Government Delegation for Poland

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The Government Delegation for Poland (

Government Delegate for Poland, a de facto deputy Polish Prime Minister.[1]

The Government Delegation for Poland was intended as the first provisional government of war torn Poland until the

Exiled Polish Government could safely return from abroad to a liberated Poland.[1]

History

Initially there were two Delegations formed, one for the

Polish Government in Exile.[1]

The Delegation's political body was the

Krajowa Reprezentacja Polityczna) and became an underground coalition parliament, comprising members of the Polish Socialist Party, National Party, People's Party and Labor Party. It became the controlling body of the Delegation and the Headquarters of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa). On 9 January 1944 it was turned into a Council of National Unity (Rada Jedności Narodowej), the parliament of underground Poland.[1]

During Operation Tempest, in 1944, the Council's local representatives and local Home Army commanders, as the representatives of the legitimate Polish government and the Polish Army, emerged from underground and welcomed the advancing Red Army. Despite several instances of successful cooperation with the Soviet Union, most of the Polish representatives and commanders were soon arrested by the NKVD and sent to Russian prisons or to the Gulag.

During the Warsaw Uprising, the central Government Delegation for Poland likewise came out of hiding and began acting officially as the Polish parliament in the liberated areas of Poland. After the Uprising's suppression, most of the Delegation's members left Warsaw with the civilian population and managed to evade the Germans. However, contact with local branches in Soviet- and German-occupied areas was broken.

In February 1945, the Government Delegation including most members of the Council of National Unity and the Home Army Commander-in-Chief, were invited by Soviet General Ivan Serov to a conference on their eventual inclusion in the Soviet-backed Provisional Government. They were promised safe conduct beforehand but immediately arrested by the NKVD, and brought to Moscow, where they were brutally tortured for several months and tried in a staged Trial of the Sixteen. All perished.[2] Meanwhile, in Poland, the Delegation was reconstructed and continued in its duties until finally disbanded on 1 July 1945.

Departments

The Delegation's activities encompassed all areas of organized society. It comprised 12 branches, roughly corresponding to the ministries of the Polish government-in-exile in London.

  1. Internal Affairs
    • Security of the Delegation
    • Provisional Administration - shadow administration to take over the administrational duties after liberation or during an all-national uprising
    • Państwowy Korpus Bezpieczeństwa
      -underground police
    • Council to Aid the Jews
    • preparing reports on the situation in occupied Poland
  2. Information and Press
    • providing the society with news from abroad
    • propaganda
    • printing Rzeczpospolita, the official organ of the Office
  3. Labour and Social Affairs
  4. Education and Culture
  5. Industry and Trade
  6. Agriculture
  7. Justice
  8. Liquidation of the Effects of the War
  9. Public Works and Reconstruction
  10. Treasury
  11. Post Offices and Telegraphs
  12. Communications

Near the end of the war, Departments of Foreign Affairs and of War Matters were created, but they have not played any significant role.

Other notable units and bureaus included:

With regard to territorial structure, there were:

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d Delegatura Rządu na Kraj at Encyklopedia WIEM (in Polish)
  2. ^ The Moscow Trial of the 16 Polish Leaders Archived 2012-04-26 at the Wayback Machine, Liberty Publications, London, 1945, 24 pages with 2 ill.
  • Waldemar Grabowski (1995). Delegatura Rządu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na Kraj. Warsaw: Pax. p. 293.
    ISBN 83-211-1392-3
    .
  • Stanisław Dzięciołowski (2004). Parlament Polski Podziemnej 1939-1945 (in Polish). Warsaw:
    ISBN 83-7059-665-7
    .
  • Grzegorz Ostasz, The Polish Government-in-Exile's Home Delegature
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