Before the start of Operation Tempest in 1944, the Home Army districts of Augustów and Suwałki had a total of almost 5,000 soldiers. On May 12, 1944, the inspector of the Home Army in Suwałki, Major Franciszek Szabunia “Zemsta”, and the commander of the Soviet unit operating in this area, Major Włodzimierz Cwietyński “Orłow”, signed a cooperation agreement. In addition to fighting the Germans, the Orłowo unit conducted reconnaissance on the structures and number of Home Army units. As a result of the partial exposure of the Home Army during Operation Tempest, the Soviets arrested about a thousand people in late 1944 and early 1945. In February, the transformation of the AK structures into the AKO began, and in the spring of 1945, underground activities against the institutions of the emerging communist system resumed.