Mogilev

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Berling's Army. Following the evacuation of Anders's Army from the Soviet Union during 1942, tens of thousands of Poles remained on Soviet soil. The break in diplomatic relations in April 1943 over the Katyń massacre provided Stalin with the opportunity to go ahead with the creation of further Polish units without consulting the Polish government in London. The new force was formed at Sielce, between the rivers Don and Oka, and was known as the Kościuszko Division (ironically after the 18th-century Polish hero of an abortive rising against Russian rule). It was formally under the direction of the Union of Polish Patriots, the pro-communist group of Poles in the Soviet Union headed by Wanda Wasilewska. Command of the division fell to Lt-Colonel Zygmunt Berling (1896–1980). Berling had been Chief of Staff of General Anders' 5th Division and had supervised evacuation arrangements for Anders' forces at the Caspian port of Krasnovodsk. However, at the last moment he refused to leave the Soviet Union, thus effectively deserting from the Polish Army.

Formation of the Kościuszko Division, which began in May 1943, progressed rapidly, and there were soon sufficient recruits to form a reserve Polish unit (the Dbrowski Division). Further units were foreseen and in August the two divisions were transformed into a corps. However there was a shortage of officers which was made good by drafting in Soviet officers, some of whom were of Polish origin but not all of whom could speak Polish. In October 1943 Berling—promoted to maj-general by a Soviet decree—led his division into battle against the Germans at Lenino, near Mogilev, where they formed part of the Thirty-third Soviet Army. The division was ill-prepared, poorly supplied, and insufficiently trained. It suffered heavy losses, failed in its objective to reach the River Dnieper, and was withdrawn from the front line to undergo further training.

In April 1944 Berling's force was transformed once more, becoming the Polish Army in the USSR (it was eventually to number six divisions) and was transferred to the Ukraine. On 29 April it was placed under the operational command of General Rokossovsky, commander of the Belorussian front (army group). On 21 July, Rokossovsky's front crossed the River Bug, the partition line agreed in the Nazi–Soviet Pact, and within days had reached the outskirts of the Polish capital. When the Warsaw rising broke out on 1 August, Rokossovsky scrupulously observed Stalin's order that the Red Army was not to intervene. During the seventh week of the rising, however, on 15 September, Berling sent a group of his men across the Vistula to establish contact with the insurgents. When Rokossovsky's Belorussian front resumed its advance in January 1945, Berling had been removed from his command of the First Polish Army. The new commander was General S. Popławski.

The First Army, comprising some five infantry divisions and 78,000 men, continued in the direction of Bydgoszcz and the Baltic coast (Kołobrzeg, Stettin), eventually taking part in the fall of Berlin. In the south, in the closing weeks of the war a Second Polish Army of five infantry divisions (numbering eventually 90,000 men) took part in Ukrainian front operations, including the liberation of Prague.

In the post-war period, the army of the Polish People's Republic was largely created by former ‘Berling's Army’ officers, several of whom rose to political prominence. Berling himself subsequently studied at the General Staff Academy in Moscow, and in 1948 was appointed commandant of the equivalent Polish institution in Warsaw. He retired in 1953.

Keith Sword

Bibliography

Biegański, W. (ed.), Polski Czyn Zbrojny w 11 Wojnie Swiatowej. Ludowe Wojsko Polskie, 1943–45 (Warsaw, 1973).
Muś, W. , W Słuz˙bie Boga Wojny (memoir, Warsaw, 1983).
Sokorski, W. , Polacy pod Lenino (Warsaw, 1971).

Mogilev , Belarusian Mahilyow, city (1989 pop. 359,188), capital of Mogilev region, in E Belarus, on the Dnieper River. It is an important rail and highway junction, a river port, and an industrial center where metal products, machinery, and artificial fibers are produced. Arising in the 13th cent. on the territory of Smolensk principality, the city grew around a castle dating from 1267 and became a noted commercial center from the 14th cent. Mogilev was part of the grand duchy of Lithuania (united with Poland in 1569), was later held by Sweden, and passed to Russia during the first partition of Poland (1772). It was occupied and heavily damaged by the Germans during World War II. A tower built by the Tatars and several old churches survive.

Mogilëv (Mahilyow), Belarus A province and a city with a name from the Russian mogila ‘grave’ and lev ‘lion’. According to legend, a young peasant was deeply in love with a beautiful girl, but the pan ‘local squire’ refused permission for them to marry. The peasant died but his grave became known as the ‘Tomb of the Lion’. It was around this burial mound that a fortress was built in 1267 from which the city developed in the 16th century when the area was part of Lithuania. This became part of Poland and in 1772 of the Russian Empire at the first partition of Poland. Only in 1991 did the city emerge from Russian or Soviet control when Belarus gained independence.