The
Trial of the 16 was one of the most sinister crimes perpetrated by the
Stalinist regime against the Polish nation. From June 18 to June 21,
1945 a series of staged trials were held in Moscow at which sixteen
leaders of the Polish underground movement were accused of allegedly
"drawing up plans for military action against the USSR." In the presence
of international observers and journalists, the Soviet court brazenly
ignored legal precepts, and sentenced innocent men to prison on trumped
up charges. Even more shocking was the fact that the governments of the
United States, and of Britain tacitly accepted the courts' rulings and
made no attempt to intercede on behalf of the Polish leaders.
Before
World War Two, Stalin had conducted many mock trials and purges to
eliminate political opposition and consolidate his power. Those victims
however were Russians - the old bolsheviks, heads of the Soviet secret
police, members of the Politburo, diplomats, among others. Before the
Great Purge which took place from 1937 to 1938, there were the Moscow
Trials from 1936 to 1937 which consisted of three major trials. the
Trial of the Sixteen, as well as the Trial of the Anti-Soviet Trotskyist
Center; and the Trial of the Twenty-One. In every case, the modus
operandi was the same. The Russian defendants, or rather, the victims
were allegedly charged with the crimes of plotting to assassinate
Stalin, overthrow the Soviet regime, and conspire with the western
governments to destroy communism, dismember the Soviet Union, and
restore capitalism to the masses. The Russian defendants were all
sentenced to death, and shot. They had confessed to the crimes under
torture.
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| (1943) Polish bodies exhumed - Katyn |
The Stalinist regime made similar accusations against
the Polish leaders in the 1945 Trial of the 16. But this trial was just
one scenario of a much larger conspiracy. From the very inception of
the war it was Stalin's mission (as well as that of Hitler's) to erase
every vestige of Polish leadership and authority - the belief that a
headless Polish state could more easily be conquered and repressed.
Among the Soviet crimes against the Poles were the infamous Katyn
Massacres in which over 16,000 Polish officers were arrested by the
Soviet NKVD, deported to Russia and systematically executed. Over a
million Polish civilians including members of the intelligentsia, had
been deported to Russian gulags and either executed or worked to death.
This was genocide - the calculated destruction of the Polish people,
their culture, and their leadership.
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| Prisoners in Russian Gulag |
Typical of Soviet chicanery, Colonel Pimenov of the
Soviet NKVD, on behalf of General Ivanov, sent cordial invitations to
the Polish leaders to attend a conference in the city of Pruszkow,
Poland and, giving his "word of honour", guaranteed their personal
safety. Incidentally, that the Soviets chose
Armii Krajowej Street
as the location for the conference could not have been a coincidence, I
believe, but rather a devious means to lull the Polish leaders into a
false sense of security. These gestures led the Polish leaders to
believe that they were being called upon to form a Polish Provisional
Government. In reality the future of Poland had already been decided by
Stalin. It was fait accompli. At the Yalta Conference in February 1945,
the Big Three (Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill) agreed upon a Polish
Provisional Government which would hold "free and unfettered elections",
as soon as possible. But it was a ruse. Just a month earlier the Polish
Provisional Government had been taken over by the Soviet-backed Polish
Committee of National Liberation (or PKWN). The Polish Government in
Exile was outraged and issued a statement protesting the actions of the
Soviet Union as having "taken over the sovereign rights of the Polish
nation.
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| Churchill-Roosevelt-Stalin at Yalta Conference February 1945 |
On March 26 and 27, 1945, the Soviet NKVD
captured and arrested the sixteen Polish leaders and deported them to
Moscow where they were imprisoned in the infamous Lubyanka prison and
subjected to months of brutal torture. The Polish leaders were accused
of numerous crimes: such as having collaborated with Nazi Germany; acts
of sabotage and terrorism against the Red Army; creating propaganda
against the Soviet Union; planning a military alliance with Nazi
Germany; owning a radio transmitter, printing machines and weapons; and
membership in the Polish underground.
Immediately after
the arrest, the Polish Government in Exile sent a message of protest to
Washington and London calling for the immediate release of the sixteen
Polish leaders. But it fell on deaf ears. Stalin attempted to deflect
scrutiny by declaring that the whole episode was merely a ploy concocted
by the so-called "Fascist Polish Government", in their effort to
discredit the Soviets, and that it was nothing more than fabrication.
Even when the truth finally came out on May 5th, Stalin shrugged it off,
saying that, "there is no point in linking the case of the Trial of the
Sixteen with the support for the Soviet-backed government of Poland
because the sentences will not be high." Apparently, the American and
British governments agreed hence no action was taken to intervene.
Soviet
accusations against the Polish leaders were a complete sham, in
particular allegations of collaboration with Nazi Germany. The fact is
that the Polish Underground had fought ferociously against Nazi German
occupation for the entire six years of the war, culminating in the
heroic Warsaw Uprising in 1944. Neither did the Poles engage in any
sabotage or terrorist activities against the Red Army. There is an
abundance of historical documentation which attests to the fact that the
Polish Home Army made many and frantic efforts to solicit the
participation of and assistance by the Soviet Red Army in fighting
against the Nazi Germans. The Poles fought alone. In a tragic and
shocking turn of events, the Red Army advanced as far as the opposite
bank of the Vistula, and then stopped short. The Soviet plan was to
allow the Nazi Germans to slaughter as many Polish insurgents as
possible before advancing on Warsaw and thus (so-called) "liberating"
the Poles.
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| Okulicki defending himself in Russian court June 1945 |
In the Trial of the 16, the Soviet Union was guilty
of countless violations of international law; of kidnapping and
detaining citizens of a foreign country, of charging them with alleged
crimes committed on foreign soil, of depriving the Polish prisoners of
basic human rights, and subjecting them to torture. Moreover, General
Okulicki's witnesses were expressly prohibited from even entering the
court, and none of the Polish defendants were permitted to plead in
their defense. Initially the judge conceded only three witnesses (though
Okulicki requested six). But later the judge announced that the three
witnesses could not attend the trial due to "bad atmospheric
conditions." What's more, the prosecution was unable to provide evidence
to support their claims against the Polish defendants. It was a
travesty of justice doled out to absurd proportions.
On
June 21, 1945, after only three days, the Soviet court delivered its
verdicts. Of the sixteen Polish defendants, only one was not forced by
the Soviets to admit to alleged crimes, while the others pleaded guilty.
By 1951 only two survived. The United States and Britain remained tacit
throughout the trial, and to add insult to injury, on July 6, 1945,
formally withdrew their support from the legitimate Polish Government in
Exile. For the ensuing twenty years, Soviet and Polish communists
conducted large-scale man-hunts for former members of the Secret Polish
State, and the Home Army (Armia Krajowa). The war had ended in 1945 -
but not for the enslaved Polish nation.
POLISH LEADERS ON TRIAL
LEOPOLD OKULICKI (Niedźwiadek)
Commander in Chief of the Armia Krajowa
Okulicki was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He died on Christmas Eve 1946.
The
cause of death was attributed to complications brought about by a
hunger strike, but speculation indicates that Okulicki may have been
murdered.
JAN STANISLAW JANKOWSKI
Deputy Prime Minister of Poland and the Government Delegate
Jankowski
was sentenced to 8 years in prison. He died in prison March 13, 1953
just two weeks before the end of his sentence. Suspicions abound that
he was murdered.
ADAM BIEN
MINISTER OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS
Bien was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment.
STANISLAW JASIUKOWICZ
Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs
Jasiukowicz was sentenced to 5 years in prison.
KAZIMERZ PUZAK
Head of the Council of National Unity, and
PPS-WRN Socialist Party
Puzak was sentenced to 1.5 years in prison and released in November 1945.
He
returned to Poland and refused to emigrate. In 1947 he was arrested
again by the infamous secret police, Urzad Bezpieczenstwa and sentenced
to 10 years in prison. Puzak died April 30 1950.
ALEKSANDER ZWIERZYNSKI
Deputy Head of the Council of National Unity and
Head of the Labor Party
Zwierzynski was sentenced to 8 months in prison.
KAZIMERZ BAGINSKI
Member of the Council of National Unity
Baginski was sentenced to 1 year in prison after which he was released.
He was forced to emigrate to the United States.
EUGENIUSZ CZARNOWSKI
Member of the Council of National Unity
Head of Ziednoczenie Demokratyczne
Czanowski was sentenced to 6 months in prison.
JOZEF CHACINSKI
Member of the Council of National Unity
Head of the Labor Party
Chacinski was sentenced to 4 months in prison.
STANISLAW MIERZWA
Member of the Council of National Unity
Mierzwa was sentenced to 4 months in prison.
ZBIGNIEW STYPULKOWSKI
Member of the Council of National Unity.
Stypulskowski was sentenced to 4 months in prison.
Upon his release he was forced to emigrate to the United Kingdom.
FRANCISZEK URBANSKI
Member of the Council of National Unity
Urbanski was sentenced to 4 months in prison.
STANISLAW MICHALOWSKI
Member of the Council of National Unity
Michalowski was acquitted of all charges.
KAZIMERZ KOBYLANSKI
Member of the Council of National Unity
Kobylanski was acquitted of all charges.
JOZEF STEMLER
Member of the Council of National Unity
(interpreter for the group of 16)
Stemler was acquitted of all charges.
ANTONI PAJDAK
Deputy Government Delegate
Pajdak was subjected to a secret trial, and sentenced to 5 years in prison in November 1945.
He was not released until 1955.
The soul of Poland is indestructible. She will rise again like a rock which may for a spell be submerged by a tidal wave
but which remains a rock.
Winston Churchill.
Suggested Links:
You Tube video footage Moscow Show Trial 1938
Trial of the 16 - June 1945 (in Polish only)
Moscow Trial of the 16 Polish Leaders - June 1945 (in English only)
