Zygmunt Henryk Berling (27 April 1896 - 11 July 1980), Polish general and politician, most known as the commander of the 1st Polish Army during the Second World War.

Biography

Early life

Born in Limanowa on 27 Aprli 1897, in 1914 he joined the Polish Legions of Józef Pilsudski, serving in the 2nd and then 4th unit (Pułk Piechoty Legionów). Since the "oath crisis, ("kryzys przysięgowy") in June 1917 until October 1918 he served in the Austro-Hungarian Army. At the end of the First World War he joined the newly formed Polish Army, becaming the commander of an infantry company in the recreated 4 infantry Pułk. During the Polish-Soviet War he gained fame as a commander of the defence of Lwów, receiving the silver Virtuti Militari medal.

After the war he remained in the Army and in 1923 he was promoted to major, first serving on the staff in the command of 15th Infantry Division of V District Corps Command in Cracow. In 1930 he was promoted to subcolonel (podpułkownik) and became a commander, first of the 6 Infantry Pułk and then of the 4th Infantry Pułk. In June 1939 he transferred to reserve.

Second World War

Zygmunt Berling did not participate in the Polish September Campaign, residing in his home in Wilno. After the city was taken over by the Soviet Union which was allied with Germany at that time (Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact), Berling alongside many other Polish officers was arrested by the NKVD. Until 1940 he was imprisoned in Starobielsk, then in Moscow, and was fortunate to avoid the fate of many Polish officers murdered by the Soviets at the Katyn Massacre.

After the Sikorski-Maisky Pact of 17 August 1941 he was released from imprisonment and nominated the commander of the recreated 5th Infantry Division, and later the commander of the temporary camp for Polish soldiers in Krasnowodsk. The growing tensions between Polish government in exile of Wladyslaw Sikorski in London and the leader of the Soviet Union, Stalin, eventually caused many Polish forces under General Wladyslaw Anders lto leave the Soviet Union and form the 2nd Polish Corps in the Middle East under British command. Eventually, the relations between Polish government in exile and the Soviet Union were broken after Germans publicized the findings about the Katyn Massacre, and Stalin decided to create his own puppet Polish government and army. Zygmunt Berling was nominated by Stalin a commander of the new Polish People's Army (Wojsko Ludowe) first unit, the 1 Dywizji Piechoty im. Tadeusza Kościuszki and promoted to general. After 22 July of 1944 he was the Deputy Commander of Wojsko Ludowe.

During the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 against the Germans, which was carried out by the Armia Krajowa units loyal to the Polish London government in exile, Berling he issued orders to his units to help the Polish resistance without contacting his superiors. As his superiors (i.e. the Soviets) wanted the uprising to fail, he was dismissed from his post and tranferred to War Academy in Moscow, where he remaind until 1947, when he was transferred back to Poland (now the Soviet puppet state of People's Republic of Poland), where he organised and directed the Academy of General Staff (Akademia Sztabu Generalnego).

He retired in 1953. Between 1953 and 1956 he was the Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of National Agriculture Industries (Ministerstwo Państwowych Gospodarstw Rolnych), between 1956 and 1957 he was the Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Agriculture (Ministerstwo Rolnictwa) and from 1957 to 1970 he was the General Inspector of Hunting (Inspektor Generalny Łowiectwa) in the Ministry of Forestry (Ministerstwo Leśnictwa). In 1963 he joined the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR, Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza).

See also

• Polish contribution to World War II