Being a Pole is a crime

Historians - about the "Polish operation" of the NKVD in the years of large terror

On the 80th anniversary of one of the largest "national operations" conducted in the USSR during the years of large terror-the "Polish operation" of the NKVD-an exhibition dedicated to the repressed Poles opened in the Polish consulate in St. Petersburg.

The Center for the Polish-Russian Dialogue and Consent, together with the Institute of National Memory, prepared the educational portal www.operacja-polska.pl and the bilingual Polish-Russian database "Victims of the Antipolsky Political Terror in the USSR in 1934-1938." , where more than 25 thousand biographies of Poles are collected - victims of large terror.

The "Polish operation" of the NKVD began on August 11, 1937 by order No. 00485 the People's Commissar of the Interior Yezhov. During this operation on false accusations of belonging to the Polish military organization and spy-sabotage activities in 1937-1938, at least 139,835 people were repressed, 111,091 of which were shot.

The Polish Operation NKVD began on August 11, 1937 by order of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Yezhov

We are talking about the causes and nature of the Polish Operation of the NKVD with the doctor of historical sciences, the leading researcher at the St. Petersburg Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Rupasov , the Polish historian from the city of Wroclaw, Professor Nikolai Ivanov , the author of books about the Great Terror, about Stalin, about the Polish Operation Institute of History of the University of Adam Mitskuevich. Poznani Yakub Voitkovyak and the compiler of the "Leningrad Martyrologist" Anatoly Razumov . The conversation was held as part of a meeting of historians at the Polish consulate in St. Petersburg.

-Question to Nikolai Ivanov: is the tragedy of repressed Poles something exceptional, one of a kind during the great terror?

- As one of my Ukrainian acquaintances said, to be a Pole in the USSR during the great terror, it was about the same as being a Jew in Hitler Germany. In 1937, it was extremely difficult for a Polish man to be shot or not to get into the camp. Recently, in Belarus, documents were published, telling that if a NKVD car drove up to the Polish villages in Belarus, then the entire population was hidden in the forest, knowing that they were going to kill them. Every sixth shot in 1937–38 had a record "Pole" in the passport.

Nikolai Ivanov

Then almost 20% of the Polish population of the USSR died. Yes, the Germans, Ingermanlanders, Finns were injured, but nowhere is there so many executed. In Belarus, for example, 90% of the arrested Poles were shot. Of the 140,000 arrested, 40 people justified.

During the Great Terror, to be a Poles in the USSR - it was about the same as being a Jew in Hitler Germany

Why Poles? Because Stalin had a scarecrow during the great terror, and who was suitable for this role? Germany, with which the USSR does not have a joint border, little Finland, Lithuania? No, Poland, which lost the war of 1920. Stalin never healed this wound. About 3,000 Polish communists lived in Moscow - 80 were left, the rest were shot. Stalin was convinced that the communist Pole was Trotskyist. Not a single committee was banned, they were not completely destroyed, only Polish.

- The same question is about the cause and nature of the “Polish operation” of the NKVD - to Anatoly Razumov.

- There were always repressions, but a large terror consisted of two different parallel operations: one by order 00447 - according to the peasants, according to the former fists, former parties, priests, believers, and so on, the second - according to the so -called national lines. In terms of the number of executed, the first is two -thirds with respect to the second. And among national operations, the Polish is the most bloody. The investigator received 50 rubles for each split “spy”.

- Alexander Rupasov, do you also think that the time before the Polish operation was difficult and alarming?

- In 1930–31 they were waiting for a quick war, but the two countries, which before all began the arms race, were in a losing position by the beginning of the Second World War - this is Russia and Italy. They started the race at the turn of the 20-30s and swelled gigantic funds into it-and the war did not begin, and in 1936 it became clear that it remains a few more years.

Why is the case of Tukhachevsky ? Because he was the initiator of mass collectivization - for the sake of emergency industrialization and increasing military potential. It was a political miscalculation. And the funds are catastrophically lacking, it is necessary to remove social intensity, in 1936 the Stalin Constitution is adopted, and at the same time the famous order 00447. 1936 - this is primarily the transition to Autarkia, foreign trade is curtailed, the situation at the top is heated, so that the Tukhachevsky case arises for a reason.

- If you approach the "Polish operation" close, then where did it all begin, Anatoly Yakovlevich?

They wanted to destroy the elections in the country of all unreliable, registered in the NKVD

- 1937 is the year of completion of the second five -year construction of the mechanistic construction of socialism, and it was planned that by this time the country would be freed from the remnants of the old classes, they simply will not be. So it happened. A year after the adoption of the Constitution, they were announced for the first time - not only in the USSR, but probably in the world - universal secret equal elections, and it was necessary to show the whole world of achievement - with all flights and other victories. And at this time - what friction is there! - Expectively destroyed the top of the party and the state. They wanted to destroy the elections in the country of all unreliable, registered in the NKVD. The first national order - the “German” order of the NKVD - was released on July 25, 1937, it was still simplified, but the “Polish” order was adopted on August 15 with the full development of the procedure, and on August 20 the national operation was supposed to begin - on the model of its Polish line.

-Question to Yakub Voitkovyak: do you agree with Professor Nikolai Ivanov that the Soviet punitive bodies still had special scores with the Poles?

Yakub Voitkovyak

- Most Polish historians see the anti -Polish line in a large terror, and some - and I am, among them - anti -indigenous. The percentage of the arrested and executed Estonians, Finns and Greeks was higher than the arrested and executed Poles. But statistics are not always a reliable criterion, and I emphasize that 80%were shot among the arrested Poles, and from this point of view the Poles suffered more than other nations. If every sixth of those executed during a large terror is a Pole, then the anti -Polish line is obvious, but also anti -iso -norment.

Most Polish historians see the Antipolian line in a large terror, and some are anti -indigenous

Among the members and candidates of the Politburo, the executioner Yezhov was shot, but they got rid of all foreigners. The performer of forced collectivization in Ukraine is Stanislav Kosior, a full member of the Politburo, Pole, there were Latvians there. American researcher Timothy Snyder in his book “Bloody Lands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin” wrote a very important thing - that in the USSR during the Great Terror it was 40 times more dangerous to be a Pole than any other citizen of the country. Yes, of course, most of all, 60% of the victims of the Stalinist terror are Russians, but if you compare the numbers - how many of them and others lived in the country, then the picture will be completely different.

- The question of Nikolai Ivanov: how would you determine what it is - the "Polish operation"?

- For me, this is a genocide. In general, at first there was a normal Soviet national policy. Lenin lived in Switzerland for 20 years and was fascinated by there - all national cantons have autonomy. The idea was simple-every nation of Soviet people, and now a smart Jew who rewritten the language, created writing and epic to some Caucasian mountain, found the most intelligent boy and made it the first national poet. All this happened in the 1920s, and the Poles played a more important role here-the work was headed by Polish communists. Dzerzhinsky was very actively involved in her, personally explained to the peasants, who never spoke Polish that learning to Polish is their duty.

For more than 125 years, any Russian government came and Russified Poles, and then the Soviet government suddenly comes-and makes them speak Polish! Before the war in the documents of the Polish Communists, these small republics were called "Piedmonts" - the germ of the future Poland. Imagine the first secretary in Ukraine is a Pole! We can say that the Poles played the same role for some time as Latvians-a kind of guard of Lenin. And neither those nor the others had support among their people; It is possible to convince our people about - it means that we will experiment on the body of the long -suffering Russian people.

For more than 125 years, any Russian government Russified Poles, and then the Soviet government suddenly comes-and makes them speak Polish!

Probably, here we can agree with Solzhenitsyn that 1917 is a fatal, as he writes, a fracture of the spine on the Russian people from national minorities. And then collectivization began, and after it something terrible happened-the Poles disappeared. Back in 1937, five GCB generals-Poles, in 1938-not a single one. The famous actor Yankovsky describes how his father, also a general, was kicked out, put, but fortunately not shot.

So, when Kosior reported to Stalin about the results of collectivization, he asked: what kind of white spot is this? And it turned out that, despite the Sovietization, that much more money was given there than to neighboring Ukrainian regions, there the courts and even the NKVD fought in Polish, there was their own literature, cinema, three Polish theater, radio stations - and the Poles still did not go to collective farms. But why they got so much cultural freedom - to create a core for the future community of Poland.

- Anatoly Yakovlevich, really the “Polish operation” stands out among other national operations?

Anatoly Razumov

- Yes, she was the worst. In the Leningrad region, 82 lists of Poles were compiled for Moscow - 100 people each. They were proposed to apply the highest measure - as terrorists, spies, saboteurs and pests. They followed the Estonians - 61 list, Finns - 39. It is clear that the Polish Line stands out sharply.

- Yakub Voitkovyak, what is the reason for such a special attitude towards the Poles with the Soviet leadership?

Poland was dangerous not by its strength, but by the fact that it was a bridgehead from which war could begin

- Polish historiography distinguishes two motives, the most common is the malice of Stalin after the defeat of 1920. But there is also a paranoid moment - then all the time they talked about possible coalitions to attack the USSR, but no matter what options were considered, even, led by the Japanese, Poland remained a permanent element. It was dangerous not by its strength, but by the fact that it was a bridgehead from which war could begin. It was the key to potential aggression against the USSR, so the Poles were recognized as the most dangerous national minority.

- Alexander Rupasov, do you agree with such an opinion on the reasons for hatred for the Poles?

Alexander Rupasov

- The famous Soviet envoy Raskolnikov back in 1931 wrote about the Poles that "these bastards were ready to land the landing on the shores of the Gulf of Finland and block Leningrad." He repeated this in 1933 in his report from Copenhagen.

- The question is again to Nikolai Ivanov: how did all this happen?

The first mass repressions are not 1937, but 1932, when the history of the Polish military organization began

-The first mass repressions are not 1937, but 1932, when the history of the Polish military organization began. Stalin thought: if the Poles do not go to collective farms, what will happen when the war begins? The first evictions of the Poles in 1934 were by Soviet standards so liberal that they were given a week for fees, it was possible to take seeds, cow, even gave financial assistance. And in 1937 they were recorded in the non-proper ones and were not drafted into the army, so they all survived.

The Polish operation began when Stalin realized that with the Sovietization of the Poles something was wrong. And it was an exemplary operation, then everything was done according to its model. The Orenburg region turned out to be a record holder - 98% of Poles were repressed there, about 80% in Ukraine, and in the Leningrad Region the operation was very cruel. Moreover, people did not even know why they were arrested, almost called anyone, examined the affairs in closed mode, and then led people along the corridor and suddenly shot in their heads. Families were reported about "10 years without the right to correspondence", only in 1939 they began to communicate the truth, and then not always.

The Polish operation began when Stalin realized that with the Sovietization of the Poles something wrong

Not only men were injured, but also women, and children, and old people. In the story of Galina Ekhanurova, the mother of the former Prime Minister of Ukraine, Polka, there is such a terrible episode when the father comes home from work and says: children, remember, we are no longer Poles, to be a Pole is a crime.

-The last question is to Anatoly Razumov: tell me, is Katyn's tragedy somehow connected with the Polish operation?

- Not only the Soviet Union was afraid of Poland, but Poland was afraid of the Soviet Union - and, as it turned out, not in vain. And why in 1940 Katyn happened - not even because the Polish operation shot a civilized attitude towards prisoners of war, the entire total terror led to this. Similar to the Katynsky operations of deportation of prisoners and prisons under the guise of transferring to other camps, without a mess of the convoy, were carried out - all were secretly shot, and we still have not found places of executions. Such is Katyn, ”said Anatoly Razumov , compiler of the Leningrad Martyrologist in an interview with Radio Liberty.