The
Trial of the Sixteen ( ) was a staged trial of 16 leaders of the Polish Underground State held by
the Soviet
Union
in Moscow
in
1945.
History
Some accounts say approaches were made in February with others
saying March 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 with agreement 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 27 and 28 March . Leopold
Okulicki, Jan Stanisław Jankowski and Kazimierz Pużak were arrested
on 27th with 12 more the next day. A.Zwierzynski had been arrested
earlier.
They were brought to Moscow
for
interrogation in the Lubyanka.
After several months of brutal interrogation and torture they were
presented with the forged accusations of:
The trial
took place between 18 and 21 June 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 5 May), 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 21 June 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
- Commander in Chief of the Armia
Krajowa- Leopold Okulicki
(Niedźwiadek) - 10 years in prison, may have been murdered
on Christmas Eve of 1946 but may have
died due to complications caused by hunger strike.
- Deputy Prime Minister of Poland and the Government Delegate-
Jan Stanisław Jankowski
- 8 years in prison, never released, died in a Soviet prison on 13
March 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 30 April 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
In his book,
Europe at War, Norman Davies described it
obscene but there was no official protest. 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 6 July 1945 the
United Kingdom and the USA withdrew support for the legitimate
Polish government in
exile and all its agendas in Poland. Soviet and Polish
Communist repressions aimed at former members of the
Polish Secret State and the
Armia Krajowa lasted well into the 1960s,
Józef Franczak being killed
1963.
See also
References
- Prazmowska, A. (2004) Civil war in Poland, 1942-1948
Palgrave ISBN 0-333-98212-6 Page 115
- Malcher, G.C. (1993) Blank Pages Pyrford Press ISBN 1
897984 00 6 Page 73
- Mikolajczyk, S. (1948) The pattern of Soviet
domination Sampson Low, Marston & Co Page 125
- Garlinski, J.(1985) Poland in the Second World War
Macmillan ISBN 0-333-39258-2 Page 324
- Prazmowska, A. (2004) Civil war in Poland, 1942-1948
Palgrave ISBN 0-333-98212-6 Page 116
- Michta, A. (1990) Red Eagle Stanford University ISBN
0-8179-8862-9 Page 39
- Garlinski, J.(1985) Poland in the Second World War
Macmillan ISBN 0-333-39258-2 Page 325-326
- Umiastowski, R. (1946) Poland, Russia and Great Britain
1941-1945 Hollis & Carter Pages 462-464
- Piesakowski, T. (1990) The fate of Poles in the USSR
1939~1989 Gryf Pages 198-199
- Garlinski, J.(1985) Poland in the Second World War
Macmillan ISBN 0-333-39258-2 Page 335
- Garlinski, J.(1985) Poland in the Second World War
Macmillan ISBN 0-333-39258-2 Page 336
- Umiastowski, R. (1946) Poland, Russia and Great Britain
1941-1945 Hollis & Carter Pages 467-468
- Prazmowska, A. (2004) Civil war in Poland, 1942-1948
Palgrave ISBN 0-333-98212-6 Page 117
- Umiastowski, R. (1946) Poland, Russia and Great Britain
1941-1945 Hollis & Carter Pages 465-471
- Mikolajczyk, S. (1948) The pattern of Soviet
domination Sampson Low, Marston & Co Page 145
- Davies, N. Europe at War Pan Books ISBN
978-0-330-35212-3 Page 195
- Hope, M. (2005) The Abandoned Legion Veritas ISBN
1-904639-09-7 Page 76
Further reading
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.
- Edward Raczynski,
In allied London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1962 Page 284-285,
295
- Zbigniew Stypulkowski, "Invitation to Moscow", 1950,1951.
Polish language
External links