The representation of the Warsaw Uprising in the media had already become controversial even before it begun. By the time it ended in capitulation in October 1944, the questions about why no effective support had been available were in the public mind, but debate about them remained unclear in the wartime situation. After the War, information about the uprising was surpressed under communisum gradually resurfacing from the 1960s until finally in the 1990s more or less the full story could be told. The 60th anniversary in 2004 was marked by widespread discussion in the media both in Poland and through the rest of the world; this coincided with the opening of a museum of the uprising in Warsaw and many public ceremonies involving those who had fought in the uprising. The Warsaw Uprising (Powstanie Warszawskie) was a controversial armed struggle during the Second World War by the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) to liberate Warsaw from German occupation and Nazi rule. ... The Warsaw Uprising occurred at a stage of the Second World War when it was becoming clear that Nazi Germany was likely to lose. ... The Warsaw Uprising began with simultaneous pre-arranged attacks at 17:00 hours August 1, 1944. ... The Warsaw Uprising, in 1944 ended in the capitulation of the city and its near total destruction. ... The Warsaw Uprising was ended through a capitulation agreement which guaranteed not only the rights of the insurgents to be treated as Prisoners of War but also was designed to guarantee the fair treatment of the civilians living in Warsaw. ... The failure of the Warsaw Uprising and subsequent Capitulation agreement left Warsaw almost uninhabited. ... This is a list of military units taking part in the Warsaw Uprising, a Polish insurgence during the Second World War that began on August 1, 1944. ... This is a list of notable individuals who were involved in the Warsaw Uprising, a Polish insurgence during the Second World War that begun on August 1 of 1944. ... This page covers facts and statistics about the Warsaw Uprising, a Polish insurgence during the Second World War that begun on August 1 of 1944. ... The Warsaw Uprising (Powstanie Warszawskie) was a controversial armed struggle during the Second World War by the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) to liberate Warsaw from German occupation and Nazi rule. ... The Warsaw Uprising was ended through a capitulation agreement which guaranteed not only the rights of the insurgents to be treated as Prisoners of War but also was designed to guarantee the fair treatment of the civilians living in Warsaw. ... 1944 was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Warsaw Uprising, in 1944 ended in the capitulation of the city and its near total destruction. ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Policy of People's Republic of Poland towards representing the uprising

Knowledge about the Warsaw Uprising, which had been considered inconvenient to Stalin, was twisted by propaganda of the People's Republic of Poland, which stressed the failings of Home Army and the Polish government-in-exile, and forbade all criticism of the Red Army or the political goals of Soviet strategy. Until late sixties the very name of the Home Army was censored and most films and novels covering the 1944 Uprising were either banned or modified so that the name of the Home Army did not appear there. Also, the official propaganda of both Poland and the USSR suggested that the Home Army was some sort of a group of right-wing collaborators with Nazi Germany. From 1956 on the image of Warsaw Uprising in Polish propaganda was changed a little bit to underline that the soldiers were indeed brave, while the officers were treacherous and that the commanders were characterized by disregard of the losses. The first serious publications on the topic were not issued until late eighties. In Warsaw no monument to the Home Army could be built until 1989. Instead, efforts of Soviet-backed Armia Ludowa were glorified and exaggerated. The Peoples Republic of Poland ( Polish: Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1989, during its period of rule by the Communist party, officially called the Polish United Workers Party (Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza, or PZPR). ... The Peoples Republic of Poland ( Polish: Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1989, during its period of rule by the Communist party, officially called the Polish United Workers Party (Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza, or PZPR). ... Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s - 1960s - 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s Years: 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 Events and trends The 1960s was a turbulent decade of change around the world. ... 1956 is a leap year starting on Sunday. ... Events and trends The 1980s marked an abrupt shift towards more conservative lifestyles after the momentous cultural revolutions which took place in the 1960s and 1970s and the definition of the AIDS virus in 1981. ... 1989 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is part of the series: Polish Secret State See also Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) which supported the Polish government-in-exile Categories: Historical stubs | Polish history | World War II resistance movements | Military of Poland ...

Representation in Communist Propaganda

Communist propaganda poster depicting the Armia Krajowa as putrid reactionist midgets

Communist propaganda related to the uprising concentrated on representing the leaders of the uprising and the politicians in London in a bad light. Immediately following the capture of the ruins of Warsaw, posters were placed around the city showing the AK leadership as the "expectant dwarfs of reaction" (Norman Davies, between pages 368 and 369). Polish post-war communist propaganda poster showing a soldier of the Moscow-backed Polish Peoples Army and a crippled Armia Krajowa soldier. ... Polish post-war communist propaganda poster showing a soldier of the Moscow-backed Polish Peoples Army and a crippled Armia Krajowa soldier. ... For other meanings of Home Army see: Home Army (disambiguation) The Armia Krajowa or AK (Home Army) functioned as the pre-eminent underground military organization in German-occupied Poland, which functioned in all areas of the country from September 1939 until its disbanding in January 1945. ... This article is about the type of communication. ...

Representation in unofficial Polish media and culture during the communist period

The courage of the Warsaw Uprising, and its utter betrayal by the Soviet Union, kept anti-Soviet sentiment high in Poland throughout the Cold War. Memories of the uprising helped to inspire the Polish labour movement Solidarity, which led a peaceful movement against the Communist government during the 1980s, leading to the downfall of that government in 1989 and the emergence of democracy. The Cold War ( 1947- 1991) was the open yet restricted rivalry that developed after World War II between groups of nations practicing different ideologies and political systems. ... Solidarity (Polish Solidarność) is a Polish trade union federation founded in September 1980, originally led by Lech Wałęsa. ...

Alongside information about the Katyn Massacre, historical information about the Warsaw Uprising was printed illegally and distributed by the Polish underground. The Katyń Forest Massacre, also known as the Katyn massacre, was the mass execution of Polish citizens by the Soviet Union during World War II. Initially, the expression referred to the massacre of the Polish officers from the Kozielsk POW camp in Katyn forest near the village of Gnezdovo, a...

Representation in the West

In the West, the story of the Polish fight for Warsaw with little support, and later the shock of Home Army soldiers as Western Allies recognized the Soviet controlled pro-Communist regime installed by Stalin was an embarrassment and thus the story was not publicized for many years.

A key effect of the communist propaganda on representation in the west has been confusion between Warsaw Uprising and Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. This was caused partly by a simple lack of discussion of the Warsaw Uprising and partly by a deliberate mixing of the two in public discussion. The Warsaw Uprising (Powstanie Warszawskie) was a controversial armed struggle during the Second World War by the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) to liberate Warsaw from German occupation and Nazi rule. ... The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of the Jewish ghettos established by Nazi Germany in Poland during the Holocaust in World War II. In the three years of its existence, starvation, disease and relocations to concentration camps dropped the population of the ghetto from an estimated 380,000 to 70...

Post communist treatment of the Warsaw Uprising

Since 1989 the truth about the Uprising is no longer censored, and 1 August is now a celebrated anniversary. On July 31, 2004 a Warsaw Uprising Museum was opened in Warsaw (see Related links for recent news reports on this event). August 1st is the 213th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (214th in leap years), with 152 days remaining. ... July 31 is the 212th day (213th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 153 days remaining, as the final day of July. ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Monuments to the Insurgents in Warsaw

The very earliest monuments after the war were those in Soviet cemeteries and designed chosen so that no mention of polish fighting forces was included.

By the 1960s, monuments could mention that Poles had been lost fighting for their freedom, but not who.

After the World War II the communists who took the power in Poland accepted only two views of the Warsaw Uprising and the Armia Krajowa. Both could be depicted either as organization of cowards and Nazi collaborators or short-minded enemies of the people. Because of that there could be no monument to the Warsaw Uprising anywhere in Poland. In Warsaw itself until late 1960s there were only monuments to the Red Army soldiers and the Armia Ludowa soldiers. The role of the latter in the city fights in 1944 was exaggerated and overrated. Most of the victims of the Uprising who were buried in graves all over the city were later exhumated and buried in mass graves far away from the city centre, with a small concrete monument to "the victims of the war with Nazism". No mention of the Uprising was allowed. Download high resolution version (2048x1536, 682 KB)The Soviet military cemetery in Warsaw, in the Mokotow district, showing scale and detail. ... Download high resolution version (2048x1536, 682 KB)The Soviet military cemetery in Warsaw, in the Mokotow district, showing scale and detail. ... Download high resolution version (761x601, 59 KB)This is an image of the monument from Rycerska street in the Warsaw old town. ... Download high resolution version (761x601, 59 KB)This is an image of the monument from Rycerska street in the Warsaw old town. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... Red Army flag The short forms Red Army and RKKA refer to the Workers and Peasants Red Army, (Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия - Raboche-Krestyanskaya Krasnaya Armiya in Russian), the armed forces organised by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War in 1918. ... This article is part of the series: Polish Secret State See also Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) which supported the Polish government-in-exile Categories: Historical stubs | Polish history | World War II resistance movements | Military of Poland ... 1944 was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Contrary to the communist efforts, the people of Warsaw did not forget the Uprising. The only way to express it was on Polish zaduszki day, when thousands of people lit candles on graves of the Armia Krajowa soldiers in Powązki cemetery. According to the polish secret police, in 1983 more than 400 000 people attended the informal feast. In 1979 first (unofficial) celebration of Warsaw Uprising anniversary took place. Zaduszki (also dzień zaduszny) is a Polish tradition of lighting candles and visiting the graves of the relatives on All Saints Day. ... Powazki Cemetery Powązki Cemetery (Polish Cmentarz powązkowski) is the oldest and most famous cemetery in Warsaw, Poland, which is situated in the western part of the city. ... Służba Bezpieczeństwa (SB, until 1956 Urząd Bezpieczeństwa, UB) was the name of the intelligence agency and secret police in the Peoples Republic of Poland. ... 1983 is an integer and composite number that represents a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1979 is a common year starting on Monday. ...

By the 1970s, some monuments were put up which even mentioned the uprising by name, but not that the Home army had fought in it.

Only in the 1990s were monuments with full details of the fighting permitted.

In the 1970s the Polish United Workers' Party under the lead of Edward Gierek started to seek a "Polish way to socialism" and allowed for some liberalization of Polish history. The official propaganda started to underline that although the commanders of the Armia Krajowa were criminals, the individual soldiers simply followed wrong orders. In Warsaw some 500 stone tablets were erected to commemorate those who fell in the city during the war. The tablets were all identical, except for the dates and number of victims. The text under the monuments says: This place is sanctified with the blood of Poles who fell in fight for the freedom of the Motherland. Still no mention of the Uprising was allowed in public places. Download high resolution version (1390x1894, 366 KB)This is an image of the monument from near the Warsaw old town. ... Download high resolution version (1390x1894, 366 KB)This is an image of the monument from near the Warsaw old town. ... Download high resolution version (2048x1536, 1047 KB)Monument to units fighting in Warsaw Uprising from 1991; GFDL This is an image of the monument from Zelazna street in central Warsaw just South of the former location of the Warsaw Ghetto. ... Download high resolution version (2048x1536, 1047 KB)Monument to units fighting in Warsaw Uprising from 1991; GFDL This is an image of the monument from Zelazna street in central Warsaw just South of the former location of the Warsaw Ghetto. ... The Polish United Workers Party (PUWP; in Polish, Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza, PZPR), was the governing political party in communist_ruled Poland from its creation (through a fusion of the communist Polish Workers Party and the left wing of the Polish Socialist Party) in December 1948 until the regimes electoral... Edward Gierek Edward Gierek (January 6, 1913 - July 29, 2001) was a Polish Communist leader. ... This article is about the type of communication. ...

Heroes of the Warsaw Uprising monument

Also, a monument to the engineers of the Soviet-backed 1st Polish Army who crossed the river in late September and tried to help the Uprising was erected in Powiśle area. However, there was no text explaining when or what for did they die. The text written on the tables around the statue of an engineer said The Free Warsaw will never forget those who started the great effort of its reconstruction (...) to the engineers who lost their lives on duty.. Download high resolution version (853x640, 99 KB)Heroes of the Warsaw Uprising monument in Warsaw, Krasiński square, erected in 1989. ... Download high resolution version (853x640, 99 KB)Heroes of the Warsaw Uprising monument in Warsaw, Krasiński square, erected in 1989. ...

In 1980 the start of the Solidarity movement allowed for a committee to be created, whose purpose was to erect a monument of the Warsaw Uprising. The money was to be gathered from private sponsors since the party still did not want to participate in such an initiative. Many prominent members of the Solidarity joined the commity, but it was banned after the Martial Law was imposed in 1981. However, the communist authorities understood that the memory of the Uprising will not fade in peoples' minds and agreed to prepare a project of the monument. On July 20, 1984 an erection act was prepared. The date was chosen to blur the connection with the uprising and the feast was officially connected to July 22, the anniversary of signing the PKWN manifesto. No Armia Krajowa members were invited and the construction never started. 1980 is a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... Solidarity (Polish Solidarność) is a Polish trade union federation founded in September 1980, originally led by Lech Wałęsa. ... Solidarity (Polish Solidarność) is a Polish trade union federation founded in September 1980, originally led by Lech Wałęsa. ... Martial law is the system of rules that takes effect (usually after a formal declaration) when a particular situation requires that a military authority take control of the normal administration of justice (and usually of the whole state). ... 1981 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... July 20 is the 201st day (202nd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 164 days remaining. ... 1984 is a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... July 22 is the 203rd day (204th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 162 days remaining. ...

After the peaceful dissolution of communist system in Poland in 1989, the committee was recreated. The project by Jacek Budyna was already prepared and construction begun immediately. The Heroes of the Warsaw Uprising monument (Pomnik Bohaterów Powstania Warszawskiego) was erected on Krasiński square, close to the place where one of the sewer communication lines with Starówka, Żoliborz and the city centre was located. The monument was revealed on August 1, 1989. 1989 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... August 1st is the 213th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (214th in leap years), with 152 days remaining. ... 1989 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Finally at the start of the 21st century, monuments to those insurgents killed by the NKVD and Polish Communists at the end of the war are being put in place

Since the beginning of the 1990s the monuments to the soldiers who fought in the battle were no longer banned and started to spread throughout the city. Nowadays every battalion who took part in the struggle has got a monument, a street or a square named after. Download high resolution version (1638x1336, 144 KB)Monument from 2001 to Political prisoners killed in Sluzew racecourse prison; GFDL This is an image of the monument to Political prisoners killed in Sluzew racecourse prison in Mokotow, Warsaw. ... Download high resolution version (1638x1336, 144 KB)Monument from 2001 to Political prisoners killed in Sluzew racecourse prison; GFDL This is an image of the monument to Political prisoners killed in Sluzew racecourse prison in Mokotow, Warsaw. ... Black Ravens by Boris Vladimirski, a depiction of the cars used by NKVD agents. ...

See also

• Warsaw Uprising the main page of this series