are still controversial in Lithuania , a Lithuanian historian Arunas Bubnys
Arunas Bubnys
Arūnas Bubnys is a Lithuanian historian and archivist. He started his studies at Vilnius University in 1985. In 1993 he received a Ph.D for the thesis Lietuvių antinacinė rezistencija 1941–1944 m. ....
has stated that there were no mass murders by the AK (the only exception being Dubingiai), but that the AK was guilty only of some war crimes against individuals or selected families. He also noted that accusations of genocide or widespread activities by the AK are false and have underlying political motives , including to counteract accusations of widespread German-Lithuanian collaboration and crimes committed by units such as the Lithuanian Secret Police.
Beginning in the spring of 1944 the Polish underground was preparing for the major Operation Tempest
Operation Tempest
Operation Tempest was a series of uprisings conducted during World War II by the Polish Home Army , the dominant force in the Polish resistance....
, which was designed to cause a large scale uprising behind the German lines to prevent the Soviet takeover of the territory by establishing a local Polish administration before the Soviet's arrival, as a sign to the entire world that the Polish government in exile
Polish government in Exile
The Polish government-in-exile, formally known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in Exile , was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Poland of September 1939, and the subsequent occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, which...
commanded significant Polish forces. Operation Tempest would also support of the Soviet Eastern Front
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...
offensive. In June Krzyżanowski and his subordinates prepared the plan for the liberation of Wilno: Operation Ostra Brama. On 2 July 1944 he gave orders to begin the operation on the 7 July, although because of the Soviet quick advance the operation was put into effect one day early (on 6 July).
Largely in the effect of the German-AK relationship in the area, only a third of the available AK force took part in the operation against the Nazis. In the end, the Polish forces had to cooperate with the Soviets to secure Wilno. After the Poles and Soviets defeated the Germans on July 17, 1944, Polish officers, including Krzyżanowski, who had been invited to a debriefing with the Soviets, were arrested and imprisoned.
Krzyżanowski was in prison until 1947. In August 1947 he escaped but was quickly re-arrested when he approached a Polish official who worked for the Polish communists. He was repatriated to Poland in October 1947. He did not support any secret resistance against the Soviets, like Wolność i Niezawisłość, arguing that it was pointless in the face of Soviet numerical superiority and the Western betrayal
Western betrayal
Western betrayal, also called Yalta betrayal, refers to a range of critical views concerning the foreign policies of several Western countries between approximately 1919 and 1968 regarding Eastern Europe and Central Europe...
, but he remained in contact with many of his former subordinates. He was however still viewed as a danger to the state by the Polish communist regime, and was arrested in 1948 by Polish secret police, Urząd Bezpieczeństwa. In the prison his health collapsed, and he died on September 29, 1951 from tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
.
Posthumous
He was buried in an unmarked grave, but in the wake of destalinization in 1957 his body was exhumed and buried in the Powązki Military CemeteryPowązki Military Cemetery
Powązki Military Cemetery is an old military cemetery located in the Wola district, western part of Warsaw, Poland. The cemetery is often confused with the older Powązki Cemetery, known colloquially as "Old Powązki"...
. In 1994 he was posthumously promoted to the rank of general.
See also
- Maciej KalenkiewiczMaciej KalenkiewiczMaciej Kalenkiewicz was a Polish engineer and military officer, a podpułkownik of the Polish Army. During the World War II he received training as a Cichociemny and was delivered to occupied Poland, where he assumed the command over the Nowogródek Home Army area. He was one of the Polish...
- Belarusian partisansBelarusian partisansBelarusian partisans were fighters in irregular military groups participating in the Belarusian resistance movement, including against Nazi Germany and collaborationism during World War II.- World War II :...
- Polish partisans