Polish Territorial Defence Forces
The Territorial Defence Forces, until recently the youngest formation of the Polish Armed Forces (now replaced by the even younger Cyber Defence Forces), were formally established on January 1, 2017, and practically later. It comprises 35 000 soldiers. It is distinguished by its specific esprit de corps, light but modern equipment, and a highly variable political atmosphere surrounding it.
The idea of the Territorial Defence Forces has been around for years. The example of pre-war Poland was often cited, which despite significant resources allocated to the military (around 7% of GDP in 1938), did not have a territorial formation, except for hastily formed National Defence Battalions, and the operational forces lacked depth. After the front passed, there was nobody left to fight the aggressor in an organized manner.
During the communist era, there was the Territorial Defence of the Country, which, at times, was quite sizable, but the authorities at the time did not invest in its development, let alone its civic spirit. The Polish People’s Army, like all armies of the Warsaw Pact, had an offensive character, and the Soviet style of warfare certainly did not fit small, flexible units composed of motivated amateurs.
After 1989, successive governments focused mainly on reducing and limited modernization of the professional army, as there were perceived to be no direct threats and no need for continuous training of larger groups of citizens. Conscription was suspended, and the size of the Polish Armed Forces effectively dropped below 100 000.
Only the first acts of war in Ukraine in 2014 and 2015 brought about a slow reflection in government circles. At the same time, there emerged a broad grassroots movement of private paramilitary organizations. People across the country came to the conclusion that if the authorities were not interested, and the Russian threat was becoming increasingly real, they would organize small, private armies themselves. Over the course of a few years, hundreds of associations and informal groups were formed, bringing together tens of thousands of men and women who began training with their own money and in their spare time.
In 2015, the right-wing won parliamentary elections in Poland, and the mood became decidedly less pacifistic. In such conditions, a decision was made to form 16 brigades of voluntary light infantry, ultimately to number 53 000 members. The soldiers of the Territorial Defence Forces were to serve and train and, if necessary, fight in their area. Training was to take place on weekends and during two-week shifts, and outside of these periods, soldiers were to live at home and lead a normal family and professional life.
Initially, officers often came from special forces, quite well developed in Poland, and the tactics and equipment of light infantry often resembled the actions of commandos, although the purpose of the Territorial Defence Forces is rather to support operational forces than to engage in suicidal actions behind enemy lines.
The emerging Territorial Defence Forces were modelled mainly on their counterparts in the USA (National Guard) and in Scandinavian countries (e.g., the Swedish Hemvärnet). Today, voluntary formations of this type, strongly connected with the local community, exist in every country in the Baltic Sea region and most of the so-called eastern flank of NATO. Even Germany has been expanding its Territorial Reserve for several years. The Ukrainian Territorial Defence was mainly modelled on the Territorial Defence Forces when, in 2020-2021, the formalization of dispersed loose volunteer formations operating since 2014 began. Polish experiences also serve as inspiration for analogous formations in the Baltic countries and Romania.
Polish Territorial Defence Forces currently number 35,000 soldiers in 20 brigades and have already undergone a kind of baptism by fire. Apart from calls for help in the event of natural disasters, territorial units played a significant role in the crisis on the border with Belarus that began in 2021, which de facto took on the character of hybrid warfare. It quickly became apparent that during the massive influx of illegal migrants dubbed “Lukashenko’s tourists,” the Border Guard forces were simply insufficient. In response, the authorities mobilized the police and the military, including the Territorial Defence Forces. Despite initially negative atmosphere surrounding border defence (promoted by the liberal and leftist opposition, as well as foreign centres, not only from Belarus and Russia), the majority of Poles supported decisive border defence and regarded guards, police officers, and soldiers as their defenders, not cruel minions of the regime, as they were portrayed.
Speaking of the atmosphere, the emerging Territorial Defence Forces did not have an easy start. They were attacked from several sides: that they were a private army of the ruling party (the Territorial Defence Forces were not subordinated to the General Staff out of fear of hostility from old officers) intended to fight the opposition, that they were amateurs who would not cope in modern warfare (the Ukrainian experience completely refuted this claim), that they were taking budget and people from the “real” army (although creating Territorial Defence units is many times cheaper than, for example, professional mechanized forces). The negative atmosphere likely contributed to the limitation of the number of volunteers: the number of volunteers did not reach the planned 53 000 and had to be revised downwards. Moreover, interest in serving in the Territorial Defence Forces is varied: the lowest in the provinces far from Russia and in the so-called recovered lands (taken from Germany after 1945), and the highest in the eastern regions and in Mazovia.
After the full-scale aggression against Ukraine, opposition to or even demands for the dissolution of territorial forces almost subsided. Especially when information reached the public that similar Ukrainian units were being formed following the Polish model. The influx of volunteers increased, and the Ministry of National Defence expanded training and procurement for the Territorial Defence Forces. Not only basic equipment but also modern anti-tank systems and drones are being acquired now.
Łukasz Mróz
The material was created as part of the project “North and South – internationalization of activities of the Republican Foundation” co-financed by NIW-CRSO under the Civil Society Organizations Development Program for the years 2018-2030 (PROO).
