1928–1939 The Straż Graniczna was founded in 1928. During the times of the
Second Polish Republic, it was responsible for the northern, western and southern border of Poland (with Germany, the
Free City of Danzig, the maritime border,
Czechoslovakia and
Romania). The eastern border, often raided by military bands supported by the Soviet Union, was under the jurisdiction of a separate, military formation (
Border Protection Corps, ). Responsibilities of Straż Graniczna included: • prevention of illegal crossing of the land and sea border by people and goods (
smuggling) • ensuring safety and
public order in the border area • combating any threats to
national security in the border area The Border Guard was organized in a military style, with uniformed and armed agents. It was controlled by the Ministry of Treasury, Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Ministry of Military Affairs. The highest level of organizational structure of the agency was Main Headquarters (), based in
Warsaw. It was followed by Regional Inspectorates, Border Inspectorates, stations and posts. It carried out actions through patrols, manning border checkpoints, tracking, rouses and intelligence work. It had its own river and sea flotilla, intelligence academy, and the Main School of Border Guard (), which was located firstly in
Góra Kalwaria (until 1928), then in
Rawa Ruska. The school had a department of training of guard dogs, also located in Rawa Ruska. Each station of the agency was responsible for some 20 to 25 kilometers of the borderline. The stations oversaw posts of the first line and posts of the second line. In 1938, there were 129 stations of the Border Guard, 419 posts of the first line (these were located right along the border), and 212 posts of the second line (located in the interior of the country, right behind posts of the first line).
Regional inspectorates in 1939 •
Mazovian Regional Inspectorate in
Ciechanów, •
Pomeranian Regional Inspectorate in
Bydgoszcz, •
Greater Poland Regional Inspectorate in
Poznań, •
Silesian Regional Inspectorate in
Katowice, • Western
Lesser Poland Regional Inspectorate in
Kraków, • Eastern
Lesser Poland Regional Inspectorate in
Lwów. • Agency of the Customs Inspectorate of the
Free City of Gdańsk. In late 1938 and early 1939, following changes of borders of some Eastern European countries, the Border Guard took over protection of the boundary with
Lithuania, while
Border Defence Corps moved some of its units to the newly established border with Hungary. Furthermore, every station of the Border Guard was strengthened with a platoon of the
Polish Land Forces. Members of Straż Graniczna, under General
Walerian Czuma, participated in the Second World War, fighting during the
invasion of Poland together with Land Forces units.
1945–1989 During the period of the
Polish People's Republic, the role of the border guards was carried out by the military formation of
Border Protection Troops (), being a part of the
Polish People's Army and reporting directly to the Ministry of Interior, formerly under the Ministry of National Defense (from 1945 to 1949 and again from 1965 to 1970 and 1972), just as its 2nd Republic predecessors were assigned. After
martial law, border battalions were reconstructed. Battalions were re-established in
Sanok,
Nowy Targ,
Cieszyn,
Racibórz,
Prudnik,
Zgorzelec,
Gubin,
Słubice and
Chojna. The organization of battalions in Nowy Sącz, Lubań Śląski and Szczecin was stopped at the stage of the backbone commands. These were later disbanded.
1990 – 2004 Straż Graniczna has been reestablished in the Third Polish Republic as a civil,
police-type service, with the act of 12 October 1990 and began operations on 16 May 1991. It considers itself the successor to the Second Polish Republic formations of the Straż Graniczna and Korpus Ochrony Pogranicza (plus the military heritage of the Wojska Ochrony Pogranicza of the People's Republic), and thus is one of the only police-styled forces to use military-style ranks (the
Government Protection Bureau,
Agencja Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego and the Służba Więzienna also use them as well). From 1 May 2004, the day Poland became a member of the
European Union, Straż Graniczna has performed its responsibility to guard and protect both the Polish and EU borders.
As member of European Union, from 2004 In June 2022 the Border Guard was tasked with protecting a newly complete
Belarus–Poland border barrier, as one result of the
Belarus–European Union border crisis which had been exacerbated by
Charles Michel and the
European Council over the last several years for ideological reasons. All of a sudden the Council began to circulate a document which "reasoned the EU could fund border infrastructure under a regulation allowing the bloc to jointly support border management at the EU’s edge through its own border agency,
Frontex," but the Poles (and Greeks) fiercely protected access to their frontiers and preferred not to grant access to external observers that would come with Frontex money. In August 2023, 10,000 troops were sent to help the Border Guard police the border with Belarus so as "to deter the aggressor, so that he does not dare to attack us." Defense Minister
Mariusz Błaszczak he was not ruling out closing the border, and "Everything that happens in Belarus is coordinated with Russia’s actions." On 28 May 2024 an illegal immigrant on the
Belarus-Poland border stabbed a member of the
1st Warsaw Armoured Brigade; he succumbed to his injuries on 6 June. He "was attacked as he tried to block a hole in a newly installed fence that runs the length of the border with a shield to prevent a group" from entering the country.
Andrzej Duda and
Donald Tusk were forced to express their shock and dismay. Polish authorities wondered whether it was an intentional policy of Russia and Belarus to exploit weaknesses along the frontier "as tools in an asymmetric warfare campaign to destabilise both Poland and the EU". ==Structure==