Edmund Kalikst Eugeniusz Charaszkiewicz (; 14 October 1895 – 22 December 1975) was a Polish military intelligence officer who specialized in clandestine warfare. Between the World Wars, he helped establish Poland's interbellum borders in conflicts over territory with Poland's neighbours.
Also, for a dozen years before World War II, he coordinated Marshal Józef Piłsudski's Promethean movement, aimed at liberating the non-Russian peoples of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union—an objective that Piłsudski deemed crucial if Poland, sandwiched between Germany and the Soviet Union, were to preserve her just-regained independence.
Early career Edmund Charaszkiewicz was born on 14 October 1895 in Punitz (in Polish, Poniec), in the Province of Posen, an area of the German Empire that had been annexed from Poland by Prussia in the Third Partition of Poland (1795). He was the son of Stanisław Charaszkiewicz, a building contractor, and Bronisława, née Rajewska. Edmund completed his primary schooling in Poniec, then attended secondary schools successively in Krotoszyn, Katowice and Kraków. In the latter city, before World War I, his family lived at ulica Długa 63 (63 Long Street). In Kraków Edmund graduated from secondary school on 17 December 1915, while already a soldier in the Polish Legions.Andrzej Grzywacz et al., introduction to Zbiór dokumentów ppłk. Edmunda Charaszkiewicza (A Collection of Documents by Lt. Col. Edmund Charaszkiewicz), p. 5.
In that period, it was common for secondary-school students in Galicia to join Polish patriotic paramilitary organizations. On 1 November 1913 Charaszkiewicz, aged 18, joined the Riflemen's Association and in 1913–14 attended an Association noncommissioned-officers' school, using the pseudonym Kalikst (his second given name).Andrzej Grzywacz et al., p. 5.
Soon after the outbreak of World War I, on 4 or 5 August 1914, Charaszkiewicz enlisted in the Polish Legions. He served successively in several units and convalesced from several illnesses. In November or December 1917 he was inducted into the Polish Auxiliary Corps (the former Second Brigade of the Polish Legions), in which he served till February 1918 as senior sergeant major. He was then released from the Legions to serve in the German Army. To avoid such service, and because he was liable to arrest and internment as a former Polish Legionnaire, he went into hiding from 18 February until June 1918 in Kraków, and from November 1918 in Warsaw, where he worked at the Ministry of Military Affairs of the Polish Armed Force. His superiors there were two future Polish generals: Colonel Marian Żegota-Januszajtis and Major Stefan Pasławski.Andrzej Grzywacz et al., pp. 5–6.
Just after the close of World War I, on 15 November 1918, Charaszkiewicz joined the Polish Army in the rank of sublieutenant. During the Polish-Soviet War (1919–21) he participated in battles at Švenčionėliai, Pabradė, Bezdonys, Vilnius and Eišiškės. During the Polish defence of Vilnius, he was taken prisoner by the Lithuanians and was interned from 19 July to 18 August 1920. He escaped and, on returning to the Białystok Rifle Regiment (Białostocki Pułk Strzelców), temporarily commanded the 11th Company (21 September – 6 October 1920), then served as a junior officer in the 9th Company. On 27 February 1921, for conspicuous valor behind Soviet lines, he was recommended for Poland's highest military decoration, the Virtuti Militari.Andrzej Grzywacz et al., pp. 6–7.
Military intelligence Meanwhile, on 15 December 1920, Charaszkiewicz had been assigned to the Second Department of Polish General Staff, or Intelligence – specifically, to its Upper Silesia Plebiscite Department. During the Third Silesian Uprising he served (2 May – 15 August 1921) as deputy commander of demolition squads known as the Wawelberg Group. For his courage and steadfastness in action against the Germans, as he blew up mined structures in the face of withering enemy fire and thereby halted the German advance, he was on 18 February 1922 again recommended for the Virtuti Militari.Andrzej Grzywacz et al., pp. 7–8. On 27 June 1922, Lt. Charaszkiewicz was decorated with the Virtuti Militari, 5th class.Wesolowski, p. 231.
Charaszkiewicz would later (16 February 1940, in Paris) describe the Polish military-intelligence operation in the Third Silesian Uprising as a model operation of its kind: its objectives were clearly defined; the requisite personnel were skilfully recruited and trained; the necessary explosives, weapons, ammunition, equipment and supplies were smuggled into the operational areas and cached well in advance; and the plans were efficiently and resourcefully executed.Edmund Charaszkiewicz, "Referat o roli dywersji w Trzecim Powstaniu Śląskim" ("Report on the Role of Covert Operations in the Third Silesian Uprising"), pp. 31–55. He would later favourably contrast the Third Silesian Uprising with the indecisive preparations for, and execution of, Poland's takeover of Trans-Olza 17 years later, in 1938.Edmund Charaszkiewicz, "Referat o działaniach dywersyjnych w Czechosłowacji" ("Report on Covert Operations in Czechoslovakia"), p. 103. Moreover, the preponderant political circumstances in Poland, Germany and the world favoured the Polish cause. The Silesian-Polish population gave its enthusiastic support, and all its social groups were recruited except for the communists, who for their part evinced a benign neutrality, having been instructed to back the Polish proletariat.Edmund Charaszkiewicz, "Referat o roli dywersji w Trzecim Powstaniu Śląskim" ("Report on the Role of Covert Operations in the Third Silesian Uprising"), pp. 39–40.
Between 1918 and 1923, Charaszkiewicz completed three years of the four-year law curriculum at Warsaw University.Andrzej Grzywacz et al., p. 9.
After the Third Silesian uprising (2 May – 5 July 1921), in 1922 Charaszkiewicz was assigned to the General Staff's Section II. In evaluations, he was commended for his strength of character, initiative, energy, enthusiasm, and devotion to duty, especially in covert operations in Lithuania, with which Poland had a running dispute over Vilnius. In 1927, when he was decorated with the Silver Cross of Merit, he was cited for actions in the rear of the Soviet Army in 1920, actions in the Third Silesian uprising, and actions in the Polish-Lithuanian neutral zone to secure the lives and property of Polish citizens against Lithuanian irregulars.Andrzej Grzywacz et al., p. 10.
Charaszkiewicz's service record noted that his qualifications for intelligence work included a knowledge of German, French and English. He was promoted to lieutenant on 1 June 1919, to captain on 1 July 1925,Andrzej Grzywacz et al., pp. 10–11. and to major in 1935.Andrzej Grzywacz et al., p. 14.
By 1931, until World War II, Charaszkiewicz served, last in the rank of major, as chief of "Office [Ekspozytura] 2" of the General Staff's Section II. Office 2, which had been so named on 1 April 1929, was charged with the planning, preparation and execution of clandestine-warfare operations.Andrzej Grzywacz et al., p. 11.
In the face of growing threats from Germany and the Soviet Union, Polish organizing of a "behind-the-lines" (pozafrontowa) clandestine network had begun immediately after the post-World War I wars for Poland's borders. Charaszkiewicz had been assigned to this network already on 15 April 1922.Andrzej Grzywacz et al., p. 12.
Especially after Adolf Hitler's accession to power in 1933, Polish clandestine organizations were vigorously built up. They were meant, in future military actions, to paralyse enemy road and rail transport and destroy enemy military depots. Clandestine centres were created in Poland as well as in neighbouring countries, chiefly Germany and the Soviet Union.
Personnel for the clandestine networks were recruited with great care. Thanks to this, the intelligence services of Poland's neighbours learned nothing about them until mid-1939, when the rising German threat prompted mass Polish training of irregular forces.
Prometheism
Office 2 was also responsible for "Promethean operations," conceived by Józef Piłsudski. The idea was to combat Soviet imperialism by supporting irredentist movements among the non-Russian peoples of the Soviet Union. Thus the Prometheists' ultimate goal was nothing less than the dismemberment of the Soviet Union.Andrzej Grzywacz et al., p. 15.
As Piłsudski and his adherents (the "Piłsudskiites") exerted a preponderant influence on Poland's government through nearly the entire interwar period, the Promethean agenda became integral to the operations of many Polish public institutions concerned with eastern European affairs.
After Piłsudski's May 1926 coup d'état, Section II intensified its engagement with Prometheism. The movement's leaders included prominent Sanation figures such as Colonel Walery Sławek and the publicist and Sejm deputy, Tadeusz Hołówko. Great importance was attached to Prometheism by Section II's successive chiefs, Colonel Tadeusz Schaetzel and Colonel Tadeusz Pełczyński, and by deputy chief Lieutenant Colonel Józef Englicht. The movement's intelligence operations were directed by Edmund Charaszkiewicz. Contacts were maintained with Ukrainians and Cossacks, and with representatives of several peoples of the Caucasus: Azeris, Armenians and Georgians.
In its prosecution of the Promethean agenda, Office 2 worked with official institutions such as the Institute for Study of Nationality Affairs (Instytut Badań Spraw Narodowościowych) and the Polish-Ukrainian Society (Towarzystwo Polsko-Ukraińskie) and its Polish-Ukrainian Bulletin (Biuletyn Polsko-Ukraiński), published from 1932. The latter Society included such experts on East European affairs as Leon Wasilewski, Stanisław Łoś and Stanisław Stempowski, and its founder and prime mover as well as the Bulletin'''s editor was Włodzimierz Bączkowski, a leading figure in the "Promethean movement." From March 1934 Charaszkiewicz was a member of the Commission for Scientific Study of [Poland's] Eastern Lands (Komisja Naukowych Badań Ziem Wschodnich) and the Committee on [Poland's] Eastern Lands and Nationalities (Komitet do Spraw Ziem Wschodnich i Narodowościowych) at the Council of Ministers. He had already become a spokesman for the oppressed peoples east of Poland who wished to deepen their national self-awareness and groom leaders for their liberation.Andrzej Grzywacz et al., pp. 15–16.
Since 1927, Wasilewski, Sławek, Schaetzel and Hołówko had been laying foundations for Promethean movements in Paris, Warsaw and Istanbul. They had been studying questions involving national self-determination and federative polities with help from academic experts at institutions such as the Eastern Institute (Instytut Wschodni) in Warsaw and an analogous one in Vilnius, as well as at an Institute for Study of Nationalities (Instytut Badań Narodowościowych) and at several publications.Andrzej Grzywacz et al., p. 16.
Charaszkiewicz's deputies at Office 2 were two officers from the Third Silesian uprising: Major Feliks Ankerstein (1929–39), who during that Uprising had commanded a group (from 27 April 1921, the subgroup "Butrym"); and Major Włodzimierz Dąbrowski, who had commanded group "G" in the Destruction Office (Referat Destrukcji).Andrzej Grzywacz et al., pp. 16–17.
Covert operations It appears that, as of 1935, Office 2 employed 11 officers, seven of them in Office [Referat] "A" (for the West—Germany, East Prussia, Danzig, Czechoslovakia), headed by Ankerstein, and 22 civilian contract workers. The officer cadre were fairly stable; most of the officers served in Office 2 for at least six years.Andrzej Grzywacz et al., pp. 17–18.