POLISH EMIGRANTS IN THE USA IN THE RADIO STATION NAMED T. KOŚCIUSZKI

Abstract

On June 22 nd 1941 the III rd Reich attacked USSR. The outcome of military warfare on Eastern Front, unfavourable for the Red Army, caused the Communist International (CI) structures, operating in the Soviet country since 1919, to move in October 1941 from Moscow to Ufa and Kuybyshev. After the German aggression a need for intensive propaganda works came into existence. Within the Executive Committee’s (EC) apparatus there was, among others, Press and Radio Broadcasting Department supervised by Bedřich Geminder during 1941-1943 (pseudonym: G. Friedrich). Between 1941-1942 there were a general radio office and 16 secret national stations, which, in 1943, were incorporated into the Department. After the dissolvement of CI, spring 1943, the radio stations were affi- liated to a secret Institute of Science and Research no. 205 (the former Press and Radio Department of ECCI) operating in a newly formed International Information Department of Central Committee the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). Among 16 offices that CI brought to life, there was a station under the name of Tadeusz Kościuszko, broadcasting in Polish language. It started broad- casting in July 1941 and continued up to 1944, July 22nd. Its headquarters was situated initially in Moscow, however, after the evacuation of ECCI in October 1941 it broadcasted from Ufa, Bashkiria.