4th Division Organized By The Soviet Union
In 1944, the Soviet Union also stood up a Polish 4th Infantry Division within the Polish First Army, part of the 1st Belorussian Front. The division consisted primarily of Poles deported to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics after the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, although many of the officers and commissars were from the USSR. As part of the First Army, this eastern incarnation of the 4th Division fought in Poland near Warsaw, at Kolberg, and north of Berlin in Germany during 1944-45.
Following the end of the war, the Soviet-organized 4th Division was incorporated into the army of the People's Republic of Poland. By a Resolution of the Provisional Government of May 26, 1945 the division's personnel and equipment (with the exception of artillery and the sanitary battalion) served as a nucleus to form the staff and some branches of the Internal Security Corps (KBW). The division commander became the first commander of the Internal Security Corps.
Following reformation from two reserve infantry regiments, the division was stationed in the town of Krosno Odrzańskie as part of the Silesian Military District. During the Cold War, the division became mechanized on the organizational lines of Soviet motor rifle divisions.
The 4th Division also participated in the suppression of protests in Poznań in 1956.
The 4th Mechanized Division was inactivated in 1998.
Read more about this topic: 4th Infantry Division (Poland)
Famous quotes containing the words soviet union, division, organized, soviet and/or union:
“Today he plays jazz; tomorrow he betrays his country.”
—Stalinist slogan in the Soviet Union (1920s)
“Affection, indulgence, and humor alike are powerless against the instinct of children to rebel. It is essential to their minds and their wills as exercise is to their bodies. If they have no reasons, they will invent them, like nations bound on war. It is hard to imagine families limp enough always to be at peace. Wherever there is character there will be conflict. The best that children and parents can hope for is that the wounds of their conflict may not be too deep or too lasting.”
—New York State Division of Youth Newsletter (20th century)
“Basically, I have no place in organized politics. By coming to the British Parliament, I’ve allowed the people to sacrifice me at the top and let go the more effective job I should be doing at the bottom.”
—Bernadette Devlin (b. 1947)
““Is there life on Mars?” “No, not there either.””
—Russian saying popular in the Soviet period, trans. by Vladimir Ivanovich Shlyakov (1993)
“The old ideals are dead as nails—nothing there. It seems to me there remains only this perfect union with a woman—sort of ultimate marriage—and there isn’t anything else.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)