Bezdany raid was a
train robberyTrain robbery is a type of robbery, in which the goal is to steal money or other valuables being carried aboard trains.-History:Train robberies were more common in the past than today, and often occurred in the American Old West. Trains carrying payroll shipments were a major target...
carried out on the night of 26/27 September 1908 in the vicinity of Bezdany near Vilna (now
BezdonysBezdonys is a town in Lithuania, located to the north of Vilnius, within the Vilnius district municipality. It is best known for the 1908 Bezdany raid, one of the most daring and successful train robberies in history....
near
VilniusVilnius Vilnius Vilnius as of 2008. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the...
) on a
Russian EmpireThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
passenger and mail train by a group of
PolishPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
revolutionaries, led by future Polish national hero and
dictatorA dictator is a ruler who assumes sole and absolute power with military control but, without hereditary ascension such as an absolute monarch. When other states call the head of state of a particular state a dictator, that state is called a dictatorship...
, Józef Piłsudski.
Piłsudski expected that only a conflict between
the powers who partitioned PolandThe Partitions of Poland or Partitions of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in the second half of the 18th century and ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The partitions were carried out by Prussia, Russia and Habsburg Austria dividing up the Commonwealth lands...
in the late 18th century could restore Poland as a country; he also viewed the
Russian EmpireThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
as the worst of Poland's occupiers.
Bezdany raid was a
train robberyTrain robbery is a type of robbery, in which the goal is to steal money or other valuables being carried aboard trains.-History:Train robberies were more common in the past than today, and often occurred in the American Old West. Trains carrying payroll shipments were a major target...
carried out on the night of 26/27 September 1908 in the vicinity of Bezdany near Vilna (now
BezdonysBezdonys is a town in Lithuania, located to the north of Vilnius, within the Vilnius district municipality. It is best known for the 1908 Bezdany raid, one of the most daring and successful train robberies in history....
near
VilniusVilnius Vilnius Vilnius as of 2008. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the...
) on a
Russian EmpireThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
passenger and mail train by a group of
PolishPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
revolutionaries, led by future Polish national hero and
dictatorA dictator is a ruler who assumes sole and absolute power with military control but, without hereditary ascension such as an absolute monarch. When other states call the head of state of a particular state a dictator, that state is called a dictatorship...
, Józef Piłsudski.
Background
Piłsudski expected that only a conflict between
the powers who partitioned PolandThe Partitions of Poland or Partitions of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in the second half of the 18th century and ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The partitions were carried out by Prussia, Russia and Habsburg Austria dividing up the Commonwealth lands...
in the late 18th century could restore Poland as a country; he also viewed the
Russian EmpireThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
as the worst of Poland's occupiers. Therefore he decided to temporarily support the
Central PowersThe Central Powers was one of the two sides that participated in World War I, the other being the Entente Powers.-Member states:...
(the
Austro-HungarianAustria–Hungary, also known as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the k.u.k. Monarchy, or Dual State, was a monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in Central Europe...
and
German EmpireThe German Empire is the name commonly used in English to describe Germany from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871 to 1918, when it became a German republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of Wilhelm II .The term Second Reich...
s).
In 1906 Piłsudski, with the knowledge and support of the Austrian authorities, founded a military school in
KrakówKraków , in English also spelled Krakow or Cracow and pronounced
, is one of the largest and oldest cities in Poland and a popular tourist destination. Its historic centre was inscribed on the list of World Heritage Sites as the first of its kind...
for the training of
Bojówki (Combat Teams), a military arm of the
Polish Socialist PartyThe Polish Socialist Party was one of the most important Polish left-wing political parties from its inception in 1892 until 1948....
(or, specifically, its
Frakcja Rewolucyjna arm). In 1906 alone, the 750-strong
Bojówki, operating in five-man units in the former
Congress PolandCongress Poland , officially and formally Kingdom of Poland and informally known as Russian Poland was a constitutional personal union of the Russian Empire created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna, replaced by the Central Powers in 1915 with the Kingdom of Poland...
, killed or wounded some 1,000 Russian officials.
Bojówki were certainly not above robbing Russian authorities to obtain funds for their operations, and by 1908 Piłsudski and his organization were desperately short on cash.
Piłsudski expressed his thoughts about this violent action in a last will or
obituaryAn obituary is primarily an attempt by a publication to give an account of the life of someone considered significant who has recently died...
that he wrote to a friend before the raid:
- I am not going to dictate to you what you shall write about my life and work. I only ask of you not to make me a 'whiner and sentimentalist.' […] I fight and I am ready to die simply because I cannot bear to live in this latrine which is what our life amounts to […] Let others play at throwing bouquets to Socialism or Polonism […] My latest idea, which I have not yet fully developed, is to create in all parties, and most of all our own, an organization of physical force, of brute force. I have already done much towards its fulfillment but not enough to rest on my laurels. So now I am staking everything on this last card […] I may die in this 'expropriation' and I want to explain […] Money […] may the devil take it! I prefer to win it in a fight than to beg for it from the Polish public which has become infantile through being chicken-hearted. I haven't got money and I must have it for the ends I pursue.
The robbery
In September 1908, the
Bojówki assaulted a Russian mail train near
VilnaVilnius Vilnius Vilnius as of 2008. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the...
(Vilnius). The train was carrying tax revenues from
WarsawWarsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River roughly from both the Baltic Sea coast and the Carpathian Mountains. Its population as of 2009 was estimated at 1,709,781, and the Warsaw metropolitan area at approximately 2,785,000...
to St. Petersburg.
Piłsudski personally led the raid; it was the only one he personally took part in, the rule of the bojowka being that each member must take part in at least one armed attack.
The group that took part in the robbery numbered 20 people — 16 men and 4 womenAmong the members of the
Bojówki who took part in that action was his lover and future wife, Aleksandra, and three future Polish Prime Ministers:
Tomasz ArciszewskiTomasz Arciszewski was a Polish socialist politician, a member of the Polish Socialist Party and the Prime Minister of the Polish government-in-exile in London from 1944 to 1947, presiding over the period when the government lost the recognition of the Western powers.-Early life:Tomasz Arciszewski...
,
Aleksander PrystorAleksander Prystor was a Polish politician who served as Prime Minister of Poland from 1931 to 1933.In 1908 he took part in the Bezdany raid....
and Walery Sławek, and other notable politicians and activists of the
Second Polish RepublicThe Second Polish Republic, Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland refers to Poland between the two world wars; from the creation of an independent Polish state in the aftermath of World War I, to the invasion of Poland in 1939 by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and the Slovak Republic,...
era, like PSP activists Edward Gibalski (or Franciszek), Jerzy Sawicki, and W. Momentowicz.
The
Bojówki group had known about the train for weeks and took that time to familiarize themselves with the area. On the 26th of September, six of them were on the train as passengers, the rest assembled at the little
train stationA railway station, train station, railroad station, or station yard is a facility at which passengers may board and alight from trains, and/or where rail-transported freight may be loaded or unloaded. Historically, the term depot has also been employed in North America...
at Bezdany, in the presence of several guards unaware of their intent.. When the train stopped at the station, the revolutionaries sprang into action, dividing into two groups: one assaulted the train, the other took control of the train station offices, cutting the
telephoneThe telephone is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sound, most commonly the human voice. It is one of the most common household appliances in the developed world, and has long been considered indispensable to business, industry and government...
and telegraph wires. The Poles had several
bombA bomb is any of a range of explosive devices that typically rely on the exothermic chemical reaction of an explosive material to produce an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. The word comes from the Greek word βόμβος , an onomatopoetic term with approximately the same meaning as...
s; at least two were thrown into the carriage with the escort by Gibalski and Balaga. One Russian soldier was killed and five were wounded in the short firefight before the rest surrendered. Piłsudski with others prepared the final
dynamiteDynamite is an explosive material based on the explosive potential of nitroglycerin, initially using diatomaceous earth or another absorbent substance such as sawdust as an absorbent...
charge which opened the mail car and destroyed the iron boxes within. After the Poles took control of the station and the train, they put the money in bags and escaped. Piłsudski went with the group that carried the heaviest bags and escaped through the nearby river.
Aftermath
The loot from that raid was about 200,000
Russian rubleThe ruble or rouble is the currency of the Russian Federation and the two partially recognized republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. It is Fiat money. Formerly, the ruble was also the currency of the Soviet Union and the Russian Empire prior to their breakups...
s (under the gold standard, equivalent to approximately 5,000 ounces of gold, worth $100,000 in 1908 or over 4 million dollars at price of gold in 2008), a virtual fortune in contemporary
Eastern EuropeEastern Europe is a region lying in the Eastern part of Europe. The term is highly context-dependent and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
. The money was supposed to cover the costs of building a
tramA tram, tramcar, trolley, trolleycar, or streetcar is a railborne vehicle, of lighter weight and construction than a conventional train, designed for the transport of passengers within, close to, or between villages, towns and/or cities, on tracks running primarily on streets...
system in Vilnius. Piłsudski used those funds to aid his secret military organization. The raid become known in Eastern Europe as one of the most daring and successful train robberies.
Further reading
Władysław Pobóg-Malinowski, "Akcja bojowa pod Bezdanami, 26 IX 1908" (
Action at Bezdany, 26 September 1908), Gł. Księg. Wojskowa, Warszawa, 1933