The Warsaw Uprising of 1944: A History of the Polish People

The Warsaw uprising of 1944 was a futile attempt by the Home army to drive out German forces and liberate Warsaw before the Russians could. Poland was already fully conquered by Russia and Germany 5 years prior tobeforefor the low-level this, and Hitler’s army was just beginning to be pushed out by Joseph Stalin's troops. As the Soviet army began to advance, the Polish underground began preparing to stage an uprising against the Germans. The uprising was greatly encouraged by Soviet authorities with the promise of aid.

For the uprising to have been successful, the Home army would hfor offquicklyoff quickl theGermanyave needed to defeat the German to before foroff off quicklythe Forces in the span of a few days with the help of the allied forces. However, the uprising lasted 9 weeks and no help was provided. In addition to not helping with the uprising, the Soviet army also made it extremely difficult for other countries like the United States to intervene and send aid.

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The Warsaw uprising of 1944 did not yield the results that the Home Army was striving for due to the betrayal and manipulation of Soviet authority which caused the allied forces to weaken.

The Soviet army constructed the Pole's defeat by deceiving the resistance group. The Soviet authorities pushed the Home army to revolt by claiming that they would provide aid and be in close range of them. It was quickly understood after the uprising began on August 1st, 1944, that this claim was not entirely truthful. In the early stages of the uprising, the Poles had established control over most of central Warsaw, but the Russians were not able to break past the Germans to get close enough to help.

Even then, they were not making any effort to help since they were also ignoring Polish attempts to make contact with them. Halfway through the nine weeks, the military situation East of Warsaw changed allowing the Russians to be stationed close enough to help but still refused to do so. Stalin did not care that the Poles were being killed and that Warsaw was being destroyed. Winston Churchill minded and tried to help as well as Roosevelt who minded and helped a little. The Soviet government refused to allow the western Allies to fly to Soviet air bases or airlift supplies to struggling Poles. They had the power to control other countries in this way because the Red Army knew the U.S. and Britain needed them in this war. This strategy worked because “the British and the Americans could not conquer Hitler's Germany by themselves, not without Russia, not without Stalin. Churchill and Roosevelt knew that. They could not endanger their alliance with Stalin, not even for the sake of Poland.” Despite Stalin's control, Churchill sent over 200 low- level low-level afterward supply drops to multiple Air Forces without any Soviet clearance. He actively tried to enlist President Franklin D. Roosevelt to convince Stalin to allow the Allied planes to at least use Soviet air bases to refuel. When clearance was finally gained through the Soviets, the U.S. sent 1 big high-level supply airdrop. By the 14th of September, the eastern bank of the Vistula River opposite of the Polish resistance positions was taken over by Polish troops fighting under Soviet command. About 1,200 men made it across the river, but they were not reinforced by the Red Army. Due to the lack of support, the allegations that Stalin purposefully controlled the troops in such a way to make the operation fail began to form.

The reason behind the Soviets orchestratinanti-communists the uprising and its failure was purely political. The idea behind it was that the Poles would liberate Warsaw first, then the Russians would liberate it afterward. It is widely believed that “Russians could have, if they wanted to, substantially help the Varsovians, if not liberated them entirely, during the critical summer of 1944. Soviet delays in doing so stemmed primarily from political, not military, motivations, and insured Moscow a dominant role in determining the political future of Poland.” This shows that the Red army chose not to help liberate Warsaw since they knew it would help them in the future. Stalin put into place what he thought was best for his country without taking into account the 216,000 people who were dying. Since he has strict political views, “Stalin was reluctant to aid anti-communists, who could become politically inconvenient in a post-war Polish government.” He was only motivated by looking at what the future held for his country and what that mean in terms of power and control.

Even Though the Russian government did play a big role in the failure of the Warsaw Uprising, other points added to it. The Home army was not the strongest army to go against the Germans. They had to prepare in the offquicklysecret of course so the Underground army was poorly armed. Many factors went wrong including the time that the uprise began, promised aid not being delivered, being unprepared and the positioning of the armies. With all of these factors stacked up against the Home army, they were doomed to fail. The first few days looked bright for the Home army, starting quickly strong and pushing the Germans back. But the German army quicky called in reinforcements, something the Poles were unable of doing, and bombarded them with nonstop air and artillery attacks. When the U.S. was finally able largescale large the scale military supply drop to the Poles, it was already too late since the German army was making advances and most of the underground Poles were already dead.

The Warsaw uprising of 1944 was encouraged in hopes of finally liberating Warsaw from German control. But, this 63-day fight ultimately ended in over 215,000 casualties and almost the destruction of the capital Warsaw. Russian forces were responsible for a big part of the failure. They not only lied to the Home army by falsely claiming that they would be able and willing to back them up, but they also prevented countries that wanted to provide aid, like Britain and the U.S., to intervene. Part of the reason was also that they were not prepared to face an army of this strength. They should have realized this beforehand but then again the Russian army was pushing them to rebel in such a way and they felt like it was a great opportunity to finally win back their Country. The underground army was blinded by this sheet of lies and had every possible factor going against them, but they did not anticipate this to backfire on them the way it did.