AUGUST’S DISEASE
The August raid (other than the July raid) is an operation carried out by Red Army troops, supported by the 385th firearm Regiment of the NKWD Interior Army and separate LWP and UB troops. It was intended to break up and liquidate underground troops of independency and anti-communist in the Suwałk and Augustów area. The manhunt was part of a larger anti-partisan action, besides carried out in Lithuania. The Augustian manhunt is sometimes called the “little Katyn”.
From July 10 to 25, 1945, regular Red Army troops belonging to the 3rd Belarusian Front and the 62nd Division of the NKVD interior Army (including the 385th firearm Regiment of the NKVD interior Army), shielded and assisted by the UB and 110-member division of the 1st Prague Infantry Regiment, carried out a wide-ranging pacification action covering the Augustowska Forest and its surroundings. Among Polish soldiers assisting Russians, the later head of the MMA Mirosław Milewski was peculiarly active in pacification. russian troops surrounded the villages there, arresting their residents suspected of contact with the independency guerrilla. At the same time, a akin operation was carried out on the another side of the border, in the southwest of occupied Lithuania. The full operation was headed most likely from Augustów, where local command of russian counter-intelligence Smiersz was located. More than 7,000 people were detained who were imprisoned in over 50 locations. The Soviets formed filter camps where the detainees were tortured and interrogated, holding them bound by barbed wire in pits flooded with water under the open sky. any of them returned home after questioning. The 252 arrested Lithuanians active in the Lithuanian independency movement were transferred to the local authorities of the NKVD-NKGB of Lithuania. About 600 people of Polish nationality were exported in an unknown direction and all traces of them were missing; the arrests of these people were carried out by the bodies of the Death 3 of the Belarusian Front.
They are suspected to have been exported to the Grodna area and murdered in the alleged Grodno Forts, where the NKVD had previously carried out another mass executions. The village of Naumowice in the Grodno region was indicated as a possible execution site on [now in Belarus]. Polish historian Prof. Krzysztof Jasiewicz hypothesized that the execution was carried out in the area of Lake Gołdap or – what he considered more likely – in the vicinity of the village of Rominta (now Krasnolesie) in the Romnicka Forest, where erstwhile the hunting court of Herman Göring was located (now the village is located in the area of Kaliningrad). Prof. Natalia Lebiedev of the Institute of past of the Russian Academy of Sciences, author of the book on Katyn, suggested that Poles could have been sent to any secret camp, where experiments with chemical or biological weapons were possibly carried out on them.
The PRL authorities have never officially confirmed this incident. Jerzy Urban, a spokesperson for the government, even denied the fact that Polish citizens were missing. In 1992, the prosecution in Suwałki initiated an investigation into the case, then it was suspended, and in 2000 the Institute of National Memory in Białystok took it. Initially, the investigation was qualified by IPN prosecutors as a Communist crime, and since July 2009 besides as a crime against humanity.
On this issue respective times, starting in 1992, legal aid applications were sent to Russia. On 7 January 1995, the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation in consequence to a request from the Polish side sent a letter to the Polish embassy in Moscow stating that "the arrest was confirmed during the capture of a group of 592 people by the authorities of Morgis 3 of the Belarusian Front who supported the anti-Soviet National Army". In addition, the Russian organization reported that "criminal cases were not directed to courts and their further destiny is unknown".
In 2003, the Russian organization stated that there were no papers confirming the shooting of civilians in Suwałczyz in 1945; it was confirmed that there was a 62nd Division of the NKVD interior Army in this area, but requests for a photocopy of the conflict logs of this formation remained unanswered. In mid-July 2006, the Russian organization refused to answer to the Polish request for legal assistance in this case, arguing this with a statute of limitations of criminality. Another extended application for legal assistance was sent to Russia in 2009. The next complementary application for legal assistance was prepared by the Institute of National Memory in 2011.
The bodies of the victims were never found, nevertheless they were suspected to be in the woods close Gib.
In 2011, Russian historian Nikita Petrov, vice-president of the Memorial Association, published an encrypted telegram, found in the KGB archives, sent in July 1945 by General Viktor Abakumov, commander of the military counter-intelligence of Smiersz, to the head of the NKVD Łavrentija Beria. The dispatch revealed that on 20 July from Moscow to Oleck a peculiar squad of officials of the Merge led by Gen. Ivan Gorgonov arrived to carry out “the liquidation of detainees in the forests of August bandits”. The liquidation was to be led by Gen. Gorgonow and the head of the Counterintelligence of Death 3 of the Belarusian Front by Gen. Paweł Zielenin. The number of 592 people mentioned in the Abakumowa dispatch corresponds almost precisely to the number of residents of the region missing during the round-up. According to Nikita Petrov, it appears that the manhunt was carried out on Joseph Stalin's individual orders.
In 1987, a monument to the task by Andrzej Strumiłła was created in Gibach to celebrate the victims of the August raid. In Poland, “The Association of Memory of Victims of Augustowska Oblast 1945” works.
In 1991, after an exhumation in Gibach, a cross was placed there on the symbolic grave of the missing. 530 names were written on the cross.
In July 2010, an exhibition dedicated to the Augustowska manhunt, prepared by the Branch of the Institute of National Memory in Białystok, was organized in the building of the Sejm in Warsaw.
From 2006 to 2011, exhibitions devoted to the roundup were organized in Suwałki and Węgorzewa.
On June 9, 2011, as part of the XI Cavalry Picnic – Cavalry Days in Suwałki, a historical spectacle “Obława Augustowska” was presented. July 1945", co-organized by the Regional Museum in Suwałki and the Branch of the Institute of National Memory in Białystok.
"AUGUST'S FIELD. JULY 1945’
Personnel from the exhibition “Oława Augustowska. July 1945" prepared by OBEP IPN in Białystok
The 2 ciphers declassified by the FSB on the biggest crime committed in Poles after the end of the war confirm the arrest by the Soviets in July 1945 of 1 of the leaders of the August underground. Only in one-time action together with Szymon Krupinski, ps. “Grom” included 50 soldiers.
In many respects the crime committed during the Augustian raid was more dramatic than the 1 from 1940. Of the about 600 victims there were 30 women, any of whom were awaiting the birth of a child. Besides, juveniles were murdered.
Central Archives of the national safety Service in Moscow at the request of the association The memorial revealed 2 ciphers by Viktor Abakumov to NKVD chief Lavrientija Beria from July 1945. The papers relate to the Augustian soldiers of the Polish independency underground. Their destiny was sealed by then: murder. Shocking papers about the Augustian crime committed on a group of about 600 Poles acquired the Institute of National Memory in Russia. But not from the D.A.'s office of the Russian Federation as part of a legal aid application. Łukasz Kamiński, president of the IPN, obtained these papers during his visit to Moscow from the Memorial Association. – These are copies certified from the Archives of the national safety Service concerning the August crime. The content of these materials has so far been known only from the notes of Prof. Nikita Petrov. The Memorial Society asked the FSB Archives to make these materials available in the form of copies, and they received them just before my visit, and then passed them on to the Institute," said Kamiński.
The materials leave no uncertainty as to the nature of the Red Army units conducting a raid in the Augustów and Suwałk area in July 1945. General Abakumov reports, among others, to Lavrientij Berii, the National Commissioner for the Interior of the russian Socialist Union, on sending to Oleck General Gorgonov, Deputy Chief of the General Board of the Management of the Smiersz, “with a group of experienced counterintelligence officers to carry out the liquidation of bandits arrested in August forests”. According to the documents, the second liable for killing Polish soldiers of the independency underground was Lieutenant General Paweł Zielienin, Head of the Board of Counterintelligence of the 3rd Belarusian Front. “Tow. Tow. Gorgonov and Zienienin are good and experienced checkers and will do this task” – cynically assures Beria Abakumov.
Kamiński pointed out that these papers are very crucial for the further destiny of the IPN investigation into the Augustian crime. "In June and December 2011, we sent a request for legal assistance to the General Prosecutor's Office of Russia. Among another things, it active sending us cryptotegrams and individual files tow. Zienien and Gorgonov (...), and we besides asked for files on criminal cases of persons detained during the Augustov raid. To this day, we have no answer in relation to the Russian side,” says prok. Zbigniew Kulikowski, p.o. chief of the Branch Committee on the Investigation of Crimes against the Polish Nation in Białystok.
The papers that Memorial handed over are very important. "They point out clearly to all lawyer that in July 1945 crimes were committed against humanity. The intention of the perpetrators was to deprive the members of Polish independency organizations of their lives. And only for this, i.e. due to political affiliation – said prok. Kulikowski. In his opinion, the fact that these papers were obtained would prevent the Russian organization from stating that there were no specified materials. “This is very crucial for the investigation, due to the fact that under global law the problem of the Augustian manhunt can be presented,” said the prosecutor. The IPN hopes that the Russian lawyer General will besides send these documents. As part of the IPN investigation, he interviewed nearly 700 people in the case. As far as the perpetrators are concerned, Mr. Gorgonov and Mr. Zienien are dead. We asked the Russian side to look at their individual files. The question is whether there is, for example, a designated place where the persons detained during the round-up were murdered," said Kulikowski. As Kamiński added, the consequence of the discovery of burials would be the creation of a war cemetery. The president of the IPN, on the another hand, does not supply for recourse to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg if the Russians had not transmitted the papers requested, as this institution is not "to settle conflicts between States".
INVESTIGATION Path
– Rather, it is simply a way of asserting their rights for individuals, if they have been violated by any country," said Kamiński.
– The case of the Augustowska manhunt is 1 of the most crucial problems that the IPN branch in Białystok has been dealing with since its beginning. I wanted to add here that this is the biggest crime committed in Poles after planet War II. Sometimes it is referred to as the second or tiny Katyn. This crime lives in the shadow of Katyń – says Dr. Jan Jerzy Milewski from the Branch Office of Public Education in Białystok. In many respects, it was more dramatic than the 1940 one, with about 600 deaths of about 30 women. As he pointed out, any of them were in a blessed state. Besides, juveniles were murdered.
Russia's declassified Commodity Encryptograms for the first time will now be able to examine thoroughly. The Memorial Association requested the FSB archive to supply 2 ciphers to Gen. Viktor Abakumov (Smiersz Command) in November 2011. The FSB’s affirmative consequence was sent in February. Currently, members of the association are examining these high-profile papers to establish the fact about the destiny of the victims. The decision of the FSB to declassified General Abakumowa (pseudonim) encryptograms shows that the Russian authorities, after many years of silence and deficiency of answers to questions sent to the Russian Federation, whether these ciphers are actually in her possession, yet replied – yes. This besides gives hope that at last the Russian authorities will enter into a serious dialog with Poland on the Augustian manhunt, which, more and more assuredly, has absorbed not as it has been believed so far about 600 soldiers of the underground of independence, but as much as 1400.
"BANDITS TO LIMITS"
This is confirmed by the second cryptogram of Gen. Abakumov studied by Memorial. Nikita Petrov, vice-president of Memorial, who was besides the first independent Russian historian to watch Abakumov's cryptograms in the early 1990s in Russian archives, wrote about the existence of this document. In Gen. Abakumov's first encryptogram, in addition to the number of detainees during the round-up of 592 people he intends to eliminate, he besides talks about the subsequent 828 people he intends to check “within 5 days”. At the same time he informs Beria that they are most likely besides "bandits", as he calls soldiers of the Polish underground of independence. He continues to compose that if his suspicions are proven during interrogations (the Beasts), then the targeted "bandits" must besides be eliminated. The second, larger than the first, group of AK soldiers were most likely besides murdered. If 1 of them had survived, he would have given information about interrogations and executions. So if to the number of 592 underground soldiers already destined for execution, of whom the criminal general writes in the first cryptogram, we will add the number of 828 soldiers who are besides about to lose their lives, we will get a horrifying number of 1420 victims of the Augustian siege.
MORE THAN A Thousand
This number of assassins was confirmed by Nikita Petrov at a gathering with the families of the victims of the Augustów raid, which occurred during his visit to Poland, in mid-October 2011. It was then that the prelate priest Stanislaw Wysocki, president of the Augustowska Oblast Memorial Union, asked him about the actual number of victims of the crimes. In consequence to the public response, Nikita Petrov said that “the sacrifice of the Augustov manhunt was more than a thousand.” Petrov besides reported his visit to Russian archives. – He told me, among others, that he even remembers in which bag this paper was in and on which shelf this bag was located – says Fr Stanisław Wysocki. Now, years later, the Russian historian has a photocopy of the historical letter on his desk. “I besides handed it over to the Belarusian branch of the IPN, which is investigating the case and for which it is an crucial evidence of trial,” says Petrov “Our Journal”. Petrov encountered papers in the early 1990s during a visit to the KGB archives. At the request of then Russian president Boris Jelcin, six members of the Memorial association, including Petrov, searched these archives to find papers about russian safety crimes on citizens of the USSR. By holding Abakumov's cryptograms in his hand, he did not yet know how crucial papers he found. He besides knew nothing about the Augustian manhunt, so he only looked at the ciphers and compiled notes from them. These documents, dated 20 and 21 July 1945, are ciphers from Colonel-General Viktor Abakumov to Lavrintij Berii, the head of the NKVD. The papers contain a plan for mass execution, which was to be carried out following the 1 in Katyn. russian soldiers were to search and environment the forest (probably a place in Augustowska Forest), in which the battalion of Death was to execute those arrested during the raid. The action was to be carried out so that no of the detainees could escape. Abakumov mentioned among others the names of the commanders of the action and asked for an appropriate order of Lavrientij Beria, the head of the NKVD. Abakumov was most likely the last witness and crime director. He died in 1994. The ciphers bring much to the case, but unfortunately they do not uncover where the death of murdered Poles is at stake, for which this message of their household has been waiting for almost 67 years.
Abakumov's first letter to Beeria was rewritten and published by Petrov in his book. General of russian military counterintelligence Death reports to Beria about the detention and interrogation of Poles in the Augustov area. He reports that the Poles arrested (and a number of Lithuanians) were “true” by encavists who detected 592 “bandits”. In the further part of the paper Abakumov proposes to shoot them according to the attached plan resembling the Katyn crime. There are besides 828 people who are inactive being tested. If another enemy of russian power is detected among them, they are besides to be killed.
Three days later, Abakumov submits a further study to Beeria. This time, it lists very in item the number of weapons and ammunition found at the Poles detained. The speech is besides about the pits, bunkers and shelters found in the wilderness. Abakumov recounts the result of the proceeding of Simon Krupiński, ps. “Grom”, considered to be the leader of 1 of the groups. He was to explain that russian production weapons were found by his subordinates in the area of armed fighting of the Red Army with Germany. The equipment of the branch besides included the arms of German and Polish production. To the satisfaction of the Soviets, no traces of artillery were found by the Polish underground. On the another hand, there were many underground hiding places in the August forests. 52 bunkers and a twelve another fortifications were detected and 439 earthen dams were discovered. From the statements of Kruszyński the Encavists learned that most of them had built Nazis in 1939.
Decrypt and immediately deliver the People's Department of interior Affairs of the SRR to Comrade L.P. Beria I study that I have instructed Deputy Chief of the General Board "Death" to Major Gorgonov and Chief of the Board of Counterintelligence of the 3rd Belarusian Front to Lieutenant General Zielenin to personally check weapons, ammunition and explosives confiscated during the Red Army's operations to liquidate bands in Augustov forests. Today, tow. Gorgonow and Zielenin reported that during the operation of the 50th Army of the 3rd Belarusian Front confiscated the following weapons, ammunition and explosives: Mortars – 11, of which 52 mm – 1,55 mm – 4 and 120 mm – all German types; device guns – 31, including dense device guns – 1, handguns of the German kind – 28 and handguns of the russian kind – 2; Automatic pistols – 31, including German – 14, russian – 17; Rifles – 89 and 1 cut, including German – 28 and 1 cut, Polish – 17 and russian – 44; Pistols and revolvers – 4, including Belgian – 3, russian – 1; Min – 204, including German – 34, russian 120 mm – 110 and 80 mm – 60; Bullets – 76 mm of the russian kind – 66; Grenades – 134, including German – 71, russian – 63; firearm cartridges and vending machines – 27 024, including German 7379 and russian 19645; PTR cartridge kind 250; German-type TNT cargo – 62; Soviet-produced explosives – 78 kg; Bottle with combustible mixture (KS) – 50; German radio stations – 1; German-produced String Bickford – 73 metres. These weapons, ammunition and explosives were confiscated during the arrest of bandits, as well as in warehouses and hiding places revealed in the woods while searching the village. In the process of checking, it was established that Soviet-type weapon bandits captured it by collecting it in battlefields. Thus arrested band chief S.N. Krupiński nicknamed “Grom”, born in 1906 in Augustów, Pole, captured with his group of 50 people, during the interrogation he testified that the weapons and ammunition of the russian kind members of his gang collected in the August forests and in the areas of the fighting conducted between the Red Army and German troops. Any another foreign, but German, Polish and Soviet, weapons, ammunition and explosives were not confiscated. 52 bunkers and 15 concrete fire shelters were detected during the Red Army's search of the August Forests, as well as 439 ground and underground shelters, which in the opinion of the military command belong to the Germans and were built in 1939. any of these structures were utilized by the aquifers. At the command of the military command, all bunkers, concrete fire shelters, earthworks and underground shelters were blown up by our troops. I study to you specifically on artillery. This fact was carefully examined by Mr Gorgonov and Mr Zielonin, as a result, it was established that in the course of the operation conducted in the August forests, both the Red Army troops and the "Death" authorities did not confiscate any artillery weapons. It should so be noted that at the beginning of the operation, the Military Council 50. The Army had unproven preliminary data about the fact that gangs operating in the August forests had artillery on their weapons, but in fresh years these data were not confirmed. At the time, the Military Council reported on this command of the 3rd Belarusian Front.
Abakumov on July 24, 1945 Chief Executive of the Counterintelligence “Death” General Colonel (Abakumov)
Source:
http://www.ivroszbiorpolski.pl/index.php?page=oblawa-augustowska
http://wolnapolska.pl/index.php/History/2012041815493/abakumow-melduje-may-katy/menu-id-174.html
– Citizen Search Committee of Suwałki Region Residents Missing in July 1945.
– August raid in July 1945
Crime scenes. August raid (1945)
– Abakumov's letter to Beria – “Our Journal”
– “In Moscow’s Service” – Wprost 24
– From the City: Oława Augustowska: “Little Katyn” (video)
