This proces is political. You cannot prove that we didn’t fight the Germans in the past five years, but as in every such political proccess, you would like to strip us out of our arguments. (…) You accuse us of collaborating with the Germans, undermining our honor. By accusing 300 Home Army soldiers , you accuse the entire Polish Nation . The Warsaw Uprising was a heroic fight and did not provide grounds for political repressions. In the Warsaw Uprising we fought the Germans for 63 days, and helped the Red Army in this way. The Polish nation has many faults , but it has one advantage that compensates them – the love of freedom. I want friendship with Russia but on one condition – that is the maintenance of Poland’s independence.

Gen. Leopold Okulicki

They had served Poland for years. Throughout the war, they fought for the country’s independence. They did not want to allow Poland to become dependent on either Germany or the Soviet Union. And although they came from different worlds – among them were politicians, soldiers, lawyers, economists – they were united by their love for their homeland and a common faith, that led them to the courtroom in Moscow.

On 18 June 1945, the trial of 16 leaders of the Polish Underground State began in the capital of the Soviet Union. The accused included: the last Commander-in-Chief of the Home Army and the Commander-in-Chief of the “NIE” Organization, General Leopold Okulicki, a.k.a. “Niedźwiadek”, Deputy Prime Minister Jan Stanisław Jankowski, and Chairman of the Council of National Unity Kazimierz Pużak. How did the most important figures from the Polish underground end up in the Soviet hands? Through deception…

Before the trial

In March 1945 the leaders of the Polish Underground State were invited to a meeting with General Ivanov , who was representing the Soviet military command. Joint talks were to appease the situation behind the front and improve relations between both sides. However, despite the assurances, warranties of safety and words of honour, on 27th March the NKVD arrested the leaders of the Polish Underground who had arrived for a meeting at a villa in Pruszków. The aforementioned general Ivanov was responsible for the whole operation. As it turned out, it was just an operational pseudonym, behind which General Ivn Sierov was hiding– an NKVD advisor of the Ministry of Public Security, a man responsible for, among others, mass repression against soldiers of the Polish underground. But arrests are only a beginning of this story…

In the dock

The P olish leaders were trasnported to the airport and then to Moscow, where they spent three months locked up in Lubyanka prison. The Soviets wanted the Poles to admit to the crimes they were accused, that is why they conducted numerous interrogations. The Americans or the Brits would not then ask wether the Poles were really guilty – after all, an admission of guilt is confirmation of the accausations.

A trial against the sixteen leaders of the Polish Underground State took place in Moscow from 18 to 21 June 1945. The Soviets precisely directed the whole spectacle. The defendands had their defense attorneys (only three of them decided to defend themselves), but they only met in the courtroom. What’s more, instead of defending their clients, the lawyers admitted guilt on their behalf, assuring their remorse. What they were accused of? For leading and participating in subversive organisations hostile to the Soviet Union, which, among other things, carried out sabotage activities behind the lines of the Red Army and even collaborated with the Germans!

The Soviet court had no doubts: almost all the accused were found guilty of the acts they were charged with. General Okulicki was sentenced to the harshest sentence – 10 years of imprisonment. However, on 24 December 1946 “The Bear” died in Moscow prison, or, as can be said with high probability, he was murdered. This fate was shared by Jan Stanisław Jankowski – sentenced for 8 years of imprisonment, died in 1953, only two weeks before the end of his sentence. And this time, death was not a matter of Chance. In 1946, Stanisław Jasiukowicz, who had been sentenced to 5 years of imprisonment, also died in prison. Adam Bień recieved the same punishment. The rest of them were sentenced to 1, 1,5 years and 8, 6 and 4 (4 people) months of imprisonment. 3 people were acquit ted, which was supposed to give the trial a sense of justice and objectivity.

What was Soviet’s point?

Obviously, the Soviet accusations against the P olish leaders were absurd and just offensive. The accused were people who had led the political, military and social struggle against the Germans for years. Now they were treated as German war criminals and tried in a foreign country. There was no question of the legality of Soviet actions.

But what was the whole show for? What did the Soviets want to achieve? The answer is very simple: first , they wanted to get rid of people who could lead Polish society in the fight against the new, Soviet occupation. And second , they wanted to strenghten their rule, which was to be exercised in their name by the Polish Workers’ Party. And everything under the guise of legality …