Freedom and Independence Association (Polish:Zrzeszenie Wolność i Niezawisłość, orWiN) was a Polish undergroundanticommunist organisation founded on September 2, 1945, and active until 1952.[1]
The main purpose of its activity was to preventSoviet domination over Poland and to fightcommunism. Although the pursuit of those goals was supposed to be largely peaceful, the fact of Soviet domination over Poland and the increasingly hostile and provocative behavior of local communists frequently resulted in WiN having its hand forced and in military confrontation. Although the WiN forces were well-armed and highly disciplined, they could not hope to fight a prolonged guerrilla war against the SovietRed Army andNKVD units, a fact clearly understood by the leadership. Thus, to the extent possible WiN attempted instead to concentrate not on military action but rather on providing assistance (false documents and money) for former soldiers ofHome Army,National Armed Forces and otherPolish resistance organizations believed not to be allied with the Soviets.[2]
The WiN was the first to carry the news of the falsification of the1946 Polish people's referendum in an announcement to theUnited Nations Security Council. Members of the organization were persecuted by both the Soviets and the local communists.NKVD soldiers andMinisterstwo Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego agents carried out a bloody war with its 30,000 men inMazowsze andLubelskie region. The WiN's soldiers liberated many Soviet jails in Poland and killedcollaborators and communist agents. However, the organization was penetrated byUrząd Bezpieczeństwa agents, and its security compromised as early as late 1945.[2]
In 1946, the new WiN leadership decided to subordinate the organization's structures to the PolishSupreme Commander in the West. Simultaneously, it limited its support for thePolish People's Party, which had also been infiltrated by Soviet agents). Thereafter, the organization was run by former members of the Home Army.
WiN was initially divided into three different geographical operational theatres: Western, run out ofPoznań; Central, run out ofWarsaw; and Southern, run out ofKraków. By 1946, that was reduced to Central and Southern. In January 1947 WiN called on the Polish People's Party to boycott the Soviet-sponsored elections and to await intervention by Western Allies.
In October 1949, Tomasz Gołąb, one of its members, founded the anticommunist underground organization of theUnderground Home Army, which operated inPrudnik and its vicinity until 1952.[3]
Despite protests by theDSZ leadership, recognizing their common origins and similar goals of ridding both Poland andUkraine of the Soviets, WiN engaged in talks with theUkrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). By spring 1945 in the Lublin region and Podlasie, the WiN had signed an armistice with the UPA. Occasionally, WiN and UPA cooperated in destroyingSoviet establishments (such as in a joint May 1946attack on secret police headquarters inHrubieszów). Similar agreements were reached in May 1945 inRuda Różaniecka, as well as April 1945 inSiedliska.
In April 1947, many WiN members came out of hiding to take advantage of an apparentamnesty issued by the communist authorities.[4] Instead, many were killed. Members of the organization were accused of plotting the overthrow of thePeople's Republic along with the Polish leaders in the West such as GeneralWładysław Anders and theCIA. The show trials for most of the leadership took place in 1947. The Communist repression apparatus underJakub Berman andStanislaw Radkiewicz exterminated most of the leadership, and by 1953, the organization had been destroyed. Nonetheless, individual units continued to fight for Polish independence until 1963.[5]
Information published later indicated that one of the reasons for the failure of the WIN mission to Poland by theGehlen Organization was that inside information had been provided to the Soviet Intelligence services by "moles". The Gehlen Organization was an intelligence agency that was established in June 1946 by US occupation authorities in West Germany and controlled by theCIA.[6]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
