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Striking Cadre Battalions
Striking Cadre Battalions ({{langx, pl, Uderzeniowe Bataliony Kadrowe, ''UBK'') were armed anti-Nazi resistance units organized by the right-wing Polish resistance organization Confederation of the Nation. They existed between late 1942 and early 1944 (after August 1943 they were part of the Home Army). Beginnings The idea to create the UBK was conceived among Warsaw's conspirational circles in early 1940s. Altogether, eight battalions were formed, and their task was to engage the Germans in Polish countryside, especially in the Eastern Borderlands of Poland. First attempt to organize armed resistance took place in October 1942. Members of the 1st Battalion, under Captain Ignacy Telechun (nom de guerre ''Toporski''), after concentration in the forests north of Warsaw, headed towards northern Podlaskie, where they wanted to set a base. However, their forces were not strong enough and after several skirmishes with the ''Wehrmacht'', the unit returned to Warsaw. They lost 36 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Occupation Of Poland (1939–1945)
During World War II, Poland was occupied by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union following the invasion in September 1939, and it was formally concluded with the defeat of Germany by the Allies in May 1945. Throughout the entire course of the occupation, the territory of Poland was divided between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union (USSR), both of which intended to eradicate Poland's culture and subjugate its people. In the summer-autumn of 1941, the lands which were annexed by the Soviets were overrun by Germany in the course of the initially successful German attack on the USSR. After a few years of fighting, the Red Army drove the German forces out of the USSR and crossed into Poland from the rest of Central and Eastern Europe. Sociologist Tadeusz Piotrowski argues that both occupying powers were hostile to the existence of Poland's sovereignty, people, and the culture and aimed to destroy them. Before Operation Barbarossa, Germany and the Soviet Union coordinated th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bialystok District
Bialystok District ( German: ''Bezirk Bialystok'') was an administrative unit of Nazi Germany created during the World War II invasion of the Soviet Union. It was to the south-east of East Prussia, in present-day northeastern Poland as well as in smaller sections of adjacent present-day Belarus and Lithuania. It was sometimes also referred to by the designation South East Prussia ( German: ''Südostpreußen'' - see the map below) along with the Regierungsbezirk Zichenau, although in contrast to the latter, it was not incorporated into, but merely attached to East Prussia. The territory lay to the east of the Molotov–Ribbentrop line and was consequently occupied by the Soviet Union and incorporated into the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. In the aftermath of the German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941, the westernmost portion of Soviet Belarus (which, until 1939, belonged to the Polish state), was placed under the German Civilian Administration ('' Zivilverwalt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Military History Of Poland During World War II
In World War II, the Polish armed forces were the fourth largest Allies of World War II, Allied forces in Europe, after those of the Soviet Union, United States and United Kingdom, Britain. Poles made substantial contributions to the Allied effort throughout the war, fighting on land, sea, and in the air. Polish forces in the east, fighting alongside the Red army and under Soviet high command, took part in the Soviet offensives across Belarus and Ukraine into Poland and Vistula-Oder Offensive, across the Vistula and Oder Rivers to the Battle of Berlin. In the west, Polish paratroopers from the 1st Independent Parachute Brigade (Poland), 1st Independent Polish Parachute Brigade fought in the Battle of Arnhem / Operation Market Garden; while ground troops were present in the North Africa Campaign (siege of Tobruk); the Italian campaign (including the capture of the monastery hill at the Battle of Monte Cassino); and in battles following the invasion of France (the battle of the Fal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) secret police organization, and thus had a monopoly on intelligence and state security functions. The NKVD is known for carrying out political repression and the Great Purge under Joseph Stalin, as well as counterintelligence and other operations on the Eastern Front of World War II. The head of the NKVD was Genrikh Yagoda from 1934 to 1936, Nikolai Yezhov from 1936 to 1938, Lavrentiy Beria from 1938 to 1946, and Sergei Kruglov in 1946. First established in 1917 as the NKVD of the Russian SFSR, the ministry was tasked with regular police work and overseeing the country's prisons and labor camps. It was disbanded in 1930, and its functions dispersed among other agencies before being reinstated as a commissariat of the Soviet Union ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operation Ostra Brama
Operation Ostra Brama (, ) was the Polish Home Army's attempted takeover of Vilnius () in wake of the German ''Wehrmacht's'' evacuation, ahead of the approaching Soviet Red Army's Vilnius offensive. A part of a Polish national uprising, Operation Tempest, the action happened on 7–13 July 1944. The operation's main goal was propagandistic – to claim Vilnius for Poland by retaking it before Soviet arrival. Despite the operation's failure, the Polish government-in-exile continued its political line that led to the catastrophic Warsaw Uprising on 1 August 1944. Background June 1944: Plans for uprising On June 12, General Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski, Commander-in-Chief of the Home Army, ordered the preparation of a plan to seize Vilnius from German hands. The Home Army's Vilnius and Nowogródek districts planned to conquer the city before the Soviets did. Lieutenant Colonel Aleksander Krzyżanowski, who commanded the Home Army's Vilnius District, regrouped all the region ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vilnius
Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population was 607,667, and the Vilnius urban area (which extends beyond the city limits) has an estimated population of 747,864. Vilnius is notable for the architecture of its Vilnius Old Town, Old Town, considered one of Europe's largest and best-preserved old towns. The city was declared a World Heritage Site, UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. The architectural style known as Vilnian Baroque is named after the city, which is farthest to the east among Baroque architecture, Baroque cities and the largest such city north of the Alps. The city was noted for its #Demographics, multicultural population during the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, with contemporary sources comparing it to Babylon. Before World War II and The Holocaust in Lithuania, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lida
Lida is a city in Grodno Region, western Belarus, located west of Minsk. It serves as the administrative center of Lida District. As of 2025, it has a population of 103,262. Etymology The name ''Lida'' arises from its Lithuanian name ''Lyda'', which derives from ''lydimas'', meaning "slash-and-burn" agricultural method or a plot of land prepared in this way. Names in other languages are spelled as and . History Early history There are passing mentions of Lida in chronicles from 1180. Until the early 14th century, the settlement at Lida was a wooden fortress in Lithuania proper. In 1323, the Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas built a brick fortress there. The generally considered founding year of Lida is 1380. The fortress withstood Crusader attacks from Prussia in 1392 and 1394 but was burned to the ground in 1710. Following the death of Gediminas, when Lithuania was divided into principalities, Lida became the capital of one of them, the seat of Algirdas. Lida was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operation Tempest
file:Akcja_burza_1944.png, 210px, right Operation Tempest or Operation Burza (, sometimes referred to in English as "Operation Storm") was a series of uprisings conducted during World War II against occupying German forces by the Polish Home Army (''Armia Krajowa'', abbreviated ''AK''), the dominant force in the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish resistance. Operation Tempest's objective was to seize control of German-occupied cities and areas while the Germans were preparing their defenses against the advancing Soviet Red Army. The Polish Underground State hoped to take power before the Soviets arrived. A goal of the Polish government-in-exile in London was to restore Poland's 1939 borders with the USSR, rejecting the Curzon Line border. According to Jan Ciechanowski (diplomat), Jan Ciechanowski,"The [exiled] Polish Cabinet believed that by refusing to accept the Curzon Line they were defending their country's right to exist as a national entity. They were deter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Novogrudok
Novogrudok or Navahrudak (; ; , ; ) is a town in Grodno Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Novogrudok District. As of 2025, it has a population of 27,624. In the Middle Ages, the city was ruled by King Mindaugas' son Vaišvilkas. During and after Mindaugas' rule, Novogrudok was part of the Kingdom of Lithuania, and later the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which was later part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In the 14th century, it was an episcopal see of the Metropolitanate of Lithuania. From 1795 to 1915, the Russian Empire ruled over the lands, with brief periods of intercession, e.g. Napoleon's ''Grande Armée'' in 1812 and the Uprisings of November Uprising, 1831 and January Uprising, 1863. After 1915, Novogrudok was occupied by the German Army (German Empire), Imperial German Army for three years in World War I, by the Second Polish Republic until the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939. Thereafter, the Soviet Union annexed the area to the Byelo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski
Generał Tadeusz Komorowski (1 June 1895 – 24 August 1966), better known by the name Bór-Komorowski (after one of his wartime code names: ''Bór'' – "The Forest") was a Polish military leader. He was appointed commander-in-chief a day before the capitulation of the Warsaw Uprising and following World War II, 32nd Prime Minister of Poland, 3rd Polish government-in-exile in London. Life Komorowski was born in Khorobriv, in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria (the Austrian partition of Poland). In the First World War he served as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army, and after the war became an officer in the Polish Army, rising to command the Grudziądz Cavalry School. He was a member of the Polish equestrian team that went to the 1924 Summer Olympics. After taking part in the fighting against the German invasion of Poland at the beginning of World War II in 1939, Komorowski, with the code-name ''Bór'', helped organise the Polish underground in the Kraków area. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
