Documenting a crime without a punishment

This is an extremely valuable and � powerful book, though not one to be read at the beach. It � consists mostly of archival documents, one after the other, though with � well-written narrative summaries between the major sections. In addition to Ms Cienciala of the US, the compilers were Natalia Lebedeva of � Russia and Wojciech Materski of Poland. Yale published the book � in its Annals of Communism series.

35,000 � military men escaped via Romania and Hungary to France in � September 1939. p.19

In the Kresy (eastern borderlands) in � 1939 there were 5,274,000 ethnic Poles, 4,529,000 Ukrainians, � 1,945,000 Belorussians, 1,109,000 Jews, 342 "others." Poles a � majority in Lwow and Wilno, Jews predominated in small towns, � ethnic minorities in the countryside. "Polish rule over national minorities was � generally heavy-handed." p.22

Families of officers and � "counterrevolutionaries" accounted for most of the deportees. � Jews about one-third. Thousands of Ukrainians and some � Belorussians also. p.24

Polish historians estimate � 230,000-240,000 Polish PWs in Russian hands, including 10,000 � officers (probably an underestimate since many concealed their � rank). Russians accounted for 8,442 in the "special camps" as of � 28 Feb 1940, of whom 2,336 were regulars, 5,456 reservists, 650 � retired. "The Red Army was simply � overwhelmed by the huge number of prisoners on its � hands." On 18 Sep 1939 (the day after � the Russian invasion!) the Politburo had decidd that the NKVD � Convoy Troops would take charge of the PWs. On 19 Sep Beria � established the Upravlenie po Delam Voennoplennykh, � Administration for PW Affairs, and set up three "special" camps � (Kozelsk, Ostashkov, Starobelsk), four labor camps, and seven � transit camps. p.26

3 Dec 1939 Politburo approved arrest � of all registered officers of the Polish army. p28

Kozelsk 250 km SE Smolensk, "an old � delapidated monastery" that included a cathedral (in which the � prisoners were lodged), an hermitage or skit (in which they were � interrogated), and some barracks, the whole known as the Maxim � Gorky Rest Home. 1 Apr 1940 contained 4,599 prisoners, mostly � officers, including four generals, an admiral, the woman pilot � Janina Lewandowska, and (by my calculations) Lt. Jerzy Deszberg. � p.29  4[4
 Š

Starobelsk 210 km SE Kharkov, a � monastery (perhaps convent) with two churches and barracks, plus � some buildings in the town. By 1 Apr 1940 down to 3,893 including � highest-ranking officers (eight generals) plus reserve officers � including university professors, doctors, engineers, lawyers, � teachers, poets! p.30

About sixty � Starobelsk officers including Col Zygmunt Berling chosen to � survivew after NKVD interrogation showed them willing to serve in � Red Army or to stay in USSR rather than return home. p34

20 Feb 1940: NKVD Major Pytor � Soprunenko memoed Beria suggesting that 300 sick officers at � Kozelsk and Starobelsk be sent home, along with invalids and men � over sixty, and 400-500 reserve officers who were farmers, � engineers, teachers etc. p38

Note to Polish ambassador 17 Sep � 1939: "In view of this state of affairs, � the Soviet government has directed the High Command of the Red � Army to order troops to cross the frontier and to take under � their protection the lives and property of the population of � Western Ukraine and Western Belorussia"--i.e., eastern Poland. p.44

23 Oct 1939 Soprunenko directive � gives the scope of the men to be destroyed: "professors, journalists, physicians, artists, � and other specialists being detained in the Putivl camp, who � served in the Polish Army as officers, as well as intelligence � agents, counterintelligence agents, gendarmes, police, � provocateurs, prominent military and state officials, secret � agents of the police and the counterintelligence, active figures � in anti-Soviet political parties and organizations, landowners, � and princes ... that are discovered among the specialists are � subject to detainment in the camp." � pp75-76

7 Mar 1940, Beria to Soprunenko, � order 886/b: "Organize the compilation � of precise lists of those former Polish officers, police, � gendarmes, prison guards, over and covert police agents, former � landowners, manufacturers, and prominent officials of the former � Polish state aparatus now being held in the prisoner-of-war � camps.... The lists must specify the composition of the family of � each prisoner of war and their exact address. Members of the � family are considered to be the wife and children, as well as � parents, brothers, and sisters if they reside with the family of � the prisoner of war." pp149-150

20 Mar 1940, Beria to Senior Major � Semyon Burdakov, People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the � Kazakh SSR, order 1042/b: "Twenty-five  4’4
�Šthousand families of repressed former � officers of the Polish Army, police, prison guards, gendarmes, � intelligence agents, former landowners, manufacturers, and � prominent officials of the former Polish state aparatus being � held in prisoner-of-war camps are � subject to deportation from [eastern Poland] to the northern � oblasts of the Kazakh SSR for a term of ten years.
    "The indicative number of these � family members is approximately 75,000-100,000 people." p.153 (On p.152, editors say without explanation � that this order "led to the deportation of of 66,000 people".)

Secret resolution 1180/b, 10 Apr � 1940: "The USSR Council of People's � Commissars hereby resolves:
    "1. To approve the instruction � submitted by the USSR NKVD for deportations from [eastern � Poland]:
    "a) of the families of former � officers of the Polish Army, police, prison guards, gendarmes, � intelligence agents, former landowners, manufacturers, officials � of the former Polish state apparatus, and participants in c.r. � [counter-revolutionary] insurgent organizatons being held in � prisoner-of-war camps and prisons;
    "b) of refugees from [western Poland � who wanted to return home] but have not been accepted by the � German government.
    "c) of prostitutes previously � registered ... who continue to engage in prostitution.
    "2. To � instruct the Sovnarkom [Council of People's Commissars] of the � Kazakh SSR to take the necessary measures to relocate the � families enumerated in point 1-a, numbering 22,000-35,000 � families in the northern oblasts of the Kazakh SSR, and to secure � their living conditions and labor utilization.
    "3. To obligate the NKPS [People's � Commissariat of Communicatons] to provide for the conveyance of � deported persons, eighty-one echelons of fifty-five train cars � each, to the railroad stations of [eastern Poland]...." pp171-172

10 Apr 1940, 497-177 ss: "The � dispatch of the deportees to their place of resettlement shall be � carried out in echelons of fifty-five railcars each, equipped for � human transport (including one passenger car for the guard, one � equipped medical isolation car[!], and a shop car). Each car � shall accommodate thirty[!] adults and children and their � belongings. For bulky items, four freight cars shall be assigned � to each echelon." p.173

22 Apr 1940, 25/3429, with respect to � the transports of PWs for execution: "The overwhelming majority of officer POWs are � certain they are going home. In � connection with which a mood has been noticed to get going as � quickly as possible, and they are turning to the camp  4É4
�Šadministration [with requests] to be included in the next � transport for departure." p181

Fall 1940, Beria and Merkulov � selected small group of pro-Soviet officers under Col Zygmunt � Berling to draw up plans for a Polish division within the Red � Army. p207

Stalin to Molotov, 24 May 1944: stop � insisting on British recognition of the 1940 frontiers: "The question of our frontiers, or to be exact, � of guarantees for the security of our frontiers at one or another � section of our country, will be decided by force." p.213

Russian Memorial Society June 2006 � was cataloging 800 Stalinist execution sites and had found Polish � remains in all of them. p259

26 Oct 1940, Beria ordered bonuses of � two months' pay for officers and noncoms, and 800 rubles for � other ranks, totaling 125 NKVD personnel, "For the successful � carrying out of special assignments"--i.e. shooting the Poles. � pp.272-275.

"Former POWs of the Polish Army" in � NKVD camps, Soprununko 3 Dec 1941: 130,242. p285 (Polish � historians calculate the number as 240,000-250,000 including � 10,000 officers. p516)

Polish account of Stalin's � conversation with Anders and Sikorski, 3 Dec 1941: Stalin said, � "I understand. England needs the Polish troops. England is our � ally. So go ahead!" p296

German radio broadcast, 13 Apr 1943: � "The discovery of and search for further grave pits is taking � place. The total figure of the murdered officers is estimated at � 10,000, which would more or less correspond to the entire number � of Polish officers taken as prisoners by the Bolsheviks." p.306

Kolzesk camp 1 Apr 1940 contained � 4,599 prisoners, all but a hundred or so of them being officers. � p.381