Instrukcje dla komendantów Armii Czerwonej obejmujących władzę na terytorium Polski w latach 1944–1945
Red Army, occupation of Poland, Soviet military commanders, independence underground, Lublin Poland

Summary/Abstract: The rapidly advancing digitisation of Russian archival collections opens up new possibilities for Polish historians. The Red Army troops entering the Polish territory in 1944 appointed military commanders in towns and villages, who for some time were the chief authority for the Polish population and the Red Army troops staying there. After launching the January 1945 offensive, the Soviet Army occupied Central Western Poland and entered the territory of the Western and Northern Territories, which had belonged to Germany before the war. Military commanders were also established there, but due to the lack of Polish administration, their rule was more extensive and lasted longer, also in 1946. Under the commanders' rule, which lasted for months, about one-third of the area of the Polish state, where millions of Germans still lived, came under their rule. Thousands of murders of civilians, rapes and the large-scale transfer of looted property to the USSR took place. These events placed a heavy burden on the Soviet military administration and the commanders. The paper aims to present three regulations concerning the work of Soviet military commanders in Poland. They were found in the resources of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation. They show the changeability of the concept of activities of military commanders in the Polish lands. The scope of their influence also changed. The first one, from July 1944, concerned only Lublin. The second one, from August 1944, concerned the area of operation and stationing of the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front (Przemyśl, Rzeszów, Sanok). The last one, issued in October 1944, came from the highest level, the General Staff of the Red Army, and regarded all troops stationed on Polish territory.

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