Stanisław Bułak-Bałachowicz ( – 10 May 1940) was a Polish-Belarusian general and veteran of World War I, the Russian Civil War, Estonian War of Independence, Polish-Soviet War, and the Invasion of Poland at the start of World War II.
Biography
Early life Stanisław Bułak-Bałachowicz was born in , a small village in the Zarasai County of the Kovno Governorate in the Russian Empire (now Ignalina District Municipality in Lithuania). Stanisław had two brothers and six sisters. His parents were servants to a local landlordBułak-Bałachowicz S.N. "General Bułak-Bałachowicz on his deeds: how it was in reality? // Civil war archive. Berlin, 1923
Following Stanisław's birth, his father left the landlord's service and acquired a small estate in Stakavievo near Vilnius.
After attending an agricultural school for four years in Belmontas, Bułak-Bałachowicz worked as an accountant, and in 1904 became a manager at the Count Plater's estates in Horodziec and Łużki.
At the time, he had a reputation as a defender of the less fortunate and was often an arbitrator in disputes between the farmers and their landlords. As a result of these activities, he acquired the nickname "Daddy" (Bat'ka). His other nickname —"Bułak"— became part of his surname. It means 'cloud' (another source offering the translation 'a man who is driven by the wind') in the Belarusian language.New Historical Herald, 2002, # 2
World War I After the outbreak of World War I and Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich's address to the Polish people, Bułak-Bałachowicz joined the Russian Imperial army. As a person of noble roots, he was drafted as an ensign to the 2nd Leyb-Courland Infantry Regiment. However, unlike many of his colleagues who were awarded the basic NCO grades for their noble ancestry only, Bułak-Bałachowicz proved himself as a skilled field commander and was quickly promoted. By December 1914, only four months after he entered the army, he was given command over a group of Cossack volunteers, of whom he formed a cavalry squadron. Together with the 2nd Cavalry Division, he fought on the western front, most notably in the area of Sochaczew near Warsaw.
During the German summer offensive of 1915, Warsaw was taken by the Central Powers and Bułak-Bałachowicz's unit was forced to retreat towards Latvia.
In November 1915, Bułak-Bałachowicz was assigned to the special partisan regiment in the Northern Front headquarters as a squadron commander. His regiment under the command of colonel Punin L. took action in the Riga area. For their audacious actions, partisans were nicknamed "Knights of Death".
His unit was formed of four cavalry platoons: one of Cossack light cavalry, one of hussars, one of uhlans and one of dragoons. Thanks to the versatile and flexible structure of his unit, Bułak-Bałachowicz managed to continue the fight behind the enemy lines until 1918.
For the German campaign, Bułak-Bałachowicz was decorated with six Russian decorations and three Crosses of St. George (2nd, 3rd, and 4th degree).
Russian Civil War On 5 March 1918, unaware of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk signed only two days before, Bułak-Bałachowicz's unit skirmished with a German unit near the village of Smolova. Although the enemy unit was severely defeated, forced to retreat and abandon its staff behind, Bułak-Bałachowicz was seriously wounded after being shot in the left lung. Transported to Saint Petersburg, he quickly recovered and rejoined with his brother Józef Bułak-Bałachowicz. The latter got involved in the creation of a Polish cavalry detachment commanded by ensign Przysiecki. The Bolsheviks disbanded the unit soon after its formation, executed its commander and started to persecute its members. However, with the help of the French military mission, a Polish cavalry detachment was finally created and Stanisław Bułak-Bałachowicz became its commander. The new unit received Leon Trotsky's recognition and was soon reinforced with non-Polish volunteers from all over Russia and was planned as a cavalry division of the Red Army.
Soon after its creation, Bułak-Bałachowicz was ordered to quell the "Baron Korff Revolt" in the area of Luga near Petrograd (Saint Petersburg). With his incompletely-formed regiment, he reached the area and pacified the peasant unrest without the use of force. He was immediately called into Saint Petersburg by his superiors but was afraid of being arrested. Because of that, Bułak-Bałachowicz with his cavalry regiment deserted and moved across the Bolshevik lines to the area of Pskov, held by the joint forces of White Russian Northern Corps and various German anti-Bolshevik units. Initially, the unit fought against the Reds on the White side, but soon conflicts with the German officials arose and Bułak-Bałachowicz switched sides yet again. Together with his battle-hardened unit he disarmed the German units surrounding him and broke to the rear of the Red-held territory. From there he fought his way across the fronts to the newly independent Estonia, where he then participated in the formation of general Nikolai Nikolaevich Yudenich's Northwestern Army. Units commanded by Bułak-Bałachowicz assisted the Estonian Army in the victorious battles of Tartu, Võru, and Vastseliina, and he was soon thereafter promoted to lieutenant colonel.
On 10 May 1919, Bałachowicz was given the command over an assault group and was ordered to drive it to the rear of the Bolshevik lines. Three days later his forces took the town of Gdov by surprise and on 29 May Bałachowicz entered Pskov. For this action, he was promoted to colonel by General Yudenich. Because of his victories, his subordinates (mostly Belarusian, Cossack, and Polish volunteers) nicknamed him "ataman", though some preferred to use the term Bat'ko – father.
Bułak-Bałachowicz became the military administrator of Pskov. He personally ceded most of his responsibilities to a municipal duma and focused on both the cultural and economic recovery of the war-impoverished city. He also put an end to censorship of the press and allowed for the creation of several socialist associations and newspapers, which enraged White generals towards him. Finally, Bułak-Bałachowicz entered in contact with Estonian officers and Poles who were trying to reach the renascent Polish Army, which was seen by Bałachowicz's superiors as a sign of lack of loyalty. After Pskov was yet again lost to the Bolsheviks in mid-July, general Yudenich ordered Stanisław Bułak-Bałachowicz to be arrested even though only a few days earlier he promoted him to major general (a move Yudenich undertook with hopes of appeasing Bułak-Bałachowicz and encouraging greater subordinance).
However, once again Bułak-Bałachowicz evaded being captured. He handed over his division to his brother Józef and, together with 20 of his friends, left for Estonian-controlled Ostrov. There he once again created a partisan unit. With 600 men he broke through the Red Army front and started to disrupt its supply lines. Despite Yudenich's hostility towards Bułak-Bałachowicz, the latter cooperated with White Russian units during their counter-offensive in the autumn of 1919. His unit captured the railway node in Porkhov and broke the Pskov-Polotsk railroad, which added greatly to the White Russian's initial success. On 5 November 1919, his unit yet again entered the area between Pskov and Ostrov and destroyed the three remaining railway lines linking Pskov with the rest of Russia. However, Yudenich's army could not link up with the areas controlled by Bułak-Bałachowicz and their assault was finally broken.
On 22 January 1920, general Yudenich signed an order of dissolution of his badly beaten army. On 28 January 1920, general Bułak-Bałachowicz, together with several Russian officers, was arrested by the Estonian police. A large amount of money was found with him (roughly 227,000 British pounds; 250,000 Estonian marks; and 110 million Finnish marks) was given to the soldiers of the disbanded army as the last salary, which greatly added to Bałachowicz's popularity amongst them.
Short service for the Belarusian Democratic Republic
From 1918, Bałachowicz was in contact with the representatives of the Belarusian Democratic Republic (BDR) in the Baltic states. On 7 November 1919, the government of the BDR agreed to finance Bałachowicz's unit and on 14 November, Stanisław Bułak-Bałachowicz received his Belarusian citizenship and applied for official service for the Belarusian Democratic Republic. His unit was officially renamed to Special Unit of the Belarusian Democratic Republic in the Baltics (), received Belarusian uniforms and a seal. The unit issued its own field postal stamps and engaged in a few minor battles with the Bolsheviks.
Polish-Bolshevik War In February 1920 Stanisław Bułak-Bałachowicz contacted Józef Piłsudski through the Polish envoy to Riga and proposed to ally his unit with the Polish Army against the Bolshevist Russia. As the fame of the general preceded him, Piłsudski agreed and soon afterwards Bułak-Bałachowicz with some 800 cavalrymen set off for yet another of his great odysseys. After leaving Estonia, they outflanked the Red Russian lines and rode several hundred kilometres behind the enemy lines to Latvia, where they were allowed to pass through Latvian territory. Finally, by mid-March, they reached Dyneburg (now Daugavpils, then under Polish military administration), where they were greeted as heroes by Józef Piłsudski himself.
Transferred to Brześć Litewski, the Bułak-Bałachowicz's unit was reformed into a Bułak-Bałachowicz Operational Group, sometimes incorrectly referred to as Belarusian-Lithuanian Division. It was composed mostly of Belarusian volunteers, as well as veterans of the Green Army and former Red Army soldiers, and received the status of an allied army. Because of the composition of his troops, Stanisław Bułak-Bałachowicz is sometimes referred to as a Belarusian.The nationality of Bułak-Bałachowicz was a matter of dispute even during the war. Józef Piłsudski described him with the following words: Today he's a Pole, tomorrow he'll be a Russian, the day after – a Belarusian and the following day perhaps an African.; as cited in: Cabanowski, op.cit.
Formally independent, the division was one of the most successful units fighting in the ranks of the Polish Army during the Polish-Bolshevik War. The unit entered combat in late June 1920 in the area of Polesie Marshes. On 30 June Bułak-Bałachowicz once again broke through the enemy lines and captured the village of Sławeczno in today's Belarus, where the tabors of the Soviet 2nd Rifle Brigade were stationed. The enemy unit was caught by surprise and suffered heavy losses. On 3 July the enemy unit was completely surrounded in the village of Wieledniki and was annihilated. After that action, the Operational Group was withdrawn to the main lines of the Polish 3rd Army and after 10 July it defended the line of the Styr river against Red Army actions.