Results found: 2

Search results

Sort By:

Limit search:

THE CLANDESTINE STUDENT ORGANIZATION 'HELENA', 1950-1951

100%

Baziur G.

Studia Historyczne

2008

vol. 51

issue 3-4

313-324

This article deals with the anticommunist group 'Helena' which was set up in the student community of the Jagiellonian University in Cracow in 1950. Its founders, Walery Pisarek and Jerzy Saniewski, intended it to spread to all parts of the country. There were to be as many divisions of 'Helena', run by regional commanders, as there were voivodships (ie. seventeen). At the lowest level its members were to form groups of three, under orders from their commanders. They in turn were to carry out orders from the organization's Supreme Council. Apart from its territorial network, 'Helena' was to have a special operations task force. It should come as no surprise that those ambitious plans never came to fruition: the conspiracy could boast of just seven members. They managed nonetheless to write a handful of poems and anticommunist leaflets, apart from attempts at recruiting new members (which nearly led to the creation a cell of their organization in the village of Zofince in the Voivodeship of Lublin) and acquiring firearms in anticipation of World War III. The conspirators dreamt of establishing contacts with the political exiles in London - the difficult mission, which involved illegal border crossing, was entrusted to Marian Tatara, member of 'Helena's' Supreme Council. In early November 1951 the communist Security Service (UB) put an end to the activities of 'Helena'. The secret police had got on its trail on 3 November 1951 during a raid on another clandestine organization, the Steely Poles scout troop. Subjected to brutal investigation, the men spent a few months in prison before their case was heard by a military court. In March 1952 the Military Tribunal in Cracow sentenced six of them to terms of imprisonment ranging from two to six years. They were released one by one in 1953–1955, yet the secret police continued to keep an eye them.

THE CONSPIRACY POLISH SCOUTING ASSOCIATION-POLISH VANGUARD AS AN EXAMPLE OF THE CONTINUED BATTLE WAGED BY 'SZARE SZEREGI' IN 1945-1949

100%

Baziur G.

Dzieje Najnowsze

2007

issue 1

61-92

The imposition of the communist system in Poland at the end of the WW II encountered the resistance of a considerable part of society, including young people. From the very onset of their rule the communist authorities tried to subject the Polish Scouts to assorted youth-oriented initiatives. The numerous scouting organisations which continued underground activity dating back to the German occupation ('Szare Szeregi' - Grey Ranks) included the Conspiracy Polish Scouting Association (Konspiracyjny Zwiazek Harcerstwa Polskiego - KZHP), which in 1946 became known as the Polish Vanguard (Polska Straz Przednia - PSP). The Association was headed by Grey Ranks instructors: the commander of KZHP-PSP was Roman Szpak, and his deputy was Wladyslaw Zawislak. In 1946-1949 KZHP–PSP established outposts in the voivodeship of Cracow: Dabrowa Tarnowska, Tuchów and Plesna, and was involved in setting up successive ones in Tarnów, Gromnik and Ciezkowice; in the voivodeship of Poznan an outpost was located in Srem, and in the voivodeship of Wroclaw - in Nowa Sól. The Scouts underwent military training in view of an eventual war between the Soviet Union and the Western states whose outcome, they hoped, was to bring independence to Poland.

Refine search results

1 Dzieje Najnowsze

1 Studia Historyczne

2 Baziur G.

1 2008

1 2007

Search results

THE CLANDESTINE STUDENT ORGANIZATION 'HELENA', 1950-1951

THE CONSPIRACY POLISH SCOUTING ASSOCIATION-POLISH VANGUARD AS AN EXAMPLE OF THE CONTINUED BATTLE WAGED BY 'SZARE SZEREGI' IN 1945-1949