Union of Polish Patriots

(Zwiazek Patriotów Polskich), in the USSR in the period from March 1943 to August 1946, a mass antifascist organization of Poles. The Union of Polish Patriots was founded through the initiatives of the Polish communists, such as W. Wasilewska, A. Lampe, and A. Zawadzki. In June 1943, at its first congress, it adopted an ideological declaration, in which it called for armed struggle against the fascist occupiers, the national and social liberation of the Polish nation, and the creation of a people’s democratic Polish state that would rely on alliance and friendship with the USSR. In May 1943, with assistance from the Soviet government, the Union of Polish Patriots formed the T. Kosciuszko First Polish Infantry Division; it subsequently organized other military units, which in March 1944 were brought together to form the First Polish Army. After the creation of the Krajowa Rada Narodowa (National Council of the Homeland) on Dec. 31, 1943, the Union of Polish Patriots recognized this body as the sole rightful representative of the Polish nation. In July 1944 its leading figures entered the first national government of the reborn Poland—the Polish committee of National Liberation. In August 1946, as most of the Polish émigrés were returning to their homeland, the Union of Polish Patriots ceased its activities.