In 1941, on the basis of an agreement between the leadership of the Soviet Union and the Polish government in London, a military formation was created in exile, which received, after the name of its commander, the name "Anders Army". It was fully staffed by citizens of Poland, for various reasons, who were on the territory of the USSR, and was intended to conduct joint operations with units of the Red Army against the Nazis. However, these plans were not destined to come true.
Creation of a Polish division in the USSR
In early November 1940, People's Commissar of Internal Affairs L. P. Beria took the initiative to create a division from among the Polish prisoners of war to carry out military operations on the territory of Poland in the Second World War. Having received approval from I. V. Stalin, he ordered to deliver from places of detention a large group of Polish officers (including 3 generals), who expressed a desire to take part in the liberation of their homeland.
As part of the implementation of the planned program, June 4, 1941, the government of the USSRdecided to create rifle division No. 238, which was to include both Poles and people of other nationalities who spoke Polish. The recruitment of personnel was entrusted to the captured General Z. Berling. However, for a number of reasons, it was not possible to create a division before the German attack on the Soviet Union, and due to 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. Sikorsky.
The difficult situation of the first days of the war prompted I. V. Stalin to the creation on the territory of the USSR of a number of national military units, formed from Czechs, Yugoslavs, Poles, etc. They were armed, provided with food, uniforms and everything necessary to participate in hostilities. With their own national committees, these units were operationally subordinate to 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. It reached an official agreement on the creation on 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 coming from the Soviet leadership.
At the same time, an agreement was signed on the restoration of diplomatic relations between the Polish Republic and the USSR, broken as a result of the eventsfollowing 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 on the territory of the Soviet Union as prisoners of war or who were imprisoned on other, quite weighty grounds.
Two months after the described events - in August 1941, the commander of the newly formed military formation was appointed. They became General Vladislav Anders. He was an experienced military leader, who, moreover, expressed his loyal attitude towards the Stalinist regime. The military forces subordinated to him became known as the "Army of Anders". Under this name, they entered the history of World War II.
Material costs and organizational difficulties
Almost all the costs of creating and putting on alert the army of Poland, which at first amounted to 30 thousand people, were assigned to the Soviet side, and only a small part of them was covered by the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition: the USA and Great Britain. The total amount of the 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 assist Polish refugees fleeing the Nazis on the territory of the USSR, and 15 million rubles. the government of the USSR allocated a non-refundable loan for the allowance of officers.
Major General A. P. Panfilov. In August 19412009, he approved the procedure proposed by the Polish side for all the upcoming organizational work. In particular, it was envisaged that the recruitment of personnel of units and subunits should be carried out both on a voluntary basis and by conscription. To this end, in the NKVD camps where Polish prisoners of war were kept, draft commissions were organized, whose members were charged with the duty to strictly control the contingent of people who joined the army, and, if necessary, reject objectionable candidates.
Initially, it was planned to create two infantry divisions, numbering 7-8 thousand people each, as well as a reserve unit. It was especially noted that the terms of formation had to be extremely tight, since 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 material supplies.
The hardships that accompanied the formation of the Polish army
From the memoirs of participants in the events of those years, it is known that, despite the agreement reached before, the NKVD was by no means in a hurry to grant 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 arriving at the recruitment 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.
Combat units, formed on the basis of an agreement with the Polish government in exile, consisted entirely of persons behind whomleft a long stay in prisons, camps and special settlements. Most of them were extremely emaciated and needed medical attention. But 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, mostly women and children, who also spontaneously arrived at the places where military units were formed. In addition, there was an acute shortage of medicines, building materials and vehicles.
First steps towards worsening relationships
Starting from mid-October 1941, the Poles repeatedly asked the Soviet government to take tighter control over the creation of Polish armed formations 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 due to the lack 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. Sikorsky, who was still in London, raised the issue of redeploying the main part of the Polish army to Iran, to the territory controlled by Great Britain.
In October 1941, an incident occurred that causeda sharp deterioration in the attitude of the Soviet government towards the units of the Anders army that continued to form. This story did not receive proper coverage in its time, and in many respects remains unclear to this day. The fact is that, on the orders of General Anders, a group of his officers arrived in Moscow, allegedly to solve a number of organizational problems. However, soon the envoys of the Polish commander illegally crossed the front line, and, having arrived in Warsaw, made contact with the Germans. This became known to Soviet intelligence, but Anders hastened to declare the officers traitors, disclaiming any responsibility for their actions. The topic was closed, but suspicions remained.
Signing a new agreement on friendship and mutual assistance
Further development of events followed at the end of November of the same year, when Polish Prime Minister V. Sikorsky 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 fellow civilians. On December 3, he was received by Stalin, after which another treaty of friendship and mutual assistance was signed between the Soviet Union and Poland.
The important elements of the agreement reached were: an increase in the size of Anders' army from 30 to 96 thousand people, the formation of seven additional divisions in Central Asia and the transfer to Iranian territory of all Poles not included in the armed forces. For the Soviet Union, this entailed new material costs, since Great Britain, under a plausible pretext, evaded the takenearlier obligations to supply an additional contingent of the Polish army with food and medicine. Nevertheless, military uniforms for the Poles were supplied by the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition.
The result of V. Sikorsky's visit to Moscow was a resolution adopted on December 25, 1941 by the USSR State Defense Committee. It specified in detail the number of divisions being created, their total number (96 thousand people), as well as the places of temporary deployment - a number of cities in the Uzbek, Kirghiz and Kazakh SSR. The main headquarters of the Polish Armed Forces on the territory of the USSR was to be located in the village of Vrevskiy, Tashkent region.
Poles' refusal to cooperate with the Red Army
By the beginning of 1942, the preparation of several divisions that were part of the Polish army was fully completed, and General Panfilov turned to Anders with a demand to send one of them to the front to help the defenders of Moscow. However, on the part of the Polish command, supported by V. Sikorsky, a categorical refusal followed, 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 that Anders's army, which had completed its formation by that time, be sent to the front. This time, the Polish general did not even consider it necessary to consider this appeal. Involuntarily, the suspicion arose that the Poles were deliberately delaying their entry into the war on the side of the USSR.
It intensified after V. Sikorsky, visiting Cairo in April of the same year, and meeting with the commander of the British armed forces in the Middle East, promised to transfer Anders' entire army to his disposal. The fugitive prime minister was not at all embarrassed that the formation and training of this 96,000-strong contingent of troops took place on the territory of the USSR and practically at the expense of its people.
By April 1942, there were about 69,000 Polish military personnel in the territories of the republics of Central Asia, including 3,100 officers and 16,200 representatives of lower ranks. Documents have been preserved in which L. P. Beria reported to I. V. Stalin that among the personnel of the Polish Armed Forces stationed on the territory of the Union republics, anti-Soviet sentiments predominate, embracing both privates and officers. In addition, unwillingness to go into battle together with units of the Red Army is openly expressed at all levels.
The idea of transferring Polish troops to the Middle East
In view of the fact that the interests of Great Britain in the Middle East were under threat, and the redeployment of additional armed forces there was difficult, Winston Churchill considered it most acceptable to use the Anders army to protect the oil regions and other important strategic facilities. It is known that back in August 1941, in a conversation with V. Sikorsky, he strongly recommended that he achieve the movement of Polish troops to areas where they could contact parts of the British armed forces.
Soonafter that, General Anders and the Polish ambassador to Moscow, S. Kot, received instructions from London, under any pretext, to transfer the army to the region of the Middle East, Afghanistan or India. At the same time, it was directly pointed out that the use of Polish troops in joint operations with the Soviet army was inadmissible, and the need to protect their personnel from communist propaganda. Since such requirements fully corresponded to 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, who left about 31.5 thousand people, about 13 thousand Poles from among civilians left the territory of the USSR. The reason for the transfer of such a significant number of people to the East was the decree of the Soviet government to reduce the amount of food distributed to the Polish divisions, the command of which stubbornly refused to participate in hostilities.
The endless delays with sending to the front extremely irritated not only General Panfilov, but also Stalin himself. During a meeting with Anders on March 18, 1942, he stated that he was providing the opportunity for the divisions entrusted to him to leave the USSR, since they were still of no practical use in the fight against the Nazis. At the same time, he stressed that the position taken by the head of the government in exile, V. Sikorsky, after the defeat of Germany, would extremely negatively characterize the role of Poland in the Secondworld war.
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 the remaining by that time servicemen of the Polish army, as well as civilians. After handing this document to Anders, he used all the reserves at his disposal to implement it.
However, despite the anti-Soviet sentiments that gripped the vast majority of Poles, there were many people among them who refused to evacuate to Iran and serve the interests of British oil corporations there. Of these, a separate rifle division named after Tadeusz Kosciuszka was subsequently formed, covering itself with military glory and taking a worthy 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 servicemen fled to the Middle East and settled in Libya. Of these, by order of the British government, the so-called Brigade of Carpathian Riflemen was formed, which was then introduced into the Anders army and transformed into a separate infantry division. In addition, the forces of the Poles in Iran were replenished with a hastily created tank brigade, as well as a cavalry regiment.
The complete evacuation of the armed forces subordinate to Anders and the civilians adjoining them was completed in early September 1942. At that moment, the number of the military contingent relocated to Iran amounted to more than 75 thousand people. Nearly 38,000 civilians joined them. ATlater, many of them were moved to Iraq and Palestine, and, upon arrival in the Holy Land, about 4 thousand Jews immediately deserted from Anders' army, who served in it along with representatives of other nationalities, but who wished to lay down their arms, being in their historical homeland. Subsequently, they became citizens of the sovereign state of Israel.
An important moment in the history of the army, 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 took place 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
Due to 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 transferred to Italy. The reason for this was the unsuccessful attempts of the allies to break through the defensive line of the Germans, covering 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, which later received the name "Gustav's Line", was the monastery of Monte Cassino, located near the coast, and turned into a well-fortified fortress. Duringits 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 troops opened the way to the Italian capital.
It is characteristic that by the end of the Second World War the number of the corps of General Anders, who was still in Italy, increased to 76 thousand people due to the replenishment of its personnel with Poles who had previously served in the ranks of the Wehrmacht. A curious document has been preserved, indicating that among the soldiers of the German army taken prisoner 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 formations
According to reports, the corps under the command of W. Anders, fighting on the side of the powers of the anti-Hitler coalition, launched a broad anti-Soviet activity against the establishment of a communist regime in post-war Poland. With the help of encrypted radio communications, as well as secret couriers heading to Warsaw, contact was established with members of the anti-communist and anti-Soviet underground in the Polish capital. It is known that in his messages to them, Anders called the army of the Soviet Union a "new occupier" and called for a decisive struggle against it.
In July 1945, with the horrors of World War II behind us, members of the Polish government inIn exile and their head, V. Sikorsky, very unpleasant news awaited: the former allies of Great Britain and the USA suddenly refused to recognize their legitimacy. Thus, politicians who counted on seizing top leadership positions in post-war Poland were out of luck.
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 it was 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.
