Bataliony Chłopskie (BCh, Polish Peasants' Battalions) was a Polish World War II resistance movement and partisan organisation. The organisation was created in mid-1940 by the Stronnictwo Ludowe party and by 1944 was partially integrated with the Armia Krajowa. At its' height, the organisation had 175 000 members.

History

Initially after the occupation of Poland by the Soviet Union and Germany, the peasant parties were reluctant to forming their own armed resistance forces. Since mid-1940 several smaller groups were formed, mostly for self-defence of Polish peasants against German terror and economical policies. Most of members of peasant parties grouped in CKRL (Central Directorate of Peasant Movement) who received military training before the war were transferred to other armed resistance organisations, most notably to ZWZ.

However, in early 1941 it was decided that an armed force be created. The core of the newly-formed BCh came from the earlier organisation Chłostra (an acronym of Chłopska Straż - Peasants' Guard), as well as from other underground organisations of the peasant movement, such as Związek Młodzieży Wiejskiej (Association of Peasant Youth), Chłopska Organizacja Wolności "Racławice" (Peasant Freedom Organisation "Racławice") and Centralny Związek Młodej Wsi "Siew" (Central Union of Village Youth "Sowing").

The structure of the BCh was based on pre_war administrational division of Poland. Areas were roughly correspondent to pre_war Voivodships, and were further divided onto districts (based on powiats) and commune-based units. By mid-1943 10 areas were formed:

1. Warsaw
2. Warsaw Voivodship
3. Kielce
4. Lublin
5. Łódź
6. Kraków, Rzeszów, Silesia
7. Białystok
8. Volhynia
9. Lwów, Stanisławów, Tarnopol
10. Poznań

Each of the areas fielded its own armed units. The units were basically of two types:

1. territorial militias - created for self-defence, sabotage and preparation of future all-national uprising
2. tactical units - strictly militarised, created for use as the core of the future all-national uprising

The units of the latter type were later mostly joined with the Armia Krajowa. The commander of the BCh was Franciszek Kamiński, his chiefs of staff were Kazimierz Banach (until 1942) and S. Koter.

During the process of unification of Polish underground, large part (approximately 50 000 men) of the BCh soldiers was integrated by the Government Delegate's Office at Home with Armia Krajowa and Państwowy Korpus Bezpieczeństwa. Also, by early 1943 part of the tactical units were transformed into Special Units specialised in diversion and reprisal actions. In March 1944 the Bataliony Chłopskie had approximately 175 000 members grouped in 69 units. However, the full unification with the Armia Krajowa did not occur until the end of the war.

After Poland was seized by the Red Army, elements of BCh started to cooperate with the communist-backed Armia Ludowa, while the majority remained loyal to the Polish government. However, the incoming end of the war, as well as informations of the Yalta Conference made further resistance futile and on April 2, 1945 most of the Bataliony Chłopskie units came out from the underground. Some of the soldiers were arrested by the communists, while others joined the reestablished Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe of Stanisław Mikołajczyk. Formally the Bataliony Chłopskie were dissolved in September 1945.

Tasks and actions

The main tasks of Bataliony Chłopskie were:

1. Defence of the peasants against German economical exploits
2. Defence of peasants against expulsions
3. Self-defence against German terror
4. Aid to the expelled, families of German slaves, Jews and intelligentsia

The first major action of armed resistance started in late 1942 when the Zamość area, due to its fertile black soil, was chosen for German colonisation as part of Generalplan Ost. Polish farmers were expropriated and forcibly expelled from the farms amidst great brutality and their farms were handed over to German settlers. Children were taken separately and after racial scrutiny send over to Germany to be raised in German families. After several major battles against German units (the most notable being the battles of Wojda, Róża and Zaboreczno), the Germans had to halt the action and in the end very few German settlers were brought to the area.

Other actions include liberating prisoners from prisons in Pińczów and Krasnystaw as well as sinking German river patrol ship Tannenberg on the Vistula.

See also:

• History of Poland (1939-1945)