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The Volunteer Reserve of the Citizens' Militia (ORMO; ) was a
paramilitary A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934. Overview Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...
reserve organization of the Citizen's Militia (MO), the police force of the
Polish People's Republic The Polish People's Republic (1952–1989), formerly the Republic of Poland (1947–1952), and also often simply known as Poland, was a country in Central Europe that existed as the predecessor of the modern-day democratic Republic of Poland. ...
. ORMO was created in 1946 to help establish
communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
rule in Poland in the aftermath of
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. It had approximately 400,000–450,000 people in its reserves (at one time numbered as many as 600,000 civilian volunteers), recruited mostly from the ruling
Polish United Workers' Party The Polish United Workers' Party (, ), commonly abbreviated to PZPR, was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other legally permitted subordinate minor parti ...
, a large share of members of the United People's Party and Democratic Party, farmers and workers with communist sympathies, and other non-party opportunists. ORMO was often involved in
political repression Political repression is the act of a state entity controlling a citizenry by force for political reasons, particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing the citizenry's ability to take part in the political life of a society, thereby ...
in Poland, including the unlawful arrest and beatings of peaceful protesters, such as during the public demonstrations organized by
Solidarity Solidarity or solidarism is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. True solidarity means moving beyond individual identities and single issue politics ...
which opposed the communist government. ORMO was disbanded by the
Sejm The Sejm (), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (), is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of the Third Polish Republic since the Polish People' ...
in 1989 during the collapse of the communism in Poland.


Early history

The Volunteer Reserve of the Citizens' Militia (''Ochotnicza Rezerwa Milicji Obywatelskiej'' or ORMO) was created on 21 February 1946 by the
State National Council Krajowa Rada Narodowa in Polish language, Polish (translated as State National Council or Homeland National Council, abbreviated to KRN) was a parliament-like political body created during the later stages of World War II in Nazi Germany, German- ...
(KRN), a
communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
body under the auspices of the
Polish Workers' Party The Polish Workers' Party (, PPR) was a communist party in Poland from 1942 to 1948. It was founded as a reconstitution of the Communist Party of Poland (KPP) and merged with the Polish Socialist Party (PPS) in 1948 to form the Polish United W ...
(PPR). In the aftermath of
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, the KRN was installed as the government of Poland with the military backing of the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
and needed to establish its authority. The main, initial purpose of ORMO was to provide urgently needed reinforcements to
People's Army of Poland The Polish People's Army (, ; LWP) was the second formation of the Polish Armed Forces in the East during the latter stages of the World War II, Second World War (1943–1945), and subsequently the armed forces of the History of Poland (1945 ...
, the
Internal Security Corps The Internal Security Corps (, KBW) was a special-purpose military formation in Poland under History of Poland (1945–1989)#Stalinist era (1948–1956), communist government, established on 24 May 1945. History The KBW consisted of 10 new ca ...
and MO special forces during operations against the Polish anti-communist insurgency. It was placed under the control of the
Ministry of Public Security Ministry of Public Security can refer to: * Ministry of Justice and Public Security (Brazil) * Ministry of Public Security of Burundi * Ministry of Public Security (Chile) * Ministry of Public Security (China) * Ministry of Public Security of Co ...
led by Stanisław Radkiewicz. The new units were considerably small, made up of 30–300 men armed with
rifle A rifle is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting and higher stopping power, with a gun barrel, barrel that has a helical or spiralling pattern of grooves (rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus o ...
s and
submachine gun A submachine gun (SMG) is a magazine (firearms), magazine-fed automatic firearm, automatic carbine designed to fire handgun cartridges. The term "submachine gun" was coined by John T. Thompson, the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun, to descri ...
s. Membership of ORMO was open to those aged between 18 and 45 years old with Polish citizenship. Most recruits were from
left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...
backgrounds, mainly members of the ruling
Polish United Workers' Party The Polish United Workers' Party (, ), commonly abbreviated to PZPR, was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other legally permitted subordinate minor parti ...
(PZPR) and, to a lesser extent, its satellite parties the United People's Party and Democratic Party. ORMO men did not receive monthly salaries, but were showered with regular monetary bonuses and state privileges. They were given new apartments, vouchers for cars, exclusive vacations and access to police health clinics, as well as better job placements. These attracted opportunists who had little interest in politics to join. ORMO members were often thoroughly indoctrinated by the Marxist-Leninist ideology of the PZPR and feared by the general population. 200px, The crew of the WOP Gierałcice guard station in 1978. A driver who is a member of ORMO is visible ORMO played a major role in the
rigging Rigging comprises the system of ropes, cables and chains, which support and control a sailing ship or sail boat's masts and sails. ''Standing rigging'' is the fixed rigging that supports masts including shrouds and stays. ''Running rigg ...
of the
1946 Polish people's referendum 1946 (Roman numerals, MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1946th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 946th year of the 2nd millennium, the 46th year of the 20th centur ...
, also known as the "3 times yes" referendum, the first election in post-war Poland. Armed ORMO men guarded the entrances to all
polling station A polling place is where voters cast their ballots in elections. The phrase polling station is also used in American English, British English and Canadian English although a polling place is the building and polling station is the specific ...
s and, as ordered, expelled official observers. They did it again a year later, during the 1947 Polish legislative elections, when they drove opposition candidates out of towns by using intimidation and violence. In total, almost 100,000 functionaries across the country were deployed to secure a communist
landslide victory A landslide victory is an election result in which the winning Candidate#Candidates in elections, candidate or political party, party achieves a decisive victory by an overwhelming margin, securing a very large majority of votes or seats far beyo ...
in that year. After 1947, when communist authority in Poland had been consolidated, the activities of ORMO became more general and covert, shifting from repressing political opponents to monitoring the Polish public at large. Submachine guns were replaced with concealed weapons and informants were placed everywhere within the nationalized industry to monitor for signs of dissent. ORMO infiltrated factories and conducted round-ups among shop owners, confiscated grain and meat from independent farmers, and took part in arresting them as the " enemies of the state" alongside the regular police. This formed the bulk of ORMO activity during the 1950s and early 1960s. In 1967, the duties of ORMO were formalised and expanded, including the power to perform
arrest An arrest is the act of apprehending and taking a person into custody (legal protection or control), usually because the person has been suspected of or observed committing a crime. After being taken into custody, the person can be question ...
s and greater involvement in
prosecution A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the adversarial system, which is adopted in common law, or inquisitorial system, which is adopted in Civil law (legal system), civil law. The prosecution is the ...
s.


Later activity

The next widely known operation by the ORMO took place during the
March 1968 events A series of major student, intellectual and other protests against the ruling Polish United Workers' Party of the Polish People's Republic took place in Poland in March 1968. The crisis led to the suppression of student strikes by Służba Bezpie ...
, simultaneously in several major cities across Poland. On 8 March, while the regular police watched students protests passively (partly out of respect for the autonomy of Warsaw University), the ORMO "worker-squads" stormed into the buildings armed with batons and performed swarm beatings of students in classrooms, along corridors, and in the university halls. Similar operations followed in
Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...
from 14 to 20 March, in
Lublin Lublin is List of cities and towns in Poland, the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the centre of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin i ...
,
Gliwice Gliwice (; , ) is a city in Upper Silesia, in southern Poland. The city is located in the Silesian Highlands, on the Kłodnica river (a tributary of the Oder River, Oder). It lies approximately 25 km west from Katowice, the regional capital ...
,
Wrocław Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...
from 14 to 16 March, and in
Gdańsk Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdań ...
and
Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...
against striking students. At least 2,725 people were arrested. Andrzej Friszke,
The March 1968 Protest Movement in Light of Ministry of Interior Reports to the Party Leadership
" Intermarium, Volume 1, Number 1, 1997; translated from Polish by Dawid Walendowski. Original published in Więź (March 1994). ''Quote:'' "The experience of being detained, arrested, questioned, and even beaten, was an important event in the lives of most of the 2,725 and others..."
The success of the ORMO attack on universities in the wake of growing citizen discontent (see Polish 1970 protests) prompted the Ministry to begin massive expansion of its rank and file. By 1979, ORMO reached over 450,000 members. At the turn of the 1980s, the nascent
Solidarity Solidarity or solidarism is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. True solidarity means moving beyond individual identities and single issue politics ...
movement took the communists by surprise. By mid-1981, membership of Solidarity had reached 9.5 million, of the working-age population of Poland. In this case, the ORMO formations were not used against striking workers because many of its volunteers had become demoralized by public resentment, with membership dropping dramatically.
Show of force A show of force is a military operation intended to warn (such as a warning shot) or to intimidate an opponent by showcasing a capability or will to act if one is provoked. Shows of force may also be executed by police forces and other armed, n ...
operations were confined only to major urban centres. The crushing of Solidarity by the introduction of
martial law in Poland Martial law in Poland () existed between 13 December 1981 and 22 July 1983. The Polish United Workers' Party, government of the Polish People's Republic drastically restricted everyday life by introducing martial law and a military junta in an a ...
in 1981 was taken over by ZOMO, the elite motorized units of the police. Attempts at restructuring ORMO as the PZPR's own self-defence force, carried out by Czesław Kiszczak, failed miserably. In the following years, many regional cells were closed down due to a lack of volunteers. Finally in 1989, after the
fall of communism in Poland Autumn, also known as fall (especially in US & Canada), is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Southern Hemispher ...
, ORMO was officially dissolved by the Sejm.


See also

Similar formations: *
State Defense Forces In the United States, state defense forces (SDFs) are military units that operate under the sole authority of a State governments of the United States, state government. State defense forces are authorized by state and federal law and are unde ...
*
Territorial Army (United Kingdom) The Army Reserve is the active-duty volunteer reserve force of the British Army. It is separate from the Regular Reserve (United Kingdom), Regular Reserve whose members are ex-Regular personnel who retain a statutory liability for service. Desce ...
*
United States National Guard The National Guard is a U.S. state, state-based military force that becomes part of the United States Armed Forces, U.S. military's reserve components of the United States Armed Forces, reserve components of the United States Army, U.S. Army a ...
* Territorial Defense Forces * People's Militias * Combat Groups of the Working Class * Workers' Militia * Patriotic Guards * Worker-Peasant Red Guards * Voluntary People's Druzhina


Notes and references


External links

{{Authority control Polish People's Republic 1946 establishments in Poland 1989 disestablishments in Poland