The Polish underground of independency in 1945 found itself in a situation with no chance of a good ending, but nevertheless its leaders tried to negociate with the Soviets, who officially acted as liberators and actually acted like occupiers. This ended with the insidious imprisonment of representatives of the Polish elite and their transport to Moscow.
On Monday, June 18, 1945, erstwhile the Cremlian curates struck 9 a.m., 15 prisoners were removed from their cell in the notorious prison in Łubiance and led to a waiting prisoner in the courtyard. Her building was divided into tiny cages, into which the envoys ordered these prisoners to enter successively at intervals of respective minutes so that they could not see each other. erstwhile the last time he came in, the defender slammed the door of the kibitki, and her driver ran to his address. It was a historical building at the confluence of the streets of Ochotnyj Riad and Pushkinska, named after the Trade Union House.
Prisoners were introduced to the first level of the building and only then 15 leaders Polish Underground State may have seen him for the first time since their sneaky arrest at Warsaw in late March 1945. 1 of them, Adam Bien of the People’s Party, recalled years later: “I abruptly saw all my colleagues, but in a arrangement that would never happen to me: all of them, and I among them, walked the goose toward the door leading to the hall. In the goose we went not alone: uniformed guards divided us.”
Last-button staging
In addition to the mentioned Adam Bien, the envoys brought the last commandant into court. Army of the National Gen. Leopold Okulicki ‘The Bear’, Deputy Prime Minister and delegate of the government to the country of Jan Stanisław Jankowski, president of the Council of National Unity Kazimierz Pużak from the Polish Socialist Party, 2 colleagues from the People's organization – Kazimierz Bagiński and Stanisław Mierzwa, Stanisław Jasiukowicz, Kazimierz Kobylański, Zbigniew Stypułkowski and Aleksandra Zwierzyński from the National Party, Józef Chaciński and Franciszek Urbański from the Labour Party, Eugeniusz Czarnowski and Stanisław Michałowski from the Democratic Unity and Józef Stemler-Dąbski from the Information and Press Department of the Government Delegation to the Country. There was inactive the sixteenth prisoner – Antoni Pajdak from the Polish Socialist Party, but he was judged in a separate trial due to his illness and then he was not in this room.
As you can see, the Soviets held sixteen representatives of the Polish civilian and military authorities and political parties from the left to the right. All of them were accused of hostile, diversionary actions against the Red Army in favour of the “German fascists”. The summit of the perfidy and insolence of the Soviets was to accuse the Germans of favoring people who throughout the war were the Number 1 enemies for the Gestapo.
The prosecution jury in the trial of sixteen – Moscow, June 1945
According to English embassy typical Philip Bolsover, a follower of the trial, “The judges sat at the table covered with ripples, located at the end of the hall, somewhat deeper in the elevation. The prosecutors and the secretaries were on their right at right angles. On the left, face-to-face, the defendants sat, in 4 rows, on a pre-prepared jury of defendants, with General Okulicki in the first row, closest to the judges. Jankowski besides sat in the front row, separated by 1 individual [the Guardian – P.K.] from Okulicki. Bien and Jasiukowicz took seats in the second and 3rd rows respectively, closest to the audience. 2 bayonet guards (these were frequently changed) stood in the corners of the bench, between the audience and the prisoners. The others were free to take seats below the bench.”
In order to complete this picture, it is essential to compose that there were besides defenders in the area (it was not for Gen. Okulicki, who declared that he would defend himself), stenotypers, photojournalists, chroniclers and audiences – men themselves, as Bien described it, "silent and non-violent", and thus most likely specially selected NKVD officers. The trial took place in front of the College of the Military Court of the russian Union, led by General Colonel Vasily Ulrich. The main prosecutors were the Chief Military Prosecutor of the Red Army Major Nikolay Afansayev and state councillor of the Second Class Justice Service Roman Rudenko. Already these 3 names proved that a judge-prosecution sister of the russian Union was active in the trial. It was an highly crucial process for Stalin to accomplish crucial propaganda and, above all, political objectives.
‘Conjugal court’
According to Stalinist standards, the conviction was already prejudged long before the court trial, which provided additional humiliation to the defendants after a dense investigation. "The proceeding – Bolsover recalls – was conducted in Russian, sometimes the witness had to usage the interpreter's help. Jankowski, Bien, Jasiukowicz and Pużak spoke Russian fluently and well. Okulicki and Stypułkowski were not so fluent anymore, they frequently made grammatical errors". Prosecutors on the witness stand called on people who had previously been broken by NKVD investigations, including AK soldiers, who accused their commandant in evidence of hostile actions against the Red Army and collaboration with Germany. General Okulicki responded to these accusations of prosecutors: “You are accusing us of cooperating with Germany by agreeing to our honor. You accuse 300,000 National Army soldiers, you accuse the full nation. [...] My activity was not aggressive but defensive. I know that the Polish people sincerely want relationship with the russian people and I would consider myself a large criminal if I besides did not want friendship, on 1 condition that Poland's independency should be preserved. It is conditio sine qua non". Not all convicts have dared in their closing words to specified bold words...
Sentence was pronounced on June 21 at 4:30 in the morning. The russian court sentenced General Okulicki to 10 years in prison – he was no longer alive, Deputy Prime Minister Jankowski was sentenced to 8 years – he died in prison, Minister Jasiukowicz was given 5 years and besides died in prison, Bień was sentenced to 5 years, Pużak – 1 and a half years, Baginski – year, Zwierzyński – 8 months, Czarnowski – six months, Mierzwa, Stypułkowski, Chaciński and Urbański – 4 months, Michałowski, Kobylański and Stemler-Dąbski were acquitted, In a separate trial, Spider was given 5 years. All of them returned to the country, but their repressions were waiting for them from the home safety services (including Puzak died in Polish prison).
Why did this judicial farce serve? The elimination and humiliation of the Polish elite was an crucial origin in Stalin's thinking, but not the only one. Of course, it was besides about compromising the Polish underground in the eyes of Western countries, but that is not all. A conference of the National National Council and the Provisional Government, with Bolesław Bierut and Władysław Gomulka at the head, and the emigration representatives, led by Stanisław Mikołajczyk, was held virtually a fewer blocks distant from the Trade Union House. It is clear that the show trial of sixteen was aimed primarily at Nicholas and his people. Stalin made it clear to him that he would not let any weakening of the position of his protégés – Polish communists. It was at that time that Gomulka said the celebrated conviction that “we will never give back the power erstwhile gained.” He was wrong, and the trial of sixteen years later became 1 of the evidence of the criminal character of the russian empire.
Bibliography
J. Chrobaczyński, “The Last of Sixteen”, Warsaw 2000.
A. Przemyski, "Last Commandant. General Leopold Okulicki", Lublin 1990.
Z. Stypułkowski, “Invitation to Moscow”, Warsaw 1991
