Polish Armed Forces in the East (Polish: Polskie Siły Zbrojne na Wschodzie) (or Polish Army in USSR) refers to military units composed of Poles created in the Soviet Union at the time when the territory of Poland was occupied by both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in the Second World War.
Broadly speaking, there were two such formations. The first was the Polish government-in-exile-loyal Anders Army, created in the second half of 1941 after the German invasion of the USSR led to the 30 July 1941 Polish-Soviet Sikorski-Mayski Agreement declaring an amnesty for Polish citizens held captive in the USSR. In 1942 this formation was evacuated to Persia and transferred to the Western Allies, whereupon it became known as the Polish II Corps and went on to fight Nazi German forces in Italy, including at the Battle of Monte Cassino.
Following this, the remaining Polish forces in USSR were reorganised into a Soviet-controlled Polish I Corps in the Soviet Union, which in turn was reorganised in 1944 into the Polish First Army (Berling Army) and Polish Second Army, both part of the Polish People's Army (Ludowe Wojsko Polskie, LWP).
In 1944, the Polish People's Army was reorganised to become the military of the communist-ruled People's Republic of Poland.
Read more about Polish Armed Forces In The East: Anders Army: 1941-1942, Berling Army: 1943-1945, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words polish, armed, forces and/or east:
“‘Then I polish all the silver, which a supper-table lacquers;
Then I write the pretty mottoes which you find inside the
crackers’—”
—Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911)
“There are lone figures armed only with ideas, sometimes with just one idea, who blast away whole epochs in which we are enwrapped like mummies. Some are powerful enough to resurrect the dead. Some steal on us unawares and put a spell over us which it takes centuries to throw off. Some put a curse on us, for our stupidity and inertia, and then it seems as if God himself were unable to lift it.”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)
“There is the falsely mystical view of art that assumes a kind of supernatural inspiration, a possession by universal forces unrelated to questions of power and privilege or the artist’s relation to bread and blood. In this view, the channel of art can only become clogged and misdirected by the artist’s concern with merely temporary and local disturbances. The song is higher than the struggle.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“Ah! on Thanksgiving day, when from East and from West,
From North and from South, come the pilgrim and guest,
When the gray-haired New Englander sees round his board
The old broken links of affection restored,
When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more,
And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before.
What moistens the lip and what brightens the eye?
What calls back the past, like the rich Pumpkin pie?”
—John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)