Trial of the Sixteen

The Trial of the Sixteen ( _pl. Proces szesnastu) was a staged trial of 16 leaders of the Polish Secret State held by the Soviet Union in Moscow in 1945.

History

In February 1945 the Government Delegate, together with most members of the Council of National Unity and the C-i-C of the Armia Krajowa, were invited by Soviet general Ivan Serov on behalf of Joseph Stalin to a conference on their eventual entry to the Soviet-backed Provisional Government. They were presented with a warrant of safety, yet they were arrested in Pruszków by the NKVD on March 27 and brought to Moscow for interrogation.

After several months of brutal interrogation and torture they were presented with the forged accusations of:
* collaboration with Nazi Germany
* carrying-over intelligence and sabotage at the rear of the Red Army
* terrorism
* planning a military alliance with Nazi Germany
* owning a radio transmitter
* describing the liberation of Poland by the Red Army as a “new occupation”
* dissolution of the Armia Krajowa in order to continue the fight against the Soviet Union

The trial took place between June 18 and 21, 1945, at the presence of foreign press and observers from the United Kingdom and USA. The date was chosen carefully to be at the same time a conference on creation of the Soviet-backed Polish puppet government was organized.

Immediately after the kidnapping of all the leaders, the Polish government in exile sent a protest note to Washington and London demanding their release. At first the Soviets declared that the whole case was a bluff by the “Fascist Polish government”. When they finally admitted that the leaders had been arrested (on May 5), the American envoy of Harry S. Truman, Harry Lloyd Hopkins, was told by Joseph Stalin 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.” Both British and American governments shared this view.

All but one of the defendants were forced to admit to the alleged crimes, and on June 21 the verdict was issued. According to international law the trial should not have taken place. The Soviet Union kidnapped and sentenced a group of citizens of a foreign country whose alleged crimes were committed on a foreign land. They were deprived of basic human rights and tortured. General Okulicki's witnesses were not allowed to enter the court, which was a violation of even Soviet law.

People involved

* Lt. General Vasili Ulrikh - the main judge, famous for playing a major role in the Great Purge

#Commander in Chief of the Armia Krajowa Leopold Okulicki ("Niedźwiadek") - 10 years in prison, murdered on Christmas Eve of 1946.
#deputy Prime Minister of Poland and the Government Delegate Jan Stanisław Jankowski - 8 years in prison, never released, died in a Soviet prison on March 13, 1953, two weeks before the end of his sentence; probably murdered.
#Minister of Internal Affairs Adam Bień - 5 years
#Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Stanislaw Jasiukowicz - 5 years
#Head of the Council of National Unity and PPS-WRN socialist party Kazimierz Pużak - 1,5 years, released in November 1945 and returned to Poland. Refused to emigrate, Pużak was again arrested by the Urząd Bezpieczeństwa in 1947 and sentenced to 10 years in prison; died April 30, 1950
#Deputy head of the Council of National Unity and head of the Stronnictwo Narodowe party Aleksander Zwierzyński - 8 months
#Member of the Council of National Unity, Kazimierz Bagiński - 1 year, later released and forced to emigrate to the USA
#Member of the Council of National Unity, Head of Zjednoczenie Demokratyczne Eugeniusz Czarnowski - 6 months
#Member of the Council of National Unity, Head of Stronnictwo Pracy - Józef Chaciński - 4 months
#Member of the Council of National Unity, Stanisław Mierzwa - 4 months
#Member of the Council of National Unity, Zbigniew Stypułkowski - 4 months, later released and forced to emigrate to the United Kingdom
#Member of the Council of National Unity, Feliks Urbański - 4 months
#Member of the Council of National Unity, Stanisław Michałowski - acquitted of all the charges
#Member of the Council of National Unity, Kazimierz Kobylański - acquitted of all the charges
#Member of the Council of National Unity, interpreter for the group, Józef Stemler - acquitted of all the charges
#Deputy Government Delegate Antoni Pajdak was sentenced to 5 years in prison in a secret trial in November; he was not released until 1955.

Aftermath

As a result of the trial, the Polish Secret State was deprived of most of its leaders. Its structures were soon rebuilt, but were never able to fully recover. On July 6, 1945 the United Kingdom and the USA withdrew support for the legitimate Polish government in exile and all its agendas in Poland. Soviet repressions aimed at former members of the Polish Secret State and the Armia Krajowa lasted well into the 1960s.

ee also

* Anti-Polonism

Book references:

English language

* Norman Davies, Rising '44: The Battle for Warsaw. Viking Books, 2004. ISBN 0-670-03284-0. Hardcover, 784 pages.
* Jan Karski, Story of a Secret State. Simon Publications, 2001. ISBN 1-931541-39-6. Paperback, 391 pages.
* Zbigniew Stypulkowski, "Invitation to Moscow", 1950,1951.

Polish language

* Waldemar Strzałkowski, Andrzej Krzysztof Kunert, Andrzej Chmielarz, Proces Szesnastu. Dokumenty NKWD. Oficyna Wydawnicza RYTM, Warsaw, 1995. ISBN 83-86678-07-0. Paperback, 543 pages.
* Eugeniusz Duraczyński, Generał Iwanow zaprasza. Przywódcy podziemnego państwa polskiego przed sądem moskiewskim. Warsaw, Wydawnictwo ALFA, 1989. ISBN 83-7001-305-8

External links

* [http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~antora/WYDAW/TRIAL/TRIAL.htm The Moscow Trial of the 16 Polish Leaders]