This trial is political. You cannot prove that we did not fight against the Germans in the past five years, but as in every such political trial, you would like to strip us out of our arguments. (…) You accuse us of collaborating with the Germans, of 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 battled the Germans for 63 days, and in so doing, we aided the Red Army. The Polish nation has many faults, but by way of compensation it possesses one advantage – 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, fighting throughout the war, for the country’s independence. They could not stand to allow Poland to become dependent on either Germany or the Soviet Union. And although they hailed 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 the 18th of 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 these most important figures from the Polish underground end up in 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 represented the Soviet military command. Joint talks were to appease the situation behind the front and improve relations between the two sides. However, despite assurances, guarantees 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 the responsible for the whole operation. As it turned out, it was just an operational pseudonym, behind which General Ivan 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 the arrests form only the beginning of this story…
In the dock
The Polish leaders were transported to the airport and onto Moscow, where they spent three months behind bars in Lubyanka prison. The Soviets wanted the Poles to admit to the crimes they were accused of, which led to the conducting of numerous interrogations. The Americans or the British would not then have asked whether the Poles were truly guilty – after all, an admission of guilt is confirmation of the accusations.
The trial against the sixteen leaders of the Polish Underground State took place in Moscow from the 18th to the 21st of June 1945. The Soviets carefully orchestrated the whole spectacle. The defendants had their defense attorneys (with only three of them deciding to defend themselves), who they only met in the courtroom. Moreover, instead of defending their clients, the lawyers admitted to guilt on their behalf, reassuring the court of their clients’ remorse. Of what exactly were they accused? Of leading and participating in subversive organisations hostile to the Soviet Union, and among other things, carrying out sabotage activities behind the lines of the Red Army and even collaborating with the Germans!
The Soviet court was in no doubt: almost all of the accused were found guilty of the acts they were charged with. General Okulicki was sentenced to the harshest sentence – 10 years imprisonment. However, on the 24th of December 1946 “The Bear” died in a Moscow prison, or, as can be said in all likelihood, he was murdered. The same fate was shared by Jan Stanisław Jankowski – sentenced to 8 years imprisonment, who died in 1953, only two weeks before the end of his sentence. And this time, death was not a just a random occurrence. In 1946, Stanisław Jasiukowicz, who had been sentenced to 5 years imprisonment, also perished in prison. Adam Bień received 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 defendants were acquitted, which was supposed to give the trial a sense of justice and objectivity.
What point did the Soviets want to make?
Obviously, the Soviet accusations against the Polish leaders were absurd and plainly offensive. The accused were those people who had for years, led the political, military and social struggle against the Germans. 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 for what was this whole show? What did the Soviets want to achieve? The answer is very simple: firstly, they wanted to get rid of those people who could very well lead Polish society in the fight against the new, Soviet occupation. And secondly, they wanted to strengthen their rule, which was to be exercised in their name by the Polish Workers’ Party, with everything being done under the guise of legality…