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Leopold Okulicki

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Birth Date:
12.11.1898
Death date:
24.12.1946
Extra names:
Leopold Okulicki, Niedźwiadek, Лео́польд Окули́цкий
Categories:
General, Victim of repression (genocide) of the Soviet regime, WWI participant, WWII participant
Nationality:
 pole
Cemetery:
Moscow, Donskoy Cemetery

General Leopold Okulicki (noms de guerre Kobra, Niedźwiadek; 1898-1946) was a General of the Polish Army and the last commander of the anti-German underground Home Army during World War II. He was murdered after the war by the Soviet NKVD.

Early life

Okulicki was born in November 1898 in Bratucice, Bochnia County in the Austrian section of partitioned Poland ("Galicia"). His exact date of birth is unknown as the birth record was not preserved in Polish archives and Okulicki himself used two dates: 11 November and 13 November. In 1910 he joined a local gymnasium, and after 1913 he was also an active member of the Związek Strzelecki. The following year, at the age of 16, after finishing basic military training, Okulicki passed his NCO exams. After the outbreak of World War I, in October 1915, he left school and volunteered for the Polish Legions, where he served with distinction in the 3rd Legions Infantry Regiment.

He remained in the Polish Army and fought in various units both during the Great War and the following Polish-Bolshevik War. In the interwar period he remained in the army and in 1925 graduated from the prestigious Warsaw Military Academy. Afterwards Okulicki took a post in Grodno local corps headquarters. Until late 1930s he taught at the Infantry Training Centre in Rembertów, and became commanding officer of Polish 13th Infantry Division.

Nazi occupation

In 1939 he was made commander of one of the departments of the Polish Commander-in-Chief's Headquarters. After Edward Rydz-Śmigły evacuated his staff from Warsaw, Okulicki remained in the Polish capital and served in various posts during the Siege of Warsaw. After the capitulation of the Polish troops defending the capital, Okulicki evaded capture by the Germans and joined Służba Zwycięstwu Polski, one of the first underground resistance organizations formed in Nazi- and Soviet-occupied Poland. In January 1940 he moved to Łódź, where he assumed the post of commander of the local area of that organization. After a brief stint at Headquarters, he was transferred to Soviet-occupied Lwów and became head of that area.

Soviet period

Arrested by the NKVD in January 1941, he was imprisoned and tortured in various Soviet prisons. Released after the Sikorski-Mayski Agreement of 1941, he joined the Polish Army re-created in the USSR, where he assumed the post of the chief of staff. After a brief period as the commanding officer of the Polish 7th Infantry Division he was moved to London for training in the Cichociemni training camp and then transported to occupied Poland. In July 1944, during Operation Tempest, he became the commander of the 2nd Echelon of the Home Army. General Bór-Komorowski, predicting his arrest by the Soviets after the Warsaw Uprising named him his deputy and successor. Okulicki fought in the Uprising, among other posts as the chief of staff of the Home Army. After the capitulation of the Uprising, he managed to evade being captured by the Germans and moved to Kraków, from where he started to reorganize the Home Army. On 3 October 1944 he became the commander of the entire organization. After the Soviet take-over of Poland, on 19 January 1945, he ordered the disbandment of the Home Army, fearing that future existence of an allied force in Poland would only lead to more people being murdered or arrested by the Soviets. Following an NKVD provocation, he was arrested and imprisoned in Moscow. Sentenced to 10 years in the staged Trial of the Sixteen, he was murdered on 24 December 1946 in Butyrka prison. According to him, “In comparison with the NKVD, the Gestapo methods are child's play.”

Decorations

               
  • Order of the White Eagle, posthumously on 11 November 1995
  • Order Virtuti Militari Golden Cross
  • Order Virtuti Militari Silver Cross
  • Cross of Independence
  • Cross of Valour, 4 times
  • Cross of Merit with Swords Golden Cross
  • Legion of Merit, posthumously (USA)

Source: wikipedia.org

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        Relation nameRelation typeBirth DateDeath dateDescription
        1Ivan SerovIvan SerovCulprit25.08.190501.07.1990
        2Tadeusz KomorowskiTadeusz KomorowskiCommander01.06.189524.08.1966
        3Tadeusz PełczyńskiTadeusz PełczyńskiCommander14.02.189203.01.1985
        4Władysław SikorskiWładysław SikorskiCommander20.05.188104.07.1943
        5Edward Rydz-ŚmigłyEdward Rydz-ŚmigłyCommander11.03.188602.12.1941
        6August Emil FieldorfAugust Emil FieldorfSoldier20.03.189524.02.1953

        14.02.1919 | The Polish-Soviet war started

        The Polish–Soviet War (February 1919 – March 1921) was an armed conflict that pitted Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine against the Second Polish Republic and the Ukrainian People's Republic over the control of an area equivalent to today's Ukraine and parts of modern-day Belarus. Ultimately the Soviets, following on from their Westward Offensive of 1918–19, hoped to fully occupy Poland. Although united under communist leadership, Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine were theoretically two separate independent entities since the Soviet republics did not unite into the Soviet Union until 1922.

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        01.09.1939 | Invasion of Poland

        The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War (Polish: Kampania wrześniowa or Wojna obronna 1939 roku) in Poland and the Poland Campaign (German: Polenfeldzug) or Fall Weiß (Case White) in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the beginning of World War II in Europe. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week after the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, while the Soviet invasion commenced on 17 September following the Molotov-Tōgō agreement which terminated the Russian and Japanese hostilities (Nomonhan incident) in the east on 16 September. The campaign ended on 6 October with Germany and the Soviet Union dividing and annexing the whole of Poland.

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        08.09.1939 | Siege of Warsaw

        The Siege of Warsaw in 1939 was fought between the Polish Warsaw Army (Armia Warszawa) garrisoned and entrenched in the capital of Poland (Warsaw) and the invading German Army.

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        21.12.1944 | Leopold Okulicki został mianowany dowódcą Armii Krajowej

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        19.01.1945 | Rozwiązanie Armii Krajowej przez jej ostatniego dowódcę gen. Leopolda Okulickiego

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        27.03.1945 | W Pruszkowie NKWD podstępnie aresztowało 16 przywódców Polski Podziemnej, których następnie wywieziono specjalnym samolotem do Moskwy i osadzono w więzieniu na Łubiance

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        18.06.1945 | Trial of the Sixteen in Moscow

        The Trial of the Sixteen (Polish: Proces szesnastu) was a staged trial of 16 leaders of the Polish Underground State held by the Soviet Union in Moscow in 1945.

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        21.06.1945 | End of Trial of the Sixteen in Moscow

        The Trial of the Sixteen (Polish: Proces szesnastu) was a staged trial of 16 leaders of the Polish Underground State held by the Soviet Union in Moscow in 1945.

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