Murmanians

The Bolsheviks, who had found out about the agreement from German ambassador Wilhelm von Mirbach, captured and shot on the spot a number of Poles, and as a result, less than 1000 reached Murmansk.

Due to an insufficient number of soldiers and officers, as many of the experienced staff members were gradually sent to France in order to reinforce Polish units there, Zeligowski decided not to create a division.

The first Polish unit in northern Russia was created in June 1918 in Kola: it consisted of a company of rifles, together with a platoon of machine guns (altogether some 200 men).

[1] The second unit was the so-called Northern Dvina River Detachment (Oddzial Dzwinski), formed of Polish soldiers from Arkhangelsk.

All Murmanczycy had returned to Poland by December 1919, but soon afterwards they were drafted into the Polish Army, and once again fought the Bolsheviks, as they were merged with the 64th Grudziądz Infantry Regiment, as its 3rd Battalion.

In the interbellum period and after 1990, Polish involvement in northern Russia has been commemorated on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Warsaw, as "MURMAN 1918".