Provisional Administration

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This article is part of the series: Polish Secret State History of Poland

Provisional Administration (Polish Administracja Zastępcza) was one of the branches of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Government Delegate’s Office at Home in Poland during World War II.

It was created in 1940 as a joined initiative of the Headquarters of the Armia Krajowa and the Delegate's Office. It was sort of a shadow administration prepared for either the moment of liberation of Poland or start of an all-national armed uprising.

It was based on the Polish pre-war administrative division composed of three grades (voivodeship-powiat-gmina), combined with the pre-war military division. In August 1943 the division of competences between the army and the civilian authorities was agreed. The organization of the Provisional Administration was later accepted by the President of Poland on April 26, 1944.

In 1944 during the Operation Tempest the members of the Provisional Administration took the power from the withdrawing German troops and welcomed the advancing Red Army as the sole representatives of the legitimate Polish government. However, most of them were arrested by the NKVD and either sent to Russia for interrogation, sent to GULag or killed on the spot.