Kontrolować czy likwidować - Komunistyczna Partia Zachodniej Białorusi

Abstract

The Belarusian Revolutionary Organization (or the Belarusian Revolutionary Party) was one of the first communist organizations on the north-eastern territories of the Second Republic of Poland. In 1921 and 1922 more pro-communist groups emerged, whose members later staffed the Communist Party of Western Belarus (KPZB). The party consisted of six districts : Białystok, Vilnus, Brest, Pinsk, Hrodna and Baranovici. In the years 1921 to 1925 the communists were strongly involved in subversive activities, for example, robberies and arson. They also got ready for the uprising. In 1925 the KPZB departed from supporting direct sabotage and proceeded to unify "progressive" forces against the capitalist system. It attracted local peasants by means of economic and class division slogans. As an illegal party, the KPZB wanted to put its members into the ranks of all legally operating organizations. In due time they were supposed to agitate and gain supporters or formal members of the communist movement. Apart from direct meetings, the communists agitated by handing in leaflets and distributing illegal daily newspapers . During Christian and Jewish holidays they hung banners and posters vilifying the religion and the clergy. They also used the annual celebration of Labour Day (May 1) to spread their anti-state ideas. The partisans encouraged the peasants not to pay taxes or repay loans, to oppose the land reform and reparcelling. The state military authorities paid a lot of attention to the communist agitation among soldiers because the KPZB supporters attempted to contact the members of "Strzelec" (a Polish paramilitary cultural and educational organization) and create communist fractions there. Finally, they organized "fighting committees" which were to carry out subversive activities at the back of the Polish army if necessary. Despite the cessation of hostilities, the Polish authorities considered the communist movement to be the biggest threat to the north-eastern territories of the Second Republic of Poland. Polish security services began condueting surveillance in order to detect and eliminate subversion. Another way to combat the communist movement was establishing on June 17 1934 a detention camp in Bereza Kartuska. Its prisoners were sentenced there for three months by the province govemor on the basis of charges prepared by the State Police and the county (starostwo). The detention could be extended by a further three months. The communists and the members of the KZPB quickly outnumbered other detainees. The Communist Party ofWestem Belarus as a section of the Polish Communist Party was disbanded by the Comintern in 1938. As a result, the strength of the communist movement in the area fell significantly. The events of September 7 1939, however, brought the communists into action again. The local organizations spontaneously reappeared and sabotage groups directed their destructive actions at office clerks, policemen, landowners and soldiers, who symbolized the Polish state.