Polish WWII underground leaders arrested by Soviets 72 years ago
The Russian secret police, or the NKVD, arrested 15 leaders of the Polish Underground State on March 27 and 28, 1945. Despite being offered full safety when invited for talks, the Polish leaders were arrested and sent to a Moscow prison.
In early March 1945 the last leader of Poland's underground Home Army, General Leopold Okulicki, nom-de-guerre Niedzwiadek, and deputy PM and the government's delegate to the country, Jan Stanislaw Jankowski, received a letter of invitation from a Soviet officer with the guarantee of full safety.
The circumstances of delivering the letter and its content indicated that the Underground State had already been infiltrated by the NKVD.
On March 17, Jankowski met with a Russian officer and informed him that Polish political parties wanted to start official activity and therefore they would like to meet with a Russian military counterintelligence general that was responsible for such matters. Jankowski also asked for the possibility to send an underground delegation to London to consult with the Polish government-in-exile there and was offered help in organising such a trip.
Four days later, the Russian officer informed Jankowski that the Russian general would like to meet with the representatives of the Polish underground. After the meeting, the Polish politicians were to be flown to London for consultation.
Although the attempt to negotiate with the Russians may seem naive, the Polish politicians wanted to try everything to ensure participation in legal political life in post-war Poland, according to Professor Andrzej Garlicki.
Jankowski, Okulicki and Puzak, the head of the underground Council for National Unity (RJN), came for talks to a villa near Warsaw and then were transported to Warsaw's Praga district where they failed to meet the Soviet officer. The next morning they were flown to Moscow put in prison.
Despite being concerned by their disappearance, the remaining leaders of the Polish underground came to a meeting with the Soviet General on March 28. The next morning they were said they were going to be taken by plane to Poznan to meet Soviet Marshall Zukow, but instead they were also flown to the east and then taken by train to Moscow and placed in the same Moscow prison.
"The news about the arrests of the Polish Underground State leaders quickly spread around the country and struck like lightning. Although no one had any illusions about the basic aims of the Soviet policy any more, especially those who survived the Warsaw Uprising (..), they would not suspect the Soviets of such ugly and cynical deceit", Stefan Karbonski, who took over Jankowski's position as the government's delegate to the country, recollected.
"There was an outburst of despair and anger. There were plans to conduct some kind of large-scale attack, some strong reprisal which would satisfy our need for vengeance and show that the Polish Underground State was still alive and could punish". We were all waiting with hope and excitement for the reaction from the Allies. It finally came, but it was very weak and without any positive outlook. Our excitement and anticipation turned into disappointment and depression", Karbonski wrote.
After 3-month long investigation, on June 18, 1945, the Polish officers faced a Military Court in Moscow. At the same time, talks on creating a Provisional Government of National Unity were held in the Soviet capital.
The defendants faced charges of acting against the Red Army and the Soviet Union.
The verdicts were announced on June 21, 1945. General Okulicki was sentenced to 10 years in prison, Janowski to 8 years and Puzak to 18 months. Other defendants received prison sentences ranging from 4 months to 5 years. Three were acquitted.
Of the imprisoned ones, there died in serving their sentences, including Okulicki (1946) and Jankowski (1953). Those who survived were later persecuted by the communist authorities back in Poland, and some of them ended up in prison again.
The Home Army (AK) was formed on February 14, 1942. Its allegiance was to the Polish government-in-exile. It served as the armed wing of what is known as the Polish Underground State - by many considered banner administration model. AK was one of the largest and best organised resistance movements in Europe, with the total number of fighters put at 200,000 to 600,000. Its activity did not finish with the end of the WWII as after 1945 AK's so-called Enduring Soldiers fought bravely to free Polish state from the Soviet regime.
During WWII AK was also widely involved in rescuing fellow citizens Jewish descent, among others, by means of the famous 1942-founded Council to Aid Jews (Rada Pomocy Zydom) codenamed 'Zegota' - the only organisation in Europe and a unique one on a global scale established to defend and provide help to Jews in Ghettos and outside.
The AK's wartime losses totalled about 100,000 soldiers killed in fighting or murdered, and about 50,000 taken to the Soviet Union and imprisoned. (PAP)
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