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:

• 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, printing machines and weapons
• propaganda against the Soviet Union
• membership of underground organisation

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

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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Minister of Internal Affairs - Adam Bień - 5 years
4. Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs - Stanislaw Jasiukowicz - 5 years
5. 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
6. Deputy head of the Council of National Unity and head of the Stronnictwo Narodowe party - Aleksander Zwierzyński - 8 months
7. Member of the Council of National Unity, - Kazimierz Bagiński - 1 year, later released and forced to emigrate to the USA
8. Member of the Council of National Unity, Head of Zjednoczenie Demokratyczne- Eugeniusz Czarnowski - 6 months
9. Member of the Council of National Unity, Head of Stronnictwo Pracy - Józef Chaciński - 4 months
10. Member of the Council of National Unity, - Stanisław Mierzwa - 4 months
11. Member of the Council of National Unity, - Zbigniew Stypułkowski - 4 months, later released and forced to emigrate to the United Kingdom
12. Member of the Council of National Unity,- Feliks Urbański - 4 months
13. Member of the Council of National Unity, - Stanisław Michałowski - acquitted of all the charges
14. Member of the Council of National Unity, - Kazimierz Kobylański - acquitted of all the charges
15. Member of the Council of National Unity, interpreter for the group, -Józef Stemler - acquitted of all the charges
16. 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

• Anti-Polonism
• Western betrayal

References

1. Prazmowska, A. (2004) Civil war in Poland, 1942-1948 Palgrave ISBN 0-333-98212-6 Page 115
2. Malcher, G.C. (1993) Blank Pages Pyrford Press ISBN 1 897984 00 6 Page 73
3. Mikolajczyk, S. (1948) The pattern of Soviet domination Sampson Low, Marston & Co Page 125
4. Garlinski, J.(1985) Poland in the Second World War Macmillan ISBN 0-333-39258-2 Page 324
5. Prazmowska, A. (2004) Civil war in Poland, 1942-1948 Palgrave ISBN 0-333-98212-6 Page 116
6. Michta, A. (1990) Red Eagle Stanford University ISBN 0-8179-8862-9 Page 39
7. Garlinski, J.(1985) Poland in the Second World War Macmillan ISBN 0-333-39258-2 Page 325-326
8. Umiastowski, R. (1946) Poland, Russia and Great Britain 1941-1945 Hollis & Carter Pages 462-464
9. Piesakowski, T. (1990) The fate of Poles in the USSR 1939~1989 Gryf Pages 198-199
10. Garlinski, J.(1985) Poland in the Second World War Macmillan ISBN 0-333-39258-2 Page 335
11. Garlinski, J.(1985) Poland in the Second World War Macmillan ISBN 0-333-39258-2 Page 336
12. Umiastowski, R. (1946) Poland, Russia and Great Britain 1941-1945 Hollis & Carter Pages 467-468
13. Prazmowska, A. (2004) Civil war in Poland, 1942-1948 Palgrave ISBN 0-333-98212-6 Page 117
14. Umiastowski, R. (1946) Poland, Russia and Great Britain 1941-1945 Hollis & Carter Pages 465-471
15. Mikolajczyk, S. (1948) The pattern of Soviet domination Sampson Low, Marston & Co Page 145
16. Davies, N. Europe at War Pan Books ISBN 978-0-330-35212-3 Page 195
17. 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

• 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

• The Moscow Trial of the 16 Polish Leaders