Czortków uprising

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Czortków uprising
Part of the Occupation of Poland

Insurgency headquarters at the Wasilewski family home, Grunwaldzka 6 Street, Czortków
Date21–22 January 1940
Location
Czortków, Podolia
Result Soviet victory
Belligerents
Poland Anti-soviet Polish students  Soviet Union
Strength
100 to 250 insurgents Unknown
Casualties and losses
14 KIA, several wounded,
around 150 taken prisoner in the following days, out of which 24 were executed.		 Three KIA

The Czortków uprising (

occupation of Poland.[1][2]

Background

On 17 September 1939 the Red Army, allied with Nazi Germany (see:

Czortków, seat of a powiat (population 20,000), located in prewar Tarnopol Voivodeship
.

Between 1939 and the 1941

campaign of repressions
.

The Polish inhabitants of Czortków (in 1931 ethnic Poles made up 46.4% of the town's population) organized themselves against the Soviets as early as October 1939, when a conspirational organization Stronnictwo Narodowe (National Alliance) was created.[5] Its purpose was to fight the occupier and carry out sabotage.[6] Soon afterwards, the founders of the organization, mostly students from the local high school including Tadeusz Bankowski, Henryk Kamiński, Heweliusz Malawski, and their teacher Józef Opacki, decided to organize an uprising.[6]

The night of the attack

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In December 1939, a large contingent of the Red Army troops from the garrison in Czortków left town to fight in the

Seret.[6]

The conspirators decided to start the uprising on the night of January 21/22, 1940, the anniversary of the outbreak of the 1863 January Uprising. In the evening of January 21, between 100 and 250 people gathered in Czortków's Roman Catholic Dominican Church. Most of them were not armed, only a few had guns or knives, some even old-fashioned swords. They divided themselves into four groups – the first was going to seize the main barracks, the second – the prison, the third – the center of town, and the fourth – the railway station. The plotters agreed that their battle cry would be Z krzyzem (Along with the Cross).[6]

The attack on the Red Army barracks took place at 22:00, but the plotters underestimated the strength of the Soviets, and failed to capture the complex. Alarmed by the gunshots, the Red Army troops stormed out of the barracks and counterattacked. After a short gunfight, in which three Soviet soldiers and 14 Poles died and several were wounded, the plotters dispersed.[5]

Aftermath

On the next day, 22 January, the

Jan Tomasz Gross writes that the plotters were beaten with wooden poles, handguns, bottles and metal bars, and "kicked until their jaws and ribs were broken."[7] Fifty five men were sentenced to exile in Siberia.[5][6] Almost all of those murdered or expelled were male teenagers of Polish nationality from Czortkow. Also, officers of the Polish Army, kept in Czortkow prison, were among those murdered in the Katyn massacre
later on.

Eighteen months later on 2 July 1941, just after

Roman Catholic Church in the town. According to some witnesses, this was in revenge for Dominican help with the uprising.[5]

Władysław Buczkowski, a witness to the uprising, wrote in his memoirs that even though he did not take part in the revolt, he was arrested on January 27 and, after torture, was sent to prison in

Sikorski-Mayski Agreement, he managed to escape from the Soviet Union.[8]

References

  1. ^ Marek A. Koprowski (23 September 2008). "W Czortkowie nad Seretem". Kresy.pl. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  2. ^ Stanisław Maria Jankowski. "POWSTAŃCZY ZRYW W CZORTKOWIE W 1940 R. (Wystawa)" (PDF). Instytut Pamięci Narodowej Oddział w Krakowie. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  3. ISBN 0-19-821944-X
    .
  4. ISBN 1-57181-882-0. {{cite book}}: |author2= has generic name (help
    )
  5. ^ a b c d Tadeusz A. Janusz, Sprawiedliwość po sowiecku (Justice Soviet style) Archived 2011-05-22 at the Wayback Machine Exhibit: Powstańczy zryw w Czortkowie w 1940 r. Niedziela.pl (in Polish)
  6. ^ a b c d e IPN.Gov.pl Archived 2012-02-21 at the Wayback Machine (in Polish)
  7. ^ Gross, Jan Tomasz (2002), Revolution from Abroad. Books.Google.com p. 172. (in English)
  8. ^ R. Antoszewski, Czortków w latach II wojny światowej. Archived 2018-07-22 at the Wayback Machine (in Polish)

External links

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