Polish Level 1 20th-C History World War II 3 February 1999
23 Aug German-Soviet Pact signed by Molotov and Ribbentrop.
25 Aug Anglo-Polish Alliance signed.
1 Sept Germany invades Poland; Britain declares war upon Germany. By 12 Sept. German forces reach Lwow
17 Sept Red Army enters eastern Poland. SZP (Służba Zwycięstwu Polski) established under Tokarzewski as underground resistance.
28 Sept Warsaw falls to German troops.
30 SeptNew Polish Government formed in Paris under premiership of W. Sikorski (also assumes role of C-in-C from 7 November). Tokarzewski formally placed in charge of underground operations in Soviet zone of occupation, and Grot-Rowecki in German zone.
5 Oct End of Polish military resistance.
8 Oct The Reich annexes "Wartheland", "Zichenau" and "Danzig-Westpreussen".
12 OctGeneral-Gouvernement established under Hans Frank.
26 OctEdict issued making hard labour compulsory for all Jews in the General-Gouvernement between 16-60.
November PM Sikorski establishes the underground as ZWZ (Związek Walki Zbrojnej) and confirms Grot-Rowecki as commander. The annexed Eastern Polish territories are incorporated administratively into the USSR, to be followed by plebiscites confirming the desire of the native Belorussian and Ukrainian populations to join the BySSR and UkrSSR.
29 OctoberAll residents of the incorporated territories are reclassified as Soviet citizens.
26 Jan All Jews in GG restricted on pain of death to place of residence.
Autumn sees the first talks between Gen. Berling and Stalin.
January Nowe Widnokręgi (ed. Wanda Wasilewska) appears in Lwów.
March Sikorski visits Roosevelt in USA.
22 June OPERATION BARBAROSSA: German troops invade the USSR.
July Estonia/Latvia and Lithuania are incorporated into the USSR.
18 July Polish-Czech Treaty signed in London.
30 July Soviet-Polish Treaty signed in Savoy Hotel in London: this restored diplomatic relations, promised military co-operation, the raising of a Polish Army in the SU, and an Amnesty for all Poles in the Soviet Union.
1 August Sikorski calls for the SU to recognize the 1921 Treaty of Riga as the starting point for all negotiations. This stand leads to a stalemate in Polish-Soviet relations.
7 December Japan destroys American fleet at Pearl Harbour: USA declares war on Japan and Axis countries.
In the same month Sikorski visits Stalin in Moscow. "Inicjatywa" group parachuted into Poland: Marcelli Nowotko, Paweł Finder, etc., leading to the
January Foundation of the Polska Partia Robotnicza (PPR), which created a Communist resistance, the Gwardia Ludowa.
In the summer of 1942, amid mutual recriminations, Anders' wing of the Polish Army in the USSR, the Drugi Korpus, is evacuated from the SU to Iran, and thence to North Africa, where it played an important role with the Dywizja Karpacka under Gen. Stanisław Kopański, and in the Italian Campaign, notably at Monte Casino. (In total, there were some 200,000 Poles serving under British command). The other wing, left in the SU, the Pierwszy Korpus (est. 1943), was transformed in 1944 into the Pierwsza Armia Polska, under Berling. In September 1944, a second Polish Army was founded under Gen. Rola-Żymierski, drawing on the incorporated resistance fighters, and both armies fought together with the Red Army in the Battle for Berlin. By May 1945 there were 400,000 Poles under Soviet command.
July Polish Gvt. agencies in the SU closed down; many Polish officials arrested as spies.
20 Nov Nowotko murdered under mysterious circumstances.
23 NovemberSoviet offensive begins at Stalingrad.
December Germans begin expelling Polish peasants from the Zamoœć/Lublin area, but reprisals from the Resistance put an end to this policy.
January Związek Patriotów Polskich founded; Soviet government declares all residents of the annexed territories Soviet citizens again. (Complete break with terms of amnesty).
16 February Himmler orders total liquidation of Warsaw Ghetto
18 April-16 May Jewish Uprising in WARSAW GHETTO. Suppressed with vicious atrocities. All former inmates transported to concentration camps.
12 April German troops unearth bodies in Katyń forest and accuse Soviets. Sikorski wants Red Cross investigation and this further sours relations with SU.
25/26 April Total break of diplomatic relations between Soviet and Polish governments.
30 June Grot-Rowecki arrested in Warsaw, later executed. Bór-Komorowski replaces him as commander.
5 July Sikorski dies in plane accident off Gibraltar. Mikołajczyk becomes new PM, and Kazimierz Sosnkowski the new C-in-C.
12-15 July Battle of Kursk won by Red Army, now almost constantly on offensive.
Nov TEHRAN CONFERENCE on post-war situation.
3 January Red Army crosses the 1939 Polish border.
1 June Armia Polska declares itself "in Poland" as it crosses Molotov-Ribbentrop Line. (AP-78,000; AL-55,000; AK-200,000; NSZ-7,000).
21 July Polski Komitet Wyzwolenia Narodowego [PKWN] formed in Lublin by PPR under the chairmanship of Edward Osóbka-Morawski, publishing its manifesto on 22 July. It proclaimed an end to all hostilities with the USSR, and it was recognized by the USSR as the "temporary organ of executive power in Poland". It was a rival organization to the government in exile in London, and had the advantage of being (i) in situ, and (ii) supported by Soviet troops.
29 July Mikołajczyk goes to Moscow to meet Stalin.
WARSAW UPRISING
1 August AK rises in revolt against Germans in Warsaw, thus initiating the WARSAW UPRISING. Bór-Komorowski was hoping to strengthen Mikołajczyk's diplomatic hand in Moscow, but it had the opposite effect: Stalin refused to allow Allied landings of supplies, and the Soviet Armies waited on the left bank of the Vistula, even after the 25 Aug, when supplies were replenished.
9 September Permission granted to Allies to launch airlifts from Soviet airfields.
13 September Soviet aeroplanes aid insurgents, strafing German positions and dropping supplies.
3 October Capitulation of the insurgents; most supplies dropped by air fell into German hands. Berling's attempts to establish a bridgehead came too late (16-21 Sept), and were too late to save Warsaw. Throughout October, as the Germans made ready to leave, Warsaw was systematically razed to the ground: "After 5 or 6 weeks, Warsaw will disappear; Warsaw the capital, the head of 16-17 million Poles, a people who blocked the East to us for 700 years, will be no more. Then, historically speaking, the Polish Question will no longer be a problem for us, for our children, and for all those who will succeed us." (Himmler to Hitler on the Day of the Uprising, 1 August 1944).
Sosnkowski dismissed by Mikołajczyk for accusing the British of abandoning the Poles to their fate as in 1939. He was replaced by Bór-Komorowski, but Bór was arrested in Warsaw on 5 October.
10 October Mikołajczyk leaves for Moscow again, bound by the Polish cabinet's demand for 1939 bordersand for equal representation of the five parties in the temporary government: SL, PPS, ND, PPR and PPracy. This is turned down, and Churchill and Eden try to make Mikołajczyk accept the Curzon line as the Eastern frontier.
24 November After his return to London, Mikołajczyk resigns as he cannot carry his cabinet with him. 5 days later he is replaced by Tomasz Arciszewski (PPS), but the SL refuse to join. Without the SL, it was now ignored by the Great Powers.
31 December PKWN proclaims itself the provisional government, with Osóbka-Morawski as PM, Gomułka as one of the deputy-PMs, and Bolesław Bierut as Head of State.
5 January USSR recognizes the PKWN, and thus the Allies' stance on Polish affairs is broken, as the USA and GB still recognize the London-based government. In the same month, Warsaw is liberated: a city of ruins. 200,000 Poles had died and 800,000 were deported to the GG, the Reich or straight into the concentration camps.
©Dr John Bates, 2000