The youth underground in Poland after 1945

The scale

What we know today about the youth underground in post-war Poland comes mostly from the files of the security apparatus. According to an internal Ministry of the Interior report cited by the historian Elwira J. Kryńska, the authorities uncovered 491 clandestine youth organisations with about 6,340 members in total¹. Most were active in 1949–1953, and most lasted two years at most¹.

A pupil in the underground

Bogumił Studziński was born on 24 October 1931 in Kamień Duży, in the Radom region^2,3. Biographies published by Poland's Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) and the Encyklopedia Solidarności state that in 1945, as a secondary-school pupil, he joined the Freedom and Independence Association (WiN)^2,3. The association was founded on 2 September 1945⁴ — Studziński was not yet fourteen.

He later became deputy commander of a clandestine youth organisation in the Radom district^2,3,5. The biographies call it „Orzeł Biały” (White Eagle); the IPN archival descriptions call it „Biały Orzeł”^3,6. We give both forms until the files settle which is correct.

Investigation and sentence

The investigation was conducted by the Provincial Office of Public Security in Kielce. The files date from 1950–1954, which is why we take 1950 as the most likely year of his arrest⁶.

On 19 April 1951 the District Military Court in Kielce, sitting in Radom, sentenced him to ten years in prison^2,3. According to the description of the court files, the sentence rested on two provisions: Article 86 § 2 of the Polish Army Criminal Code — membership of an illegal organisation — and Article 4 § 1 of the decree of 13 June 1946 on crimes particularly dangerous during the reconstruction of the state, i.e. illegally keeping weapons⁷. The case of a civilian, a former secondary-school pupil, was heard by a military court⁷. Studziński was nineteen.

Young people in prison

In December 1951 there were 2,347 juvenile political prisoners in Polish prisons¹. Young convicts were sent, among other places, to the heavy prisons of Rawicz, Wronki, Sztum, Strzelce Opolskie and Fordon¹. Studziński served his sentence in Rawicz² — we write about that prison separately: Rawicz prison.

What we do not know yet

We do not know the names of his co-defendants or the details of the organisation's activity — the archival descriptions do not give them. The investigation and court files are held by the Institute of National Remembrance (references IPN Ki 013/1506 and Ki 8/1001–1002)^6,7. As part of preparing the new edition of the memoir we plan to consult them, and we will publish the findings here.