Page 130 - Ciancia, On Civilization's Edge

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transportation situation that only became worse during periods of bad weather. The authorities
similarly worried about the psychological pressures that were exerted on KOP soldiers, reporting that

these men—the state’s supposed heroic saviors in the east—often felt lost and disoriented. When

KOP authorities near the town of Korzec contacted the county authorities in Równe after bandits

allegedly carried out a raid on a farmhouse, it turned out that they were mistaken. Their erroneous

response, the state police reported, provided “evidence of a certain type of nervousness and

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disorientation within the KOP ranks.”
Much of this disorientation was explained by the effects of deliberate Soviet policies, thus

highlighting the state’s fear that some of these men were simply unable to resist the demoralizing

messages that came across the border. In 1925, the provincial authorities found that people who

entered Poland under the pretense of trading in vodka were often communist agitators in disguise

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who had “an effect on the demoralization and loosening of discipline of the border guard units.”

While individual battalion reports claimed that the border guards constituted “material that was not

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susceptible to agitation,” rank-and-file soldiers certainly proved a worry for their superiors.
Incidences of desertion were noted with alarm, although most of the cases reported in the files were

attributed not to ideological corruption or a desire to get to the Soviet Union for political reasons, but

rather to local conditions, familial circumstances, or the fact that soldiers feared punishment for an

offense that they had committed while on duty. On the territory of Volhynia’s First Brigade in 1928,

for example, there were eighteen instances of desertion by KOP soldiers. 100 Some, including Private

96 KOP, Dowództwo 4 Baonu (Dederkały), “Miesięczny komunikat informacyjny nr. 3 za czas od 1 do 30 kwietnia
1925r.” (April 30, 1925), DARO 33/4/18/94.
97 “Sprawozdanie miesięczne z ruchu zawodowego i politycznego na terenie Województwa Wołyńskiego za m.
styczeń 1925r.,” DARO 33/4/15/127.
98 “Wołyński Urząd Wojewódzki. Przedmiot: Zamknięcie granicznego handlu wódką” (Łuck, March 9, 1925),
DARO 143/1/30/11.
99 KOP Dowództwo 4 Baonu (Dederkały). “Miesięczny Komunikat Informacyjny Nr. 1 za czas od 1 do 28 lutego
1925” (February 28, 1925), DARO 33/4/15/145.
100 “Sumaryczne zestawienie wypadków zaszłych na terenie 1-szej Brygady K.O.P. za rok 1928,” ASGwS 541/102
[no page numbers in file].

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