The Warsaw Commune: Betrayed by Stalin, Massacred by Hitler. Zygmunt Zaremba 1947

Chapter Thirteen: The Part Played by the Polish Socialist Party in the Warsaw Commune

Since the date of the uprising was a military secret, the Polish Socialist Party, along with all the other political organisations, did not know the day or the hour of the armed action. Its military sections, mobilised within the ranks of the Home Army, were at the ready. Some defects in the organisation of the mobilisation prevented the PPS from placing all the forces organised under the Socialist banner at the immediate disposal of the insurrection. On the other hand, many militants, not being able to join their own units, directly joined the insurgent units that were set up either in their workplaces or in the places where the uprising took them by surprise. The Socialist Party moreover sought neither praise nor fame, and did not feel the need to accentuate its distinctive character.

Any militant who could not get to his own unit joined the nearest section of the Home Army, which therefore contained a high percentage of PPS members. They all fought and died as Socialists. As our Comrade Niedziński, who was dying of wounds received on the barricades, told the medical orderly who was helping him: ‘I die a soldier of the Home Army. Tell my comrades that I was, and have not ceased to be, a Socialist.’

Some sections, such as for example that of the Central Electricity Works, were composed of Socialist militants.

The military sections as well as part of the Polish Socialist Party’s militia were from the very start of the uprising directed into the front line. They distinguished themselves as much by their magnificent conduct during the capture of the Post Office in the middle of the city, as in the Wola and Żoliborz suburbs. In Żoliborz in particular our units, surprised by a German attack in the course of assembling for 1 August, joined in the first battle, in the course of which several of our comrades fell, along with Władimir Kaczanowski, the Commander of the Socialist Organisation of Struggle, an autonomous formation of the Militia of the Polish Socialist Party. Despite heavy losses in dead and wounded, these units formed an important centre of resistance in this quarter.

The Military Sections and the Polish Socialist Party’s Militia played a notable role in the defence of the Old Town, where they were entrusted with the most difficult and most important sectors. Several leaders emerged from their ranks. The activity of the Militia during the battles for the Old Town was greatly appreciated by the High Command, which on several occasions drew attention to the merits of our units and our comrades. The population regarded the Militia with great esteem. A number of workers received officers’ stripes, and were mentioned in dispatches. Among them fell our comrades Władimir Miszewski (Szklarza), the deputy commander of the Military Sections of the Polish Socialist Party, Kuliczkowski, Niedziński and others, many others. Among them the Commander of the Militia, Gnat-Wilczyński, was badly wounded.

It was not possible for our military organisation to wait for orders in one barracks. Zero hour of the uprising surprised our comrades, who were occupied in different parts of the city. It was therefore necessary to improvise a new plan of action sector by sector. The plan previously elaborated by the party was paralysed by the tragic deaths of three comrades who had been assigned leading positions within the Warsaw Federation. Our friends Bolesłas Dratwa, the Federation Secretary and a member of the Central Committee, Stanisław Maikowski and Węceslas Kokosiński, the Federal Treasurer, were to have become the leadership of the central sector. All three of them perished at the start of the insurrection under the ruins of a building which sheltered the party’s clandestine centre. This terrible loss obstructed the party’s activity in this sector, but soon these difficulties were smoothed out, and a proper apparatus to take on these functions was put into operation.

Our party’s tasks were clear and obvious; to place all the forces of the working class, enriched by the experience of 50 years’ activity, at the disposal of the Commune in an effective way.

Given the shortage of weapons and the impossibility of enlarging the military units, the Central Committee of the Socialist Party formed a Militia, made up of militants and sympathisers. Its task was to occupy those sectors that found themselves behind the front line. One of the most pressing needs in addition was to battle with the fires started by the Germans. At the instigation of the Socialist Party, Commander Monter ordered systematic activity to this end. So the Militia created special brigades which extinguished the flames with extreme devotion and often under enemy fire. This activity was of particular importance on the fringes of the territory occupied by the insurgents. In addition, the Militia organised rescue squads to clear away debris and assist those who were buried under it. It was moreover in certain districts entrusted with the services of security and transportation, and mainly with providing shelter for supplies in those sectors exposed to the fire.

On the political level, the Polish Socialist Party attempted to maintain in the leading organisations of the Commune a clear political and social line. It dedicated a notable part of its efforts to the daily publication and distribution of The Worker (Robotnik), the central organ of the Socialist Party, which soon became the most popular and most widely read journal of the Commune. Warszawianka (The Warsovian) played the same role in the sector of the Old Town, and in Żoliborz it was The Bulletin of the PPS.

An unswerving political line, an uncompromising defence of the political ideas to which the Commune owed its origin, fidelity to Socialism and to independence, mature examination of all social problems, and a deep sense of its responsibility – such were the characteristic traits of the Polish Socialist Party that assured it a decisive role in the course of this period.

The working-class movement also placed a number of its militants at the disposal of the administration of the Commune. These men, who were otherwise scarcely inclined to take part in the apparatus of administration, distinguished themselves by their activity. At critical moments, when bombing gave rise to general panic, they were often the only ones to keep their nerve, and carried on their work to the end.

The newspaper The Worker symbolised this faithfulness and perseverance by still coming out on 4 October, when the entire population was being forced to evacuate Warsaw. The civil and military apparatus had already been liquidated. No journal was still appearing. Who could think of anything else, apart from saving himself and leaving the city? But the Socialist typesetters remained at their posts. The street sellers once again put before the population the party’s message for the last time expressing the desires and aspirations of the people.

In this final number of The Worker appeared an appeal by the Central Committee of the Polish Socialist Party in which it drew up a balance sheet of the Commune and rendered homage to the dead. It passed on to the soldiers and the population going out into the unknown a promise of keeping faith with the victims who had fallen in the struggle for national independence and social liberation.

The Warsaw Commune showed that it is the working class that forms the cement of Polish collective life, the burning spirit of Socialism and freedom.