Cursed soldiers The cursed soldiers ( that is , " accursed soldiers " or " damned soldiers " ; ) is a name applied to a variety of Polish resistance movement s formed in the later stages of World War II and afterwards . Created by some members of the Polish Secret State , these clandestine organizations continued their armed struggle against the Stalinist government of Poland well into the 1950s . The guerrilla warfare included an array of military attacks launched against the new communist prisons as well as MBP state security offices , detention facilities for political prisoners , and concentration camps set up across the country . Most of the Polish anti - communist groups ceased to exist in the late 1940s or 1950s , hunted down by MBP security services and NKVD assassination squads . However , the last known ' cursed soldier ' , Józef Franczak , was killed in an ambush as late as 1963 , almost 20 years after the Soviet take - over of Poland . The best - known Polish anti - communist resistance organizations operating in Stalinist Poland included Freedom and Independence ( Wolność i Niezawisłość , WIN ) , National Armed Forces ( Narodowe Siły Zbrojne , NSZ ) , National Military Union ( Narodowe Zjednoczenie Wojskowe , NZW ) , Konspiracyjne Wojsko Polskie ( Underground Polish Army , KWP ) , Ruch Oporu Armii Krajowej ( Home Army Resistance , ROAK ) , Armia Krajowa Obywatelska ( Citizens ' Home Army , AKO ) , NIE ( NO , short for " Niepodległość " ) , Armed Forces Delegation for Poland ( Delegatura Sił Zbrojnych na Kraj ) , and Wolność i Sprawiedliwość ( Freedom and Justice , WiS ) . Similar eastern European anti - communists fought on in other countries . Historical background . With the advance of Soviet forces across Poland against Nazi Germany , the Soviet and Polish communist s who set up the brand new government called the Polish Committee of National Liberation in 1944 , realized that the Polish Secret State loyal to the Polish government - in - exile , had to be abolished before they could gain complete control over Poland . Future General Secretary of Polish United Workers ' Party , Władysław Gomułka , pronounced that " Soldiers of AK are a hostile element which must be removed without mercy " . Another prominent communist , Roman Zambrowski , said that the AK had to be " exterminated " . Armia Krajowa ( or simply AK ) – the main Polish resistance movement in World War II – had officially disbanded on 19 January 1945 to prevent a slide into armed conflict with the Red Army including an increasing threat of civil war over Poland ' s sovereignty . However , many units decided to continue on their struggle under new circumstances , seeing the Soviet forces as new occupiers . Meanwhile , Soviet partisans in Poland had already been ordered by Moscow on June 22 , 1943 to engage Polish " Leśni " partisans in combat . They commonly fought Poles more often than they did the Germans . The main forces of the Red Army ( Northern Group of Forces ) and the NKVD began conducting operations against AK partisans already during and directly after the Polish Operation Tempest designed by the Poles as a preventive action to assure Polish rather than Soviet control of the cities after the German withdrawal . Soviet premier Joseph Stalin aimed to ensure that an independent Poland would never reemerge in the postwar period . Formation of the anti - communist underground . The first AK structure designed primarily to deal with the Soviet threat was the NIE , formed in mid - 1943 . NIE ' s goal was not to engage the Soviet forces in combat , but rather to observe and conduct espionage while the Polish government - in - exile decided how to deal with the Soviets . At that time , the exiled government still believed that the solution could be found through negotiations . On May 7 , 1945 , the NIE ( " NO " ) was disbanded and transformed into the Delegatura Sił Zbrojnych na Kraj ( " Armed Forces Delegation for Homeland " ) . However , this organization lasted only until August 8 , 1945 , when the decision was made to disband it and to stop partisan resistance on Polish territory . In March 1945 a staged trial of 16 leaders of the Polish Underground State held by the Soviet Union took place in Moscow - ( the Trial of the Sixteen ) . The Government Delegate , together with most members of the Council of National Unity and the C - i - C of the Armia Krajowa , were invited by Soviet general Ivan Serov with agreement of Joseph Stalin to a conference on their eventual entry to the Soviet - backed Provisional Government . They were presented with a warrant of safety , but the NKVD arrested them in Pruszków on 27 and 28 March . Leopold Okulicki , Jan Stanisław Jankowski and Kazimierz Pużak were arrested on 27th with 12 more the next day . A . Zwierzynski had been arrested earlier . They were brought to Moscow for interrogation in the Lubyanka . After several months of brutal interrogation and torture they were presented with the forged accusations of " collaboration with Nazi Germany " and of " planning a military alliance with Nazi Germany " . The first Polish communist government , the Polish Committee of National Liberation , was formed in July 1944 , but declined jurisdiction over AK soldiers . Consequently , for more than a year , it was Soviet agencies like the NKVD that dealt with the AK . By the end of the war , approximately 60 , 000 soldiers of the AK had been arrested , and 50 , 000 of them were deported to the Soviet Union ' s gulags and prisons . Most of those soldiers had been captured by the Soviets during or in the aftermath of Operation Tempest , when many AK units tried to cooperate with the Soviets in a nationwide uprising against the Germans . Other veterans were arrested when they decided to approach the government after being promised amnesty . In 1947 , an amnesty was passed for most of the partisans ; the Communist authorities expected around 12 , 000 people to give up their arms , but the actual number of people to come out of the forests eventually reached 53 , 000 . Many of them were arrested despite promises of freedom ; after repeated broken promises during the first few years of communist control , AK soldiers stopped trusting the government . The third AK organization was Wolność i Niezawisłość ( " Freedom and Sovereignty " ) . Again , its primary goal was not combat ; rather , the WiN was designed to help AK soldiers make the transition from a life as partisans to that of civilians . The continued secrecy and conspiracy were necessary in light of the increasing persecution of AK veterans by the communist government . WiN was , however , much in need of funds to pay for false documents and to provide resources for the partisans , many of whom had lost their homes and entire life - savings in the war . Viewed as enemies of the state , starved of resources , and with a vocal faction advocating armed resistance against the Soviets and their Polish proxies , WiN was far from efficient . A significant victory for the NKVD and the newly created Polish secret police , Urząd Bezpieczeństwa ( UB ) , came in the second half of 1945 , when they managed to convince several leaders of the AK and WiN that they truly wanted to offer amnesty to AK members . Within a few months , they managed to gain information about vast numbers of AK / WiN resources and people . Several months later when the ( imprisoned ) AK and WiN leaders realized their mistake , the organization was crippled and thousands more of their members were arrested . WiN primary period of activity lasted till 1947 ; it finally disbanded in 1952 . Persecution . The NKVD and UB used brute force and deception to eliminate the underground opposition . In the autumn of 1946 , a group of 100 – 200 soldiers of Narodowe Siły Zbrojne ( National Armed Forces , NSZ ) were lured into a trap and massacred . In 1947 , Colonel Julia ( " Bloody Luna " ) Brystiger of the Polish Ministry of Public Security declared at the security briefing , that " [ t ] he terrorist and political underground had ceased to be a threatening force , " although the class enemy at universities , offices and factories still had to be " found out and neutralized . " The persecution of the AK members was only a part of the reign of Stalinist terror in postwar Poland . In the period of 1944 – 56 , approximately 300 , 000 Polish people had been arrested , or up to two million , by different accounts . There were 6 , 000 death sentences issued , the majority of them carried out . Possibly , over 20 , 000 people died in communist prisons including those executed " in the majesty of the law " such as Witold Pilecki , a hero of Auschwitz . A further six million Polish citizens ( i . e . , one out of every three adult Poles ) were classified as suspected members of a ' reactionary or criminal element ' and subjected to investigation by state agencies . During the Polish October of 1956 , a political amnesty freed 35 , 000 former AK soldiers from prisons . Still , some partisans remained in service , unwilling or simply unable to rejoin the community . The " cursed soldier " Stanisław Marchewka " Ryba " ( " The Fish " ) was killed in 1957 ; and the last AK partisan , Józef Franczak " Lalek " ( " Doller " ) , was killed in 1963 — almost two decades after the Second World War ended . Four years later , long after the abolition of Stalinist terror , last member of the elite British - trained Cichociemny ( " The Silent and Hidden " ) intelligence and support group Adam Boryczka was finally released from prison ( 1967 ) . Until the end of the People ' s Republic of Poland , former AK soldiers were under constant investigation by the secret police . It was only in 1989 , after the fall of communism , that the court sentences of AK soldiers were finally declared invalid and annulled by the Polish law . The largest operations and actions . The biggest battle in the history of the National Military Union ( " Narodowe Zjednoczenie Wojskowe " , NZW ) took place on May 6 – 7 , 1945 , in the village of Kuryłówka in southeastern Poland . The Battle of Kuryłówka fought against the Soviet " 2nd Border Regiment " of the NKVD , ended in a victory for the underground forces commanded by Major Franciszek Przysiężniak ( " Marek " ) . The anti - communist fighters killed up to 70 Russian agents . The NKVD troops retreated in haste , only to reappear in the village later on and burn it to the ground in retaliation , destroying over 730 buildings . On May 21 , 1945 , a heavily armed unit of the Home Army ( AK ) led by Colonel Edward Wasilewski , attacked and destroyed the NKVD camp located in Rembertów on the eastern outskirts of Warsaw . The Russians incarcerated many hundreds of Polish citizens there , including members of the Home Army . Retaliation . One of the biggest communist anti - partisan operations took place from June 10 – 25 , 1945 , in and around the Suwałki and Augustów regions of Poland . The " Augustów roundup " ( ) was a joint operation of the Red Army and the Soviet NKVD and SMERSH battalions with the assistance from Polish UB and LWP units , against underground Armia Krajowa soldiers . The Soviet operation extended into the territory of occupied Lithuania . More than 2 , 000 suspected anti - communist Polish fighters were captured and detained in Russian internment camps . About 600 of the " Augustow Missing " are presumed to have died in Russian custody , their bodies buried in unknown mass graves on the present territory of Russia . The Polish Institute of National Remembrance has declared the 1945 Augustów roundup to be " the largest crime committed by the Soviets on Polish lands after World War II . " Anti - communist resistance organizations . Among the best - known Polish underground organizations , engaged in guerrilla warfare were : Notable members . MCpl Izydor " Burza " Bukowski 1914 - 17 . 08 . 1946