The Warsaw Uprising (1 August-2 October 1944) was a popular uprising launched by the Polish Underground State's Home Army against occupying German forces in the Polish capital of Warsaw during World War II. The uprising had the goal of taking Warsaw back from the Germans with the help of the large Soviet army encamped just south of the city, but the Soviets were ordered to stand still by the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, who saw the Home Army leadership as pro-Western, anti-communist "criminals". The city was razed, 200,000 of its civilians massacred, 700,000 of its residents deported, and the revolt brutally crushed.
Uprising[]
On 1 August 1944, as German forces retreated through Eastern Europe, the Red Army advanced towards the Polish capital of Warsaw. The Home Army was spurred on to revolt by a 29 July 1944 broadcast from Moscow urging a popular uprising, and the army seized some two-thirds of the city; it had a strength of 45,000 men and women equipped with captured German weapons, while there were over 200,000 unarmed helpers. However, the rebels lacked any weapons capable of repelling the German heavy armor, and they looked to the Soviets to the south for help. Joseph Stalin ordered his army to do nothing, dismissing the Home Army's leadership as "power-seeking criminals". German reinforcements poured into Warsaw under the command of SS general Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, an expert in slaughtering partisan groups. The situation in the city became desperate; the Allied Powers offered only token support in the form of air support. Savage house-to-house fighting raged for two months, and the Home Army was forced back into an ever smaller area. The German advance was accompanied by rape and murder, with wounded prisoners being burned alive and women and children being used as human shields. The Polish forces were forced back into the cellars and sewers, and the Red Army continued to sit back, as Stalin saw the Polish Home Army as pro-Western and anti-communist. If it and its supporters were destroyed, it would clear the way for the Polish communists to take power. By 2 October, the Germans had crushed the Home Army and its sympathizers, killing over 15,000 army members and 200,000 civilians. 15,000 people surrendered, and a vengeful Hitler set about the complete destruction of Warsaw. Warsaw was razed to the ground, and the remnants of the Home Army went underground.
Aftermath[]
In January 1945, the Red Army entered Warsaw, and the Home Army remnants were hunted down by the secret police. Poland became a communist buffer state between the USSR and the West, fulfilling Stalin's dreams. British prime minister Winston Churchill went to Moscow in October 1944, agreeing with Stalin on a division of Europe: the Soviets would have 90% of the influence in Romania, 75% in Bulgaria, and 50% in Yugoslavia and Hungary, while the British would have 90% of the influence in Greece; the future of Poland was left vague in Churchill's "naughty document". Stalin agreed to the document, but he was aware that the winner would take all, and he intended to win over all of Eastern Europe and the Balkans.
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