How is the legacy of commander of the Polish Armed Forces in the East Zygmunt Berling viewed in present-day Poland? Is he viewed negatively in the same level as Karol Świerczewski because of his cooperation with the Soviets and subsequently overseeing the establishment of communist rule in Poland?
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For all I know Świerczewski was an NKVD operative since at least Spanish Civil War.
In comparison to Świerczewski, Berling looks clean.
Actually, Berling’s Polish Army walking along Soviet Army in WW2 was a good thing to Poland, because it reminded Soviet comrades that Poland is not just another Soviet republic.
It was working of people like Świerczewski to install Moscow-controlled regime in Poland.
https://histmag.org/General-Berling-mimo-wszystko-zasluguje-na-cos-lepszego-niz-tepy-wandalizm-19156
Commie tool, inefficient, needlessly bloody commander.
Had rough history with IIRP army which lead to him joining commie based one with those that “didn’t make it into Anders'”, but that does not excuse his poor commanding skills and inability to stand up to his commie overlords that were sending Polish soldiers in the east to their deaths in poorly planned and executed assaults.
Berling was a tiny weenie. Świerczewski too. Ask about Rokossowski.
Berling is still a controversial figure. On one hand he wasnt a competent comander on the other hand he did broken orders of his moscow superiors by sending limited force to help polish home army fighting in warsaw uprising. Since russians wanted poles there to die such decision, even with limited scope took some balls to take.
Just something I found on youtube – it’s [his monument.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ch0dTbfXi8) He was expelled from the Polish Army and sentenced to death in absentia in 1943:
>In the ruling, the court found that the defendants fled the ranks of the Polish Army, in the court’s opinion, in order to join the Soviet Army, and thus to serve a state whose one of political goals is to deprive the independent Polish State of its existence by incorporating its lands into the USSR, and therefore sentenced the defendants to death.
He is usally seen negatively as a Soviet collaborator.
USER check!
Let’s just say that a street named after him in Białystok had to be renamed (it’s now named after general Józef Haller). Draw your own conclusions.
Honestly? The polish troops in the east, and left-wing resistance organisations are very rarely talked about.
The man on the left looks like an ancestor of Roland Bartetzko.