Polish Underground State

The Polish Underground State was a single political and military entity formed by the union of resistance organizations in occupied Poland that were loyal to the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile in London. The first elements of the Underground State were established in the final days of the German and Soviet invasion of Poland, in late September 1939. The Underground State was perceived by supporters as a legal continuation of the pre-war Republic of Poland that waged an armed struggle against the country's occupying powers: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. The Underground State encompassed not only military resistance, one of the largest in the world, but also civilian structures, such as justice, education, culture and social services.
Although the Underground State enjoyed broad support throughout much of the war, it was not supported or recognized by the communists and some of the right-wing extremists. The influence of the communists eventually declined amid military reversals and the growing hostility of the USSR. The Soviet Union had created an alternative, puppet government in 1944 and ensured it formed the basis of the post-war government in Poland. During the Soviet-backed communist takeover of Poland at the end of the war, many Underground State members were prosecuted as alleged traitors and died in captivity. Abandoned by the Western Allies, finding it impossible to negotiate with the Soviets, and wishing to avoid a civil war, the key institutions of the Underground State dissolved themselves in the first half of 1945.
Ultimately, hundreds of thousands of people were directly involved with various agencies of the Underground State, and they were quietly supported by millions of Polish citizens. The rationale behind the creation of the secret civilian authority drew on the fact that the German and Soviet occupation of Poland was illegal. Hence, all institutions created by the occupying powers were considered illegal, and parallel Polish underground institutions were set up in accordance with Polish law. The scale of the Underground State was also inadvertently aided by the actions of the occupiers, whose attempts to destroy the Polish state, nation, and its culture, including most importantly genocidal policies that targeted Polish citizens, fuelled popular support for the Polish resistance movement and its development.
During the Cold War era, research on the Underground State was curtailed by Polish communist officials, who instead emphasized the role that communist partisans played in the anti-Nazi resistance. Hence, until recently, the bulk of research done on this topic was carried out by Polish scholars living in exile.

History

1939–1940: Formation

In many respects, the history of the Polish Underground State mirrors that of the Polish non-communist resistance in general. The Underground State traces its origins to the Service for Poland's Victory organization, which was founded on 27 September 1939, one day before the surrender of the Polish capital of Warsaw, at a time when the Polish defeat in the German invasion of Poland appeared inevitable. SZP founder General Michał Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski received orders from Polish Commander-in-Chief Marshal Edward Rydz-Śmigły to organize and carry out the struggle in occupied Poland. Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski decided that the organization he was creating needed to move beyond a strictly military format; and in line with the traditions of the underground 19th-century Polish National Government and World War I-era Polish Military Organization, it would need to encompass various aspects of civilian life. Hence, the SZP, in contact with the Polish Government in Exile, envisioned itself not only as an armed resistance organization, but also as a vehicle through which the Polish state continued to administer its occupied territories.
Following the Polish Constitution, President Ignacy Mościcki, interned in Romania after the Polish government evacuated itself from Poland on 17 September, resigned and appointed General Bolesław Wieniawa-Długoszowski as his successor; unpopular with the French government, Wieniawa-Długoszowski was replaced by Władysław Raczkiewicz on 29 September. General Władysław Sikorski, a long-term opponent of the Sanacja regime who resided in France and had the support of the French government, would become the Polish Commander-in-Chief and Poland's Prime Minister. This government was quickly recognized by France and the United Kingdom. Raczkiewicz, described as "weak and indecisive", held relatively little influence compared to charismatic Sikorski.
Due to political differences among factions in the Polish exile government, and in particular, SZP ties to the Sanacja regime which dominated the Polish government since the mid-1920s, the SZP was reorganized into the Union of Armed Struggle on 13 November 1939. Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski supported that move, aiming to include parties marginalized by the Sanacja regime, and supported the formation of the Main Political Council. Sikorski named General Kazimierz Sosnkowski the head of the ZWZ and Colonel Stefan Rowecki was appointed the commander of the ZWZ German occupation zone. Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski became the commander of the ZWZ Soviet zone but was arrested in March 1940 by the Soviets when attempting to cross the new German-Soviet border. In June Sikorski appointed Rowecki as the commander of both zones.
Given that the ZWZ focused on military aspects of the struggle, its civilian dimension was less clearly defined and developed more slowly—a situation exacerbated by the complex political discussions that were then unfolding between politicians in occupied Poland and the government in exile. Sikorski's government opted for a much more democratic procedure then the less democratic prewar Sanacja regime. The National Council was formed by the government in exile in December 1939, including representatives from different Polish political factions. Meanwhile, in occupied Poland, a major step toward the development of the organization's civilian structure was taken in late February 1940, when the ZWZ established its local version of the National Council, the Political Consultative Committee. PKP was formed in 1940 pursuant to an agreement between several major political parties: the Socialist Party, People's Party, National Party and Labor Party. In 1943 it was renamed to Home Political Representation and in 1944 to Council of National Unity.
The structures in occupied Poland maintained close communication with the government in exile, through radio communications and "hundreds, if not thousands" of couriers, such as Jan Karski. One of the most significant developments of 1940 was the creation of the office of Government Delegation for Poland, with Cyryl Ratajski as the first Delegate; this event marked the official beginning of the Underground State. The post of the Delegate could be seen as equivalent to that of a Deputy Prime Minister. Unlike the GRP and PKP, which operated alongside the military structures but had no influence over them, the Delegation had budgetary control over the military. The Delegation was to oversee the military and recreate the civilian administration.
As early as 1940, the Underground State's civilian arm was actively supporting underground education; it then set out to develop social security, information and justice networks.

1941–1943: Growth

By 1942, most of the differences between politicians in occupied Poland and those in exile had been positively settled. By 1943, the PKP had evolved into the Home Political Representation, which served as the basis of the Council of National Unity, created on 9 January 1944. The council, headed by Kazimierz Pużak, was seen as the Underground State's parliament. Meanwhile, the military arm of the Underground State expanded dramatically, and the ZWZ was transformed into Armia Krajowa in 1942. ZWZ-AK commanders included Stefan Rowecki, Tadeusz Komorowski and Leopold Okulicki.
In August 1943 and March 1944, the Polish Underground State announced its long-term plan, which was partly designed to undercut the attractiveness of some of the communists' proposals. The communists, in their increasingly radical What We Fight For declarations, were proposing the creation of a heavily socialist or even communist state, denouncing capitalism, which they equated to slavery. They demanded nationalization of most if not all of the economy, introduction of central planning, The Underground State's declaration What the Polish Nation is Fighting For declared the reconstruction of Poland as a democratic parliamentary state as its goal, guaranteeing full equality to the minorities, as well as full freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of political activity. The plan also called for the creation of a Central European federal union, without domination by any single state. In the economic sector, planned economy would be endorsed, by embracing the socialist and Christian Democrat principles, such as income redistribution, aiming at a reduction of economic inequality. The plan promised land reform, nationalization of the industrial base, demands for territorial compensation from Germany, and re-establishment of the country's pre-1939 eastern border. According to the plan, the country's Eastern borders, as delineated by the 1921 Treaty of Riga, would be kept while in the north and west compensation would be sought from German territories. Thus, the main differences between the Underground State and the communists, in terms of politics, were not rooted in radical economic and social reforms, which both sides advocated, but rather in their divergent positions on such issues as national sovereignty, borders, and Polish-Soviet relations. The program was criticized by the nationalist factions, for being too socialist, and not "Christian" enough.
The Underground State achieved its zenith of influence in early 1944. In April, the Polish government in exile recognized the administrative structure of the Delegate's Office as the Temporary Governmental Administration. This was when the Delegate officially became recognized as the Deputy Prime Minister, and the Council of Ministers at Home was created. The Underground State however declined sharply in the aftermath of the nationwide uprising, Operation Tempest, initiated in the spring of 1944. In addition to the costly and eventually unsuccessful Warsaw Uprising part of the Operation Tempest, the hostile attitude of the Soviet Union and its puppet Polish government, the Polish Committee of National Liberation towards the non-communist resistance loyal to the Polish government in exile proved to be disastrous. The Underground State assumed that the Polish resistance would aid the advancing Soviet forces, and AK commanders and representatives of the administrative authority would assume the role of legitimate hosts. Instead, the Soviets commonly surrounded, disarmed and arrested the Underground's military authority members and its civilian representatives, instituting their own administrative structures instead. In early July 1944, even as the AK resistance continued its struggle against the Germans, the Underground State was forced to order the AK and its administrative structure to remain in hiding from the Soviets, due to continued arrests and reprisals experienced by those who revealed themselves.