“Liberty" Organisation – the Underground and Veteranship

The article is devoted to the Polish underground military activities which occurred in the regiments of the Austro-Hungarian Army. The regiments were formed and augmented in the Austrian partitioned lands known as Galicia, the illo tempore province of the Habsburg empire. The beginnings of the underground movement date back to the Autumn of 1916 when on the Russian front, in the Pantyr Pass there was the first underground meeting of some of the officers of the 20th Austrian Infantry Regiment, called by Col. Stanisław Bergman. The underground activities developed since the Spring of 1917 on the Italian front where the aforementioned regiment was transported. Very soon these activities started to affect other divisions of the imperial and royal army. Captain Jerzy Dobrodzicki who had this rank at that time, became the leader. A significant rise in the activities of the movement occurred in the Autumn of 1917 when after the so-called oath crisis in the Polish Legions many legionaries were incorporated into the imperial royal army by way of punishment and the news of Józef Piłsudski’s detainment reached the patriotically-minded Polish officers who were forced to serve in the Austrian army. In April 1918 in Kraków there was a meeting of emissaries from the Italian front with the representatives of the Polska Organizacja Wojskowa [POW – the Polish Military Organisation]. Due to the agreement with the commanding officer of the POW, Colonel Edward Rydz-Śmigły, the underground movement was called organizacja “Wolność” [the “Freedom” Organisation]. In late October 1918 the “Freedom” Organisation, thanks to their members in the garrison divisions, contributed to the organisation of successful coups in Galicia at that time (among others in Tarnów, Kraków, Wadowice and Nowy Sącz) and in the Italian front, among the infantry regiments with a Polish majority. In the independent Poland in 1936 the former members of the “Freedom” Organisation decided to establish an organisation for veterans. The general assembly was prepared. The assembly was called to Kraków on 6 June 1937. The following year saw the establishment of the Związek Organizacji „Wolność” [the Union of the “Freedom” Organisation] which gained all rights which were granted to other organisations of veterans in the Republic of Poland.