Free Cossacks and the Second Polish Republic

Abstract

In the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, the Cossacks were used to suppress anti-Russian and anti-tsarist uprisings and revolts. However, during the Civil War in Russia, the Cossacks were subjected to repression and often extermination by the Bolsheviks. After the end of the war, the process of decossackization and elimination of the Cossack separateness began. It is therefore not surprising that the Cossacks sought allies, also in the newly reborn Republic of Poland. In the years 1919–1920, Cossack army representatives came to Warsaw in order to establish military cooperation against the Red Army. About 6–7 thousand Cossacks fought in the Polish-Soviet War. After the end of the war, thousands of Cossacks remained in exile in Poland. Other major clusters of Cossacks were found in France, Germany, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. One of the most prominent Cossack activists was Ignat Bilyi. Thanks to his efforts, the Polish authorities gave financial support to the Cossack independence campaign, which gained more favour after the coming to power of Marshal Józef Piłsudski. In 1927, in Prague, the capital of Czechoslovakia, the Free Cossacks Committee was established, consisting of Kuban and Don Cossacks. This organization was meant to cover as widely as possible the Cossack emigration scattered across Europe and even beyond, in order to unite it in the fight against the Soviet Union. The help given to this emigration was one of the elements of the Promethean action initiated by Józef Piłsudski. The Promethean campaign was held under the patronage of the Second Department of Polish General Staff (i.e. the body of military intelligence and counterintelligence of the Second Polish Republic) in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other institutions.