Provisional Polish Revolutionary Committee

Provisional Polish Revolutionary Committee
Polrewkom

Polrewkom 1920 (in center left to right: Ivan Skvortsov-Stepanov, Feliks Dzierżyński, Julian Marchlewski, Feliks Kon. Bottom row, center: Marian Stokowski)
Agency overview
Formed23 July 1920
Preceding agency
  • Polish Bureau of Bolsheviks
DissolvedAutumn 1920
JurisdictionPoland
HeadquartersBiałystok (August)
Smolensk (initially)
Agency executive
Banner of the Polrewkom donated by the workers of Białystok, August 1920

The Provisional Polish Revolutionary Committee (Polish: Tymczasowy Komitet Rewolucyjny Polski, Polrewkom; Russian: Временный революционный комитет Польши, Польревком) (July–August 1920) was a revolutionary committee established during the Polish–Soviet War under the patronage of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic with the goal to establish a soviet republic within Poland, or a Polish Soviet Socialist Republic constituent in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

History

Proclamation of Polrewkom, 30 of July 1920
Manifesto of Polrewkom, 30 of July 1920

Polrevkom was created on 23 July 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 24 July in Smolensk, with its headquarters in an armored train, which quickly proceeded to Minsk (25 July), Wilno (27 July), and arrived to Białystok on 30 July 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:

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 was met with relative enthusiasm in Białystok which had about 75% Jewish and working class majority. However, as the Red Army moved on towards Warsaw, it and Polrewkom had little support from the Polish population.[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.

Notes

  1. ^ Zbiór afiszów i druków ulotnych 1944-1950, nr z 376, sygn. 262 "Wystawa - 50 lat Archiwum w Białymstoku"[permanent dead link‍],(in Polish) retrieved on: 9 August 2007.
  2. ^ Evan Mawdsley, The Russian Civil War, Pegasus Books, 2007 ISBN 1-933648-15-5, Google Print, p.255
  3. ^ 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

References