Polish operation of the NKVD
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Polish operation of the NKVD[1] refers to the coordinated actions of the NKVD in 1937-1938, done according to NKVD Order № 00485 "О ликвидации польских диверсионно-шпионских групп и организаций ПОВ" ("On the liquidation of the Polish diversionist and espionage groups and POW units").
The order was approved on August 9, 1937 by the VKP(b) Central Committee Politburo, and was signed by Nikolai Yezhov on August 11, 1937. It was distributed to the local subdivisions of the NKVD simultaneously with Yezhov's secret letter, "О фашистско-повстанческой, шпионской, диверсионной, пораженческой и террористической деятельности польской разведки в СССР" ("On fascist-resurrectionist, spying, diversional, defeationist, and terrorist activity of Polish intelligence in the USSR").
The operation was the second in a series of national operations of the NKVD, justified by the Soviet government by the fear of a fifth column (in the expectation of war with "the most probable adversary", that is, Germany), and by the notion of a "hostile capitalist surrounding", bent on destabilizing the Soviet Union.
The following categories of people were arrested during the Polish operation of the NKVD:
- Members of Polska Organizacja Wojskowa listed in the special list (most of them were not in fact members of that organisation).
- All prisoners of war from the Polish-Soviet war that stayed in Soviet Union.
- All immigrants from Poland.
- Political refugees from Poland (mostly members of the Communist Party of Poland).
- Former and present members of the Polish Socialist Party, and other non-communist Polish political parties.
- Active and nationalist members of the Polish minority in Soviet Union (practically all Poles).
The operation occurred approximately from August 25, 1937 to November 15, 1938. According to the archives of the NKVD, 111,091 Poles, and people accused of ties with Poland, were sentenced to death and 28,744 were sentenced to labor camps, 139,835 in total. This number constitutes 10% of the total number officially convicted (i.e., with confirming NKVD documents) during the Yezhovshchina period.[2]
[edit] References
- McLoughlin, Barry, and McDermott, Kevin (eds). Stalin's Terror: High Politics and Mass Repression in the Soviet Union. Palgrave Macmillan, December 2002. ISBN 1403901198.
- Paczkowski, Andrzej (1999), "Polsko - "nepřátelský národ"", in Stéphane Courtois et al., Černá kniha komunismu (1st ed.), Paseka, ISBN 80-7185-194-9.
[edit] Further reading
- (Russian) Nikita Petrov and A. B. Roginsky, Polish operation of NKVD
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ The term "Polish operation" was suggested by two researchers of the Memorial Society, N. Petrov and A. Roginsky (Н.В.Петров, А.Б.Рогинский).
- ^ McLoughlin, References, p. 164
