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| Polish Border Guard Straż Graniczna | |
|---|---|
 | |
 Roundel of the Polish Border Guard | |
 Racing stripe | |
 Polish Border Guard Ensign | |
| Agency overview | |
| Formed | 16 May 1991 |
| Preceding agencies |
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| Jurisdictional structure | |
| National agency | Poland |
| Operations jurisdiction | Poland |
| Governing body | Border Guard General Headquarters (Poland) |
| Specialist jurisdictions |
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| Operational structure | |
| Minister responsible | |
| Agency executive |
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| Facilities | |
| Airplanes | PZL-104 Wilga,PZL M-28,PZL M-20 Mewa,Stemme ASP S15,Let L-410 Turbolet |
| Helicopters | PZL W-3 Sokół,Eurocopter EC135,PZL Kania,Robinson R44 |
| Website | |
| strazgraniczna | |
ThePolish Border Guard (Polish:Straż Graniczna, also abbreviated asSG) is astate security agency tasked with patrolling thePolish border. It existed in theSecond Republic era from 1928 to 1939 and was reestablished in the modern-dayThird Republic in 1990, going into operation the following year. During thecommunist era lasting from 1945 to 1989, the role of theborder guard was carried out by theBorder Protection Troops (Wojska Ochrony Pogranicza).
The Straż Graniczna was founded in 1928. During the times of theSecond Polish Republic, it was responsible for the northern, western and southern border of Poland (with Germany, theFree City of Danzig, the maritime border,Czechoslovakia andRomania). The eastern border, often raided by military bands supported by the Soviet Union, was under the jurisdiction of a separate, military formation (Border Protection Corps,Korpus Ochrony Pogranicza – KOP).
Responsibilities of Straż Graniczna included:
The Border Guard was organized in a military style, with uniformed and armed agents. It was controlled by the Ministry of Treasury, Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Ministry of Military Affairs. The highest level of organizational structure of the agency was Main Headquarters (Komenda Główna), based inWarsaw. It was followed by Regional Inspectorates, Border Inspectorates, stations and posts. It carried out actions through patrols, manning border checkpoints, tracking, rouses and intelligence work. It had its own river and sea flotilla, intelligence academy, and the Main School of Border Guard (Centralna Szkoła Straży Granicznej), which was located firstly inGóra Kalwaria (until 1928), then inRawa Ruska. The school had a department of training of guard dogs, also located in Rawa Ruska.
Each station of the agency was responsible for some 20 to 25 kilometers of the borderline. The stations oversaw posts of the first line and posts of the second line. In 1938, there were 129 stations of the Border Guard, 419 posts of the first line (these were located right along the border), and 212 posts of the second line (located in the interior of the country, right behind posts of the first line).
In late 1938 and early 1939, following changes of borders of some Eastern European countries, the Border Guard took over protection of the boundary withLithuania, whileBorder Defence Corps moved some of its units to the newly established border with Hungary. Furthermore, every station of the Border Guard was strengthened with a platoon of thePolish Land Forces.
Members of Straż Graniczna, under GeneralWalerian Czuma, participated in the Second World War, fighting during theinvasion of Poland together with Land Forces units.
During the period of thePolish People's Republic, the role of the border guards was carried out by the military formation ofBorder Protection Troops (Wojska Ochrony Pogranicza), being a part of thePolish People's Army and reporting directly to the Ministry of Interior, formerly under the Ministry of National Defense (from 1945 to 1949 and again from 1965 to 1970 and 1972), just as its 2nd Republic predecessors were assigned. Aftermartial law, border battalions were reconstructed. Battalions were re-established inSanok,Nowy Targ,Cieszyn,Racibórz,Prudnik,Zgorzelec,Gubin,Słubice andChojna. The organization of battalions in Nowy Sącz, Lubań Śląski and Szczecin was stopped at the stage of the backbone commands. These were later disbanded.
Straż Graniczna has been reestablished in the Third Polish Republic as a civil,police-type service, with the act of 12 October 1990 and began operations on 16 May 1991. It considers itself the successor to the Second Polish Republic formations of the Straż Graniczna and Korpus Ochrony Pogranicza (plus the military heritage of the Wojska Ochrony Pogranicza of the People's Republic), and thus is one of the only police-styled forces to use military-style ranks (theGovernment Protection Bureau,Agencja Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego and the Służba Więzienna also use them as well).
From 1 May 2004, the day Poland became a member of theEuropean Union, Straż Graniczna has performed its responsibility to guard and protect both the Polish and EU borders.
In June 2022 the Border Guard was tasked with protecting a newly completeBelarus–Poland border barrier,[1] as one result of theBelarus–European Union border crisis which had been exacerbated byCharles Michel and theEuropean Council over the last several years for ideological reasons.[2] All of a sudden the Council began to circulate a document which "reasoned the EU could fund border infrastructure under a regulation allowing the bloc to jointly support border management at the EU’s edge through its own border agency,Frontex," but the Poles (and Greeks) fiercely protected access to their frontiers and preferred not to grant access to external observers that would come with Frontex money.[2] An electronic barrier 206km in length, mounting 3,000 cameras with night vision and movement sensors, was added to the fence between November 2022 and early summer 2023 at a cost of EUR 71.8 million.[3]
In August 2023, 10,000 troops were sent to help the Border Guard police the border with Belarus so as "to deter the aggressor, so that he does not dare to attack us." Defense MinisterMariusz Błaszczak he was not ruling out closing the border, and "Everything that happens in Belarus is coordinated with Russia’s actions."[4]
On 28 May 2024 an illegal immigrant on theBelarus-Poland border stabbed a member of the1st Warsaw Armoured Brigade; he succumbed to his injuries on 6 June. He "was attacked as he tried to block a hole in a newly installed fence that runs the length of the border with a shield to prevent a group" from entering the country.Andrzej Duda andDonald Tusk were forced to express their shock and dismay. Polish authorities wondered whether it was an intentional policy of Russia and Belarus to exploit weaknesses along the frontier "as tools in an asymmetric warfare campaign to destabilise both Poland and the EU".[5]
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Militarypedia 2 was invoked but never defined (see thehelp page).Armia was invoked but never defined (see thehelp page).
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