Ostatni komendant Okręgu Krakowskiego Armii Krajowej pułkownik Przemysław Nakoniecznikoff-Klukowski (1896–1957), pseud. „Kruk II” – „Garda” – „Czarny”

Abstract

Abstract

THE LAST COMMANDER OF THE KRAKOW DISTRICT OF THE HOME ARMY COLONEL PRZEMYSŁAW NAKONIECZNIKOFF-KLUKOWSKI PSEUDONYMS “KRUK II” – “GARDA” – “CZARNY” Colonel Przemysław Nakoniecznikoff-Klukowski was born on the 13th of June 1896 in Tbilisi, died on the 17th August 1957 in Krakow. From 1913 he belonged to the conspiracy (Polish) Riffle Association in Tbilisi. In 1915–1917 he served in the Russian army, fighting in the First World War on the Caucasian and Persian fronts. After the Bolshevic revolution of 1917 he entered the Polish Brigade on the Caucasus, and then after its disarmament by the Germans he worked in the Polish Military Organization. Subsequently he applied to the ranks of the 4th Polish Riflemen Division in Kuban, from where he reached with this detachment Bukovina and Pokuttya through Odessa and Besarabia. In the there reorganised 10th Infantry Division he served in the 28th Kaniow’s Riflemen Regiment, taking part in the Polish-Ukrainian war and Polish-Bolshevik war. For the fighting he received the Military Award Virtuti of the 5th class, three times Cross of Valour and was promoted to the rank of captain. In the command positions he served in turn in the 28th Kaniow’s Riflemen Regiment, the 27th Infantry Division, the 5th Podhale’s Riflemen Regiment and the 63rd Infantry Regiment. In 1936-39 he was the second-in-command of the “Podole” Brigade of the Border Protection Corps. He was promoted. During the September Campaign of 1939 as lieutenant colonel he commanded the 163rd Infantry Regiment and then the 36th Infantry Division (part of the “Prusy” Army). He reached the Middle East through Hungary, where he entered the Independent Carpathian Rifle Brigade. In 1940-1942 he was the commander of the Officers’ Battalion, and then the Practice Battalion of this unit. After the creation in May 1942 of the 3rd Carpathian Rifle Division he was the commander of the 9th battalion of the 3rd Brigade, and then second-incommand and commander of the 2nd Brigade, with which he found himself as a part of the 2nd Polish Corps. After the arrival of the 2nd Corps to Italy he applied for conspiratorial work in the country, underwent the “silentdark” training and swore an oath on the Rota of the Home Army. On the 21st of September 1944 he was received on the dumping site of the Home Army “Rozmaryn” (Włoszczowa District). For a month and a half he adapted and got to know the conspiratorial work and the partisan activity of the Kielce units: the 2nd Legionary Infantry Division and the 7th Infantry Division. On the 28th of October 1944 he was appointed by the Home Army commander liuetenant-general Leopold Okulicki pseudonym “Niedźwiadek” as the commander of the Krakow District “Okopy”. During the period of five and a half months he commanded this District, which was halved until mid-January 1945 into two zones: the German one with Krakow and the Soviet one with Rzeszów. He encountered at that time numerous difficulties of the underground fighting and new conspiracy undertaken by the Independence Organization (“Nie”). He gave the order for the dissolution of the Home Army in the “Okopy” District and from the 20th of April 1945 he regulated all matters of conspiracy, remaining in constant touch with the staff of the Commander- in-Chief of the Polish Armed Forces in the West. On the 20th of April he was arrested by the Soviet military counter-intelligence “Smiersz” along with a group of closest officers of his staff. Transported to the Soviet Union, he stayed there in prisons and gulags precisely ten years. He returned to Poland in 1955 and after two years of adaptation to new conditions he died. He was buried at the Rakowicki cemetery, from where he was transported to Lubaczów. Veterans of the Home Army used the title of lieutenant-general for him. He was married twice. His first wife, Irena, with whom he had a son, Przemysław Wiktor, died as a gulag prisoner in 1941 in the Soviet Union. His second wife, Jadwiga, also a Soviet gulag prisoner, died in 1959. Colonel Przemysław Nakoniecznikoff-Klukowski was an officer of the Polish Army of the highest professional and political qualifications. The command functions performed by him, with the most important among them, the one connected with the command of the Krakow District of the Home Army, merits a more thorough historical study. The author of this one made the effort to present, of only in short, the life, qualities and deserts of his hero as an outstanding soldier of independence and an uncommon Pole.