But the most interesting is the last document - Issued by the commander of the 5th Battalion of the HQ Security, mjr. Bolesław Cień-Kowalski on 15th of November 1945:
"This is to certify, that [crossed out: "private", "sr. sgt" added in hand writing] Szerszeń Michał - "Miszka" [another version of the same diminutive], born on 15.I.1921 in Kuibyshev, Russia, during the german occupation, took active participation in the fight against the German invader. He was a member of the Peoples' Army from II-44 till VII-44. Took active participation in a few battles, distinguished himself heroically.
I certify the above as the former commander of the partisan group".
Interestingly, in this forum (
https://www.dws.org.pl/viewtopic.php?t=2772) I have found an excerpt from (unfortunately not named) one of the books by Edward Gronczewski (another partisan commander from the Lublin region, I wrote a short info on him in the post about Feliks Stola):
"Szyrszow Michał („Miszka”). Former Soviet soldier who ran away from the german capture. At the begginning a member of BCh [Peasant Battallions, the second largest faction of Polish Partisan movement, in Lublin Area they mostly joined with the AL in 1944] in powiat of Puławy. In 1944 he joined the AL squad of "Cień" ["Shadow"]. In the fights of 2VII1944 in the village of Stefanówka he was heaviliy wounded. Exemplary and brave partisan. Awarded the Order of the Revival of Poland 5th class."
The surname doesn't match exactly, but the squad, the name, the pseudonym match. "Cień" had around 100 partisans under his command, so it is unlikely that another one would have the same pseudonym. Also, the fact that he was a Soviet soldier does match with Szerszeń's birthplace. I have been unable to find a match for either Szyrszow (in any possible varriant) or Szerszeń (as well) on pamyat-naroda - few people with similar names, but neither seems to be the one.
More can be said about the squad he served in and it's commander.
Bolesław Cień-Kowalski, born Bolesław Kaźmirak was a successful partisan within the ranks of AL. At some point in 1944 he received his own squad, by some accounts, it was created to take a revange on NSZ (nationalist faction of the partisan movement) after the "Massacre of Borówno" (where the NSZ murdered an AL partisan squad and a few civilians helping them) and other, minor attacs on AL done by NSZ.
He was effective and very succesful in fighting the Germans and also had a few fights against NSZ, including a pacification of a village supporting the NSZ.
In April 1944, in the village of Owczarnia, "Cień" with his squad has murdered 40 members of the AK and some villagers supporting them. This has caused an outrage even within AL and some other AL squad commanders have requested "Cień" to be expelled or even executed, however, as his squad was highly valued for their success against the Germans, no consequences were faced by them.
He later also served in KBW and MBP. Numerous reports indicate that he was at same point engaged in banditry, at one point even killing two other MBP officers who tried to arrest him. He later joined the Polish Army, becoming the commander of the 5th Security Battalion.
This has led to his official name change in 1945. The minister of Defence, marshal Michał Rola-Żymierski, aware of Każmirak's reputation, did not want him to become a Polish Army officer. After some negotiation he was persuaded to accept Kaźmirak, however, he agreed only under the condition that the digraced partisan changes his name.
Subsequently he has changed his surname to "Kowalski", using the surname "Cień-Kowalski", which was allowed, as it was customary in Poland to use the pseudonyms aquired in the struggle for independence as a part of the surname. in 1964 he officially changed his surname to "Cień-Kowalski".
In 1951 he was arrested by the MBP. Released in 1954, he joined the Army again in 1957. He died in 1968.
