The Polish Bureau of the
Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party, was created on 23 July 1920, in
Moscow by Polish
Bolsheviks, with
Julian Marchlewski as its chairman. On July 23, in Smolensk, following the transformation of the Polish Bureau, the Polrewkom was established, and staffed by communist activists of Polish descent residing in Soviet Russia. The committee traveled in an armored train behind the advancing Red Army, which quickly proceeded to
Minsk (25 July) and
Wilno (27 July), before arriving in
Białystok on 30 July 1920, where permanent headquarters were established in the
Branicki Palace, from where the group issued public proclamations. The actions of the committee and
Felix Dzerzhinsky were officially approved by an order of August 14 issued by the Supreme Commander of the Red Army,
Sergei Kamenev, and by an order of August 15 issued in Minsk by the commander of the Western Front,
Mikhail Tukhachevsky, and by
Iosif Unshlikht. The committee was to assume administrative and political power in the occupied Polish territories and constitute an intermediate stage before the formation of a new revolutionary government in occupied Warsaw, composed of local communists from the
Communist Party of Poland. On August 1, 1920, in Białystok, the Polrewkom issued a manifesto announcing the creation of a
Polish Socialist Soviet Republic, with several representatives moving to
Wyszków to prepare to take power after the Red Army occupied Warsaw. The Polrewkom activity was related to the
North-Western Front of the Red Army. The
South-Western front of the Red Army supported a similar
Galician Revolutionary Committee (
Galrewkom), seated in
Tarnopol in Eastern
Galicia. The TKRP was met with relative enthusiasm in Białystok which had about 75% Jewish and working class majority. However, as the Red Army moved on towards Warsaw, it and Polrewkom had little support from the Polish population. As a result of the
Battle of Warsaw, the committee was forced to retreat east and evacuate from Białystok along with the retreating Red Army on 22 August, arriving in Minsk on August 26. It soon ceased its activities, and its members were assigned to front-line headquarters or prisoner-of-war camps in an attempt to recruit volunteers for the Polish Red Army. Following the dissolution of the committee, some Polish communists illegally returned to Poland, while a significant number of them remained in the Soviet Union, becoming instrumental in the creation of the
Polish Autonomous District. == Organization ==