Underground Fighters Honoured
President Kaczynski has decorated thirty former resistance fighters in a gesture towards those who resisted Communist rule.
"The soldiers of these squadrons deserve to be honoured by the whole country" the president declared at yesterday's ceremony.
Poland's 'Home Army' (AK) won the respect of Western allies as the most effective underground force in occupied Europe. It was officially disbanded in 1945, but the presence of the Red Army in Poland inspired many troops to fight on.
As history has proved, the soldiers of WIN (Freedom and Independence) - the successors to the Home Army - were right to believe that Poland's freedom was under threat. The Communists rigged the elections of 1947, and it was over forty years before democracy was restored.
Lukasz Cieplinski, one of last commanders of WIN, was executed by the Communists in 1951.