Until 12 January, the Royal Lazienki Museum is inviting the public to view an exhibition introducing the history of the Anders Army and its combat trail. The author of the exhibition, presented in the Plenary Gallery at Ujazdowskie Avenue in Warsaw, is Prof. Zbigniew Wawer, director of the Royal Łazienki Museum.

This is the last exhibition that Prof. Wawer realised according to his idea, which he did not manage to open. The director of the Royal Łazienki Museum died after a long and difficult illness on 12 December 2022.

The exhibition tells the story of the creation of the Polish Armed Forces in the USSR. It contains many archival photographs, also from Prof Wawer’s private collection. The project was funded by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

The outbreak of the German-Soviet war in 1941 brought the USSR into the anti-fascist coalition. This made it possible for the Polish Government-in-Exile to sign the Sikorski-Mayski Agreement in London (30 July 1941), thanks to which a Polish Army was formed on Soviet territory. It was headed by the Polish General Władysław Anders, who was imprisoned by the NKVD in Moscow at the time.

Thousands of Poles were arriving in the newly created Anders Army from the hinterland of the USSR. It was their only chance to save themselves from death in Soviet labour camps. Many died of exhaustion on the way to the army, others already on the route of its march in Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan) and in Persia (Iran) and the Middle East (Iraq, Palestine).

Thanks to the Anders Army, civilians, including thousands of children, were able to start a new life in the free world. The soldiers, in turn, were able to fight for a free Poland. After the Second World War, however, they could not return to their country, which had been controlled by the USSR since 1945.

For the Poles who followed the Anders Army, this was the beginning of their exile wandering. Most of them settled in Great Britain, where there was a Presidential office and a Polish Government in Exile until 1989.

Adrian Andrzejewski