Provisional Polish Revolutionary Committee
| 350px Polrewkom 1920 (in center left to right: Feliks Dzierzynski, Julian Marchlewski, Feliks Kon) |
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| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | July 23, 1920 |
| Preceding agency |
|
| Dissolved | Autumn 1920 |
| Jurisdiction | Poland |
| Headquarters | Białystok |
| Agency executive |
|
Provisional Polish Revolutionary Committee (Polish: Polrewkom; Russian: Польревком) (July–August 1920) was a revolutionary committee created under the patronage of Soviet Russia with the goal to establish a Polish Soviet Socialist Republic.
Polrevkom was created on July 23, 1920, in Moscow by the "Polish Bureau" of Bolsheviks, with chairman Julian Marchlewski. The decision was made during the initial successes of the Red Army during the Polish-Soviet War with the goal of providing administration of the Polish territories. The Committee was declared "provisional", because it was assumed that after a Soviet victory the power would be transferred to the Polish Communist Workers' Party.
The Polrevkom was assembled on July 24 in Smolensk, with its headquarters in an armored train, which quickly proceeded to Minsk (July 25), Wilno (July 27), and arrived to Białystok on July 30, 1920. It set up permanent headquarters in the Branicki Palace and issued public proclamations. For their efforts they received from Moscow over 2 billion rubles.[1] It is seen, like many other Bolshevik revolutionary committees, as a Bolshevik puppet government.[2]
The committee consisted of the following members:
- Julian Baltazar Marchlewski (chairman)
- Feliks Dzierzynski (de facto leader)
- Feliks Kon (education)
- Edward Próchniak (secretary)
- Józef Unszlicht (party)
- Bernard Zaks (industry)
- Stanisław Bobiński (agriculture)
- Tadeusz Rydwański (propaganda)
The Polrevkom activity was related to the North-Western front of the Red Army. The South-Western front of the Red Army supported a similar Galician Revolutionary Committee (Galrevkom), seated in Tarnopol in Eastern Galicia.
The TKRP had very little support from the ethnic Polish population and recruited its supporters mostly from the ranks of Jews; 1918 Białystok where it was set up had about 75% Jewish majority.[3]
On 22 August 1920 the Polrevkom moved out of Białystok to Minsk with the defeat of the Red Army, and was dissolved soon afterwards. A significant number of the key persons involved were later instrumental in creation of the Polish Autonomous District within the Soviet Union.
References
- Davies, Norman, White Eagle, Red Star: the Polish-Soviet War, 1919-20, Pimlico, 2003, ISBN 0-7126-0694-7. (First edition: St. Martin's Press, inc., New York, 1972)
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- ↑ Zbiór afiszów i druków ulotnych 1944-1950, nr z 376, sygn. 262 "Wystawa - 50 lat Archiwum w Białymstoku",(Polish) retrieved on: August 9, 2007.
- ↑ Evan Mawdsley, The Russian Civil War, Pegasus Books, 2007 ISBN 1-933648-15-5, Google Print, p.255
- ↑ Ronald Grigor Suny, The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR, and the Successor States, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508105-6, Google Print, p.106
