THE HISTORY OF ORZYSZ CONSPIRACY

Abstract

The turn of the forties and fifties is a period of renewed activity of the various groups and underground organizations. One of them was the Democratic Union of Struggle for Independence - DZWON (the abbreviation of the Polish full name “Demokratyczny Związek Walki O Niepodległość”, in English ‘The Bell’) - the organization that operated in the period from May 1951 to March 1952. The founder and leader of the organization was Władysław Świacki, who had experience in fighting the Nazis, as well as in the underground working.The political programme of the DZWON organization based on commonly taken into consideration by society in those days the possibility of the outbreak of World War III, that at the same time would create the possibility of taking the armed struggle and finally the overthrow of the communist regime depending on the Soviet Union. The internal structure of the organization was closely adjusted to the underground conditions. Władysław Świacki created the ternary system, which was to guarantee the safety of individuals, even in the case of arrests.In the period from May 1951 to February 1952, the organization was able to embrace with its range the part of Olsztyn and Bialystok voivodships. The communist authorities quickly got on the trail of the organization. The first arrests took place in late January and February 1952. Until April of that year dozens of people were arrested. After the brutal interrogation a great number of members of the organization were sentenced to more than ten years in prison.