Two sides of the Cursed Soldiers
The “Cursed Soldiers” is a title given to anti-communist activists in Poland who, at the end of and after World War II, fought against the sovietisation and Stalinisation of Poland. These resistance groups consisted of some members of the Polish Underground State and other pro-Polish organisations. In 2011, 1 March was established as the National Day of the Cursed Soldiers.
The subject of the Cursed Soldiers is controversial, because along with glory, they are associated with violence and cruelty. Polish media, depending on their political views, depict the Cursed Soldiers as heroes or villains. Rzeczpospolita seems to be in favour of the Cursed Soldiers, as the newspaper chooses to describe an event of commemorating the National Day of Cursed Soldiers in the Presidential Palace. President Andrzej Duda gave a lecture to youngsters on the issue of the soldiers, in which he presented them as heroes and role models for a new generation. While speaking, the president underlined only their merits without critical thinking, as he does not mention about the soldiers’ vices and misdeed. The president chose Witold Pilecki, a member of the Home Army executed after the war by the communist authorities, as an example of a national hero and underlined that not only should he be praised in Europe but also in other continents. He reminded teenagers that they are obliged to promote his image in the world and praise the Cursed Soldiers. It is not an accident that the president chose Pilecki, as he wants to create a positive image of the Cursed Soldiers. According to Duda, Pilecki is a perfect role model for the young generation and they should take advantage of it. Other members of underground organisations were presented and, as the organisers of the meeting say, the lecture was intended to highlight that the Cursed Soldiers were not thugs but heroes.
The case of the Cursed Soldiers is similarly presented in the conservative Nasz Dziennik. According to Karol Wołek, the vice-chairman of the Association of Soldiers of the National Armed Forces, the Cursed Soldiers deserve to be remembered and given gratitude for their deeds. He credits them with fighting against the communist occupation after World War II, and reminds that they were victimized, persecuted, deprived of their property and possibility of earning money afterwards. Like the president, Wołek thinks that the memory of the Cursed Soldiers needs to be saved and passed to the young generation because teenagers need authority to look up to. According to Wołek, the Cursed Soldiers are exemplary figures that may serve as role models for the young generation in Poland. He highlights the fact that they were true heroes who did not surrender and sacrificed their lives for the freedom of their country, without mentioning their misdeeds.
Nevertheless, no matter how proud should we be of our heroes, there is also a shadow that lies on the Cursed Soldiers. According to Marcin Zaremba and Rafał Wnuk, two historians, many internal factions of the Cursed Soldiers were nothing more than regular murderers and thieves. Mainstream Polish media tend to speak only about the heroism and other positive sides of the Cursed Soldiers, without mentioning the vicious actions that some of them took. Most of the soldiers that went rogue were active especially in the eastern parts of Poland, areas which were inhabited by various ethnic minorities such as Jews, Ukrainians and other Slavic nations. However, Polish people became victims themselves as well. Many of those rogue Cursed Soldiers didn’t see any difference between killing their own or other groups.
In February 2016 in the town of Hajnówka was organized a March in Memory of the Cursed Soldiers. The event was supposed to be held under the patronage of the president of Poland; however, Andrzej Duda withdrew his support when it became clear that the march was organized by nationalist groups. A poster promoting the event was published with Romuald Rajs taking the central place and, as Tygodnik Przegląd points out, Rajs, nicknamed “Bury”, was a perfect example of a Cursed Soldier who was little more than a vicious and cruel bandit. What makes his case much more interesting is the fact that “Bury” is praised by the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) as a national hero. On January 31, 1945 “Bury” and his squad came to the village called Puchały Stare, where they murdered anyone whose roots were not Polish. They took 30 people to the woods, where they shot them in the back of their heads, because of their origin, in the same way as Nazi or Soviet officers. On February 2, 1946, “Bury” and his teams approached three villages: Zań, Końcowizna and Szpaki. In the latter, a squad under the command of the man called “Wiarus” cruelly murdered seven people and raped one woman. Another example of a Cursed Soldier is to be found in the article in Gazeta Wyborcza about a man called "Fire". It is a nickname of Józef Kuraś, who terrorised the area of Podlasie. He is responsible for many murders committed on Polish people, Jews and Slovaks, as well as for informing on his fellow AK soldiers to the communist authorities, which resulted in many executions and deportations. Like “Bury”, “Fire” nowadays is praised as a hero, and as a symbol of the fight with communist government. It shows that the IPN, to some extent, tries to falsify the history.
It is clearly visible that opinions about the Cursed Soldiers are divided amongst historians and the media. According to Zaremba “they deserve neither worship nor condemnation” and we have to remember that only some of the Cursed Soldiers committed crimes and killed the ethnic minorities. The post-war period was very difficult for soldiers, and decisions they made might have been influenced by the hopelessness of the situation that they found themselves in. Zaremba also believes that today’s ruling party are using the Cursed Soldiers as a means of making up for their own lack of heroes from the Solidarity era. Nevertheless, it seems ironic that in country that has suffered a lot, even the president gives a special lecture about the greatness of the Cursed Soldiers without mentioning the dark side of them. There are plenty of other examples of the Cursed Soldiers who lost their way. The real issue is that they are neglected as a part of history, and the development of the cult around the Cursed Soldiers without acknowledging the dark side of their actions is just a falsification of history.
