The Tadeusz Kosciuszko 1st Infantry Division, hastily formed in the autumn of 1943 at Lenino, underwent its bloody baptism of fire. Most of the soldiers who had joined its ranks only a few months earlier ended up in the Soviet Union as victims of deportations and gulags. Fighting under the command of General Zygmunt Berling against the Germans was a chance for them to regain their freedom, but they could not have known that the nascent army was only a tool in Stalin’s plans for post-war Poland. Dr Piotr Popławski discusses the background to the formation of the Berling’s Army and the Siberian threads of this story with the eminent researcher of the history of the Polish army, Prof. Karol Olejnik.
The entire interview with Prof. Karol Olejnik in Polish is available here:
