Zrzeszenie Wolność i Niezawisłość WiN (Freedom and Independence) was a Polish underground anti-communist organisation founded on September 2, 1945 and active to 1952.
The main goal of its activity was to avoid Soviet domination over Poland and to fight communism. Its primary method was not military action against the state but rather to provide protection (false documents, money) for former soldiers of Armia Krajowa and other Polish resistance organizations not allied to the Soviets and thus treated by them as enemies.
WiN announced the falsification of the Polish people's referendum, 1946 to the United Nations Security Council.
It was persecuted by both the Soviets and the Polish communists. NKVD soldiers and Ministerstwo Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego agents carried out a bloody war with its 30,000 men in Mazowsze and Lubelskie region. WiN's soldiers liberated many Russian jails in Poland, and killed those it regarded as collaborators and communist agents. The organization was penetrated by Urząd Bezpieczeństwa agents, its security compromised as early as late 1945.
In April 1947, many WiN fighters came out of hiding in an apparent amnesty.[1]
Contents |
September 2, 1945 to November 5, 1945 colonel Jan Rzepecki
November 1945 to October 18, 1946 colonel Franciszek Niepokólczycki
October 1946 to January 5, 1947 lieutenant colonel Wincenty Kwieciński
January 1947 to November 1947 lieutenant colonel Łukasz Ciepliński