The Manifesto to the Polish and Allied Nations, concluding with ‘The Testament of Fighting Poland’, was announced by the Council of National Unity at its last session, held on July 1, 1945. The Council of National Unity was a clandestine political body operating within the structures of the Polish Underground State. Participating within the Council were representatives of democratic Polish political groupings – namely, PPS (WRN), SN, SP, and SL. The Manifesto was an expression of objection to the communist takeover in Poland and to the Soviet Union’s hegemony over the country as a result of the Yalta Agreement. The immediate reason for the publication of the Manifesto was the formation, on June 28, 1945, of the Provisional Government of National Unity, which was soon to be recognised by a majority of states. And this was how the Government of the Republic of Poland in Exile (based in London) lost its support, after six years of having represented Poland in the coalition against Hitler.
The Manifesto, together with The Testament of Fighting Poland, was published in the final issue of Rzeczpospolita Polska (The Republic of Poland), the official press organ of the Government Delegation for Poland. The document called upon the Red Army and the NKVD to leave the territory of Poland, demanded that the persecutions cease, and that democratic reforms be carried out, this to be the condition for achieving an agreement with the Soviet Union. The Testament was a dramatic summary of the five years of conspiratorial fighting, an effort which did not, however, bring Poland its expected independence.
