In 1941, on the basis of an agreement between the leadership of the Soviet Union and the Polish government in London, a military unit was created in exile, received, by the name of its commander, the name “Anders Army”. It was fully manned from citizens of Poland, for various reasons, who were on the territory of the USSR, and was intended to conduct joint actions with units of the Red Army against the Nazis. However, these plans were not destined to materialize.
The creation of the Polish division in the USSR
In early November 1940, the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs L.P. Beria took the initiative to create a division from among Polish prisoners of war to carry out military operations in Poland during World War II. Having received approval from I.V. Stalin, he ordered that a large group of Polish officers (including 3 generals), who expressed a desire to take part in the liberation of their homeland, be delivered from places of detention.
As part of the implementation of the planned program, on June 4, 1941, the USSR government decided to create a rifle division No. 238, which would include both Poles and people of other nationalities who speak Polish. The staffing was entrusted to the captive General Z. Burling. However, for a number of reasons, it was not possible to create a division before the German attack on the Soviet Union , and in view of the emergency situation that developed after June 22, the country's leadership was forced to cooperate with the Polish government in exile, headed by General V. Sikorski.
The difficult situation of the first days of the war prompted I.V. Stalin to create on the territory of the USSR a number of national military units formed from Czechs, Yugoslavs, Poles, etc. They were armed, provided with products, uniforms and everything necessary for participation in hostilities. With their own national committees, these units were under operational control of the High Command of the Red Army
Treaty signed in London
In July 1941, a joint meeting was held in London, which was attended by: British Foreign Minister Eden, Polish Prime Minister V. Sikorsky and Ambassador of the Soviet Union I.M. May. At it, an official agreement was reached on the creation in the territory of the USSR of a large formation of the Polish army, which is an autonomous unit, but at the same time fulfilling orders emanating from the Soviet leadership.
At the same time, an agreement was signed on the restoration between the Polish Republic and the USSR of diplomatic relations, broken as a result of the events that followed the adoption of the infamous Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. This document also provided for an amnesty for all citizens of Poland who were at that time in the territory of the Soviet Union as prisoners of war or who had been imprisoned on other, quite good reasons.
Two months after the events described - in August 1941, the commander of the newly formed military formation was appointed. They became General Vladislav Anders. He was an experienced military leader, expressing, moreover, his loyal attitude towards the Stalinist regime. The military forces subordinate to him became known as the “Anders Army”. Under this name, they went down in the history of World War II.
Material costs and organizational difficulties
Almost all of the expenses for the creation and putting into combat readiness of the Polish army, which at first amounted to 30 thousand people, were allocated to the Soviet side, and only a small part of them was covered by the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition: the United States and Great Britain. The total interest-free loan provided by Stalin to the Polish government amounted to 300 million rubles. In addition, an additional 100 million rubles were allocated. to help Polish refugees fleeing the Nazis in the USSR, and 15 million rubles. The Government of the USSR allocated an irrevocable loan to officers.
Major General A.P. was appointed as the Commissioner for issues related to the formation of the Polish army. Panfilov. In August 1941, he approved the procedure proposed by the Polish side for all pending organizational work. In particular, it was envisaged that the staffing of units and subunits should be carried out both on a voluntary basis and upon appeal. For this purpose, draft commissions were organized in the NKVD camps where Polish prisoners of war were detained, whose members were charged with the duty of strictly controlling the contingent of people who joined the army and, if necessary, rejecting objectionable candidates.
Initially, it was planned to create two infantry divisions, numbering 7-8 thousand people, as well as a reserve unit. It was especially noted that the formation dates had to be extremely short, as the situation required their speedy transfer to the front. Specific dates were not indicated, since they depended on the receipt of uniforms, weapons, and other inventories.
The hardships that accompanied the formation of the Polish army
From the recollections of the participants in the events of those years, it is known that, despite the agreement reached earlier, the NKVD was in no hurry to provide the promised amnesty to Polish citizens. Moreover, on the personal instructions of Beria, the regime in places of detention was tightened. As a result, after the arrival of draft commissions in the camps, the vast majority of prisoners expressed a desire to join the ranks of the army of General Anders, seeing this as the only possible way to release.
The combat units, which were formed on the basis of an agreement with the Polish government in exile, consisted entirely of people who had a long stay in prisons, camps and special settlements. Most of them were extremely exhausted and needed medical attention. But even the conditions in which they found themselves, having joined the newly formed army, were extremely difficult.
There were no heated barracks, and with the onset of cold weather people were forced to live in tents. Food rations were allocated to them, but they had to be shared with civilians, mainly women and children, who also spontaneously arrived at the places of formation of military units. In addition, there was an acute shortage of medicines, building materials and vehicles.
The first steps to worsening relationships
Starting in mid-October 1941, the Poles repeatedly appealed to the Soviet government with a request to take control of the creation of Polish armed forces and, in particular, to improve their food supply. In addition, Prime Minister V. Sikorsky took the initiative to create an additional division on the territory of Uzbekistan.
For its part, the Soviet government, through General Panfilov, replied that in the absence of the necessary material base, it could not ensure the creation of a Polish armed contingent of over 30 thousand people. In search of a solution to the problem, V. Sikorski, who was still in London, raised the question of the relocation of the main part of the Polish army to Iran, in the territory controlled by Great Britain.
In October 1941, an incident occurred that caused a sharp deterioration in the attitude of the Soviet government to the units of the Anders army that continued to form. This story has not received due coverage in due time, and in many respects remains unclear to this day. The fact is that, by order of General Anders, a group of his officers arrived in Moscow, ostensibly, to solve a number of organizational tasks. However, soon the envoys of the Polish commander illegally crossed the front line, and, arriving in Warsaw, came into contact with the Germans. This became known to Soviet intelligence, but Anders hastened to declare the officers traitors, relieving himself of all responsibility for their actions. The topic was closed, but suspicions remained.
Signing a new friendship and mutual assistance agreement
Further development of events followed at the end of November of the same year, when the Prime Minister of Poland V. Sikorski arrived in Moscow from London. The purpose of the visit of the head of government in exile was to negotiate the formation of Anders army, as well as measures to improve the situation of his compatriots from among civilians. On December 3, he was adopted by Stalin, after which the signing of the next treaty of friendship and mutual assistance between the Soviet Union and Poland took place.
Important elements of the agreement were: increasing the size of the Anders army from 30 to 96 thousand people, the formation of seven additional divisions in Central Asia and the transfer to Iran of all Poles not included in the armed forces. For the Soviet Union, this entailed new material costs, since the UK, on ​​a plausible pretext, shied away from its earlier obligation to supply the Polish army with food and medicine. Nevertheless, military uniforms for the Poles by the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition were delivered.
The result of the visit by V. Sikorsky to Moscow was a resolution adopted on December 25, 1941 by the USSR State Committee of Defense. It detailed the number of divisions being created, their total number (96 thousand people), and also the places of temporary deployment — a number of cities of the Uzbek, Kyrgyz, and Kazakh SSRs. The main headquarters of the Polish Armed Forces in the USSR was to be located in the village of Vrevsky, Tashkent region.
The refusal of the Poles to interact with the Red Army
By the beginning of 1942, the preparation of several divisions that were part of the Polish army was completely completed, and General Panfilov asked Anders to send one of them to the front to help the defenders of Moscow. However, the Polish command, supported by V. Sikorski, was followed by a categorical refusal, motivated by the fact that the participation of the Polish army in hostilities would be possible only after the completion of the training of its entire composition.
This picture was repeated at the end of March, when the country's leadership again demanded the sending to the front of Anders Army, which had completed its formation by that time. This time, the Polish general did not even consider it necessary to consider this appeal. Involuntarily there was a suspicion that the Poles deliberately delayed their entry into the war on the side of the USSR.
It intensified after V. Sikorsky, having visited Cairo in April of that year, and having met with the commander of the British armed forces in the Middle East, promised to transfer the entire Anders army at his disposal. The runaway prime minister was not at all embarrassed that the formation and training of this 96,000th contingent of troops took place on the territory of the USSR and practically at the expense of its people.
By April 1942, about 69 thousand Polish troops were in the territories of the republics of Central Asia, including 3100 officers and 16,200 representatives of lower ranks. Documents in which L.P. Beria reported to I.V. To Stalin that among the personnel of the Polish Armed Forces deployed in the territory of the Union republics, anti-Soviet sentiments prevailed, encompassing both ordinary and officer personnel. In addition, at all levels, reluctance is openly expressed to go into battle together with units of the Red Army.
The idea of ​​the transfer of Polish troops to the Middle East
In view of the fact that the observance of the interests of Great Britain in the Middle East was in jeopardy, and the redeployment of additional armed forces there was difficult, Winston Churchill considered it most suitable to use the Polish Anders army for the protection of oil areas and other important strategic facilities. It is known that in August 1941, in a conversation with V. Sikorsky, he strongly recommended that he achieve the transfer of Polish troops to areas where they could be in contact with units of the armed forces of Great Britain.
Shortly thereafter, General Anders and the Polish ambassador to Moscow, S. Kot, were instructed from London to make an army transfer to the Middle East, Afghanistan, or India under any pretext. At the same time, it was directly pointed out the inadmissibility of the use of Polish troops in joint operations with the Soviet army, and the need to protect their personnel from communist propaganda. Since such requirements were fully consistent with the personal interests of Anders himself, he began to look for ways to fulfill them as soon as possible.
Evacuation of the Polish armed forces from the territory of the USSR
In the last days of March 1942, the first stage of the redeployment of Anders' army to Iran was carried out. Together with the military, which served about 31.5 thousand people, about 13 thousand Poles from among civilians left the territory of the USSR. The reason for the transfer to the East of such a significant number of people was the decree of the Soviet government on reducing the amount of food distributed to Polish divisions, whose command stubbornly refused to participate in hostilities.
The endless delays with sending to the front extremely annoyed not only General Panfilov, but also Stalin himself. During a meeting with Anders on March 18, 1942, he said that he provided the opportunity for the divisions entrusted to him to leave the USSR, since they still had no practical use in the fight against the fascists. At the same time, he emphasized that the position taken by the head of government in exile by V. Sikorsky, after the defeat of Germany, would extremely negatively characterize the role of Poland in World War II.
At the end of July of the same year, Stalin signed a plan for the complete evacuation from the territory of the USSR of all remaining by that time military personnel of the Polish army, as well as civilians. After presenting this document to Anders, he used all the reserves at his disposal for its implementation.
However, despite the anti-Soviet sentiment that swept the vast majority of Poles, there were many among them who refused to evacuate to Iran and serve the interests of British oil corporations there. Subsequently, a separate rifle division named after Tadeusz Kosciuszka was formed from them, which covered itself with military glory and took its rightful place in the history of the Polish People’s Republic.
Stay of the Polish military contingent in Iran
When the Polish army suffered a crushing defeat in 1939, part of its troops fled to the Middle East and settled in Libya. Of them, by order of the British government, the so-called Brigade of Carpathian Riflemen was formed, which was then introduced into the Anders army and converted into a separate infantry division. In addition, the forces of the Poles in Iran were supplemented by the hastily created tank brigade, as well as the cavalry regiment.
The complete evacuation of the armed forces subordinate to Anders and the adjacent civilians was completed in early September 1942. At this point, the number of military contingent relocated to Iran amounted to more than 75 thousand people. Almost 38 thousand civilians joined them. Later, many of them were moved to Iraq and Palestine, and, upon arrival to the Holy Land, about 4 thousand Jews deserted from Anders army immediately, who served in it together with representatives of other nationalities, but wished to lay down their arms, finding themselves in their historical homeland . Subsequently, they became citizens of the sovereign state of Israel.
An important moment in the history of the army, which was still subordinate to Anders, was its transformation into the 2nd Polish Corps, which became part of the British armed forces in the Middle East. This event occurred on July 22, 1943. By that time, the number of its military personnel was 49 thousand people, armed with about 250 artillery pieces, 290 anti-tank and 235 anti-aircraft weapons, as well as 270 tanks and a significant number of vehicles of various brands.
2nd Polish Corps in Italy
In view of the need dictated by the operational situation that had developed by the beginning of 1944, parts of the Polish armed forces stationed until that time in the Middle East were hastily deployed to Italy. The reason for this was the unsuccessful attempts of the Allies to break through the German defensive line, which covered the approaches to Rome from the south.
In mid-May, her fourth assault began, in which the 2nd Polish Corps also took part. One of the main strongholds in the defense of the Germans, later known as the Gustav Lines, was the Monte Cassino Monastery, located near the coast, and turned into a well-fortified fortress. During his siege and subsequent assault, which lasted almost a week, the Poles lost 925 people killed and more than 4 thousand wounded, but thanks to their heroism, the Allied forces opened the way to the Italian capital.
Characteristically, by the end of World War II, the size of the corps of General Anders, who was still in Italy, increased to 76 thousand due to the replenishment of his personnel by the Poles who had previously served in the Wehrmacht. An interesting document has survived, indicating that among the soldiers of the German army captured by the British, there were about 69 thousand people of Polish nationality, the vast majority of whom (54 thousand people) expressed a desire to continue the war on the side of the allied forces. It was from them that the replenishment of the 2nd Polish Corps consisted.
Dissolution of Polish armed forces
According to reports, the corps under the command of V. Anders, fighting on the side of the powers of the anti-Hitler coalition, launched widespread anti-Soviet activity against the establishment of a communist regime in post-war Poland. Using encrypted radio communications, as well as secret couriers traveling to Warsaw, communication was established with members of the anti-communist and anti-Soviet underground of the Polish capital. It is known that in his letters to them, Anders called the army of the Soviet Union the “new occupier” and called for a decisive struggle against it.
In July 1945, when the horrors of World War II were already left behind, members of the Polish government in exile and their head V. Sikorski received very unpleasant news: the former allies of Great Britain and the USA suddenly refused to recognize their legitimacy. Thus, the politicians who counted on the seizure of top leadership posts in post-war Poland were not destiny.
A year later, Foreign Minister Ernst Bevin ordered the dissolution of all Polish armed units that were part of the British Army from London. This was already a blow directly to V. Anders. However, he was in no hurry to lay down his arms and announced that the war was not over for the Poles, and the duty of every true patriot to fight, not sparing his life, for the independence of his homeland from the Soviet aggressors. However, in 1947, its units were completely disbanded, and after the formation of the Polish People's Republic, many of their members chose to remain in exile.