Katyn Massacre – Basic Facts
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Adam Brzechwa-Ajdukiewicz – Ostatni Dowódca 26 Dywizji Piechoty
ACTA UNIVERSITATIS LODZIENSIS FOLIA HISTORICA 105, 2019 http://dx.doi.org/10.18778/0208-6050.105.07 Konrad A. Czernielewski (Muzeum Tradycji Niepodległościowych w Łodzi)* https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7072-4678 Adam Brzechwa-Ajdukiewicz – ostatni dowódca 26 Dywizji Piechoty Streszczenie. Autor przedstawił postać pułkownika Adama Brzechwy-Ajdukiewicza oraz przebieg jego kariery wojskowej w latach 1914–1939. Adam Ajdukiewicz urodził się w 1894 r. w majątku Komorniki pod Krakowem. Studiował na Politechnice we Lwowie. Był członkiem nie- podległościowych organizacji konspiracyjnych. W 1914 r. został żołnierzem Legionów Polskich Józefa Piłsudskiego – był m.in. dowódcą kompanii karabinów maszynowych 4 pułku piechoty Legionów. Po kryzysie przysięgowym wcielony został do armii austro-węgierskiej. W listopadzie 1918 r. wstąpił do Wojska Polskiego – brał udział w obronie Lwowa. Ukończył Szkołę Sztabu Gene- ralnego. W armii polskiej pełnił wiele ważnych stanowisk, a zwieńczeniem jego kariery wojskowej było stanowisko dowódcy 26 Dywizji Piechoty, które objął w marcu 1938 r. Autor opisał także krótko jej dzieje: historię jej sformowania, tradycje bojowe pułków i miejsca dyslokacji. W ostat- niej części artykułu omówiono walki dywizji we wrześniu 1939 r., szczególną uwagę poświęcając bitwie nad Bzurą – największej bitwie 1939 r. Autor opisał działania gen. bryg. Adama Brzechwy- -Ajdukiewicza oraz jego losy po 1939 r. Generał znalazł się w niewoli, był jeńcem oflagu VIIA w Murnau. Po jego wyzwoleniu przez wojska amerykańskie został oficerem w 7 Dywizji Piechoty, następnie zastępcą dowódcy Jednostek Wojskowych na Środkowym Wschodzie. Od 1947 r. służył w Polskim Korpusie Przysposobienia i Rozmieszczenia. Po demobilizacji zamieszkał w Londynie. Zmarł 6 czerwca 1954 r. Pochowany został na cmentarzu Kensal Green w Londynie. -
Degradation, Restitution and the Elusive Culture of Rural-Urban Thinking
Degradation, restitution and the elusive culture of rural-urban thinking MIREK DYMITROW Dymitrow, Mirek (2017). Degradation, restitution and the elusive culture of rural-urban thinking. Fennia 195: 1, pp. 36–60. ISSN 1798-5617. Despite fierce criticisms, ‘rural’ and ‘urban’ still constitute powerful narratives around which we structure our society. The ‘formal reality’, however, frequently disregards the cultural nature of these concepts, elevating them to the role of objective spaces apt to serve as acceptable guiding perspectives. While the analytical inadequacy of rural-urban ideations is well-documented, the phenomenon of formal-cultural conflation remains much less explored. Acknowledging that ideational space of social representations can only exist through the practices of discursive interaction, this paper’s objective is to lay bare the phenomenon of rural-urban thinking when externalized through the little-known practices of ‘degradation’ and ‘restitution’ in Poland. Using conceptual methods, including discourse analysis and historical deconstruction, this paper assays the hidden architectures of formal-cultural conflation by means of a richly contextualized analysis. The findings, presented in four discursive openings, reveal embedded elements of hierarchy, loss, injustice and self-victimization, which may create a divisive culture spawned by elusive promises of development at the cost of misinterpretations of history, local disappointment and cultural segmentation. In conclusion, formal appropriation of historical concepts is likely to engender a cultural geography of discord spun around a largely insignificant division, especially when development-oriented aspects of urbanization become entwined with emotional issues. Keywords: rural-urban, cultural-formal, degradation, restitution, discourse analysis, Poland Mirek Dymitrow, Department of Economy and Society, Human Geography Unit, School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, P.O. -
State-Sponsored Violence in the Soviet Union: Skeletal Trauma and Burial Organization in a Post-World War Ii Lithuanian Sample
STATE-SPONSORED VIOLENCE IN THE SOVIET UNION: SKELETAL TRAUMA AND BURIAL ORGANIZATION IN A POST-WORLD WAR II LITHUANIAN SAMPLE By Catherine Elizabeth Bird A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Anthropology- Doctor of Philosophy 2013 ABSTRACT STATE-SPONSORED VIOLENCE IN THE SOVIET UNION: SKELETAL TRAUMA AND BURIAL ORGANIZATION IN A POST WORLD WAR II LITHUANIAN SAMPLE By Catherine Elizabeth Bird The Stalinist period represented one of the worst eras of human rights abuse in the Soviet Union. This dissertation investigates both the victims and perpetrators of violence in the Soviet Union during the Stalinist period through a site specific and regional evaluation of burial treatment and perimortem trauma. Specifically, it compares burial treatment and perimortem trauma in a sample (n = 155) of prisoners executed in the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (L.S.S.R.) by the Soviet security apparatus from 1944 to 1947, known as the Tuskulenai case. Skeletal and mortuary variables are compared both over time and between security personnel in the Tuskulenai case. However, the Tuskulenai case does not represent an isolated event. Numerous other sites of state-sponsored violence are well known. In order to understand the temporal and geographical distribution of Soviet violence, this study subsequently compares burial treatment and perimortem trauma observed in the Tuskulenai case to data published in site reports for three other cases of Soviet state-sponsored violence (Vinnytsia, Katyn, and Rainiai). This dissertation discusses state-sponsored violence in the Soviet Union in the context of social and political theory advocated by Max Weber and within a principal-agent framework. -
Katyn Massacre
Katyn massacre This article is about the 1940 massacre of Polish officers The Katyn massacre, also known as the Katyn Forest massacre (Polish: zbrodnia katyńska, 'Katyń crime'), was a mass murder of thousands of Polish military officers, policemen, intellectuals and civilian prisoners of war by Soviet NKVD, based on a proposal from Lavrentiy Beria to execute all members of the Polish Officer Corps. Dated March 5, 1940, this official document was then approved (signed) by the entire Soviet Politburo including Joseph Stalin and Beria. The number of victims is estimated at about 22,000, the most commonly cited number being 21,768. The victims were murdered in the Katyn Forest in Russia, the Kalinin (Tver) and Kharkov prisons and elsewhere. About 8,000 were officers taken prisoner during the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland, the rest being Poles arrested for allegedly being "intelligence agents, gendarmes, saboteurs, landowners, factory owners, lawyers, priests, and officials." Since Poland's conscription system required every unexempted university graduate to become a reserve officer, the Soviets were able to round up much of the Polish intelligentsia, and the Jewish, Ukrainian, Georgian and Belarusian intelligentsia of Polish citizenship. The "Katyn massacre" refers to the massacre at Katyn Forest, near Katyn-Kharkiv-Mednoye the villages of Katyn and Gnezdovo (ca. 19 km west of Smolensk, memorial Russia), of Polish military officers in the Kozelsk prisoner-of-war camp. This was the largest of the simultaneous executions of prisoners of war from geographically distant Starobelsk and Ostashkov camps, and the executions of political prisoners from West Belarus and West Ukraine, shot on Stalin's orders at Katyn Forest, at the NKVD headquarters in Smolensk, at a Smolensk slaughterhouse, and at prisons in Kalinin (Tver), Kharkov, Moscow, and other Soviet cities. -
KH2017 Ang1-III.Kmd
Kwartalnik Historyczny Vol. CXXIV, 2017 Eng.-Language Edition no. 1 PL ISSN 0023-5903 Hans-Jürgen Bömelburg, Edmund Kizik, Altes Reich und Alte Repub- lik. Deutsch-polnische Beziehungen und Verflechtungen 1500–1806, Darm- stadt, 2014, WBG Verlag, 214 pp., WBG Deutsch-Polnische Geschich- te, Bd. 2 This work by two historians from Poland and Germany looks at the bilateral relations between Poland and Germany in the early modern period. Aimed to fill a gap in the publishing market, it presents a comparative synthesis of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Republic) and the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation (Reich). Written in German, it is targeted mainly at the German reader. However, Polish readers will also find it very informative. The chronological boundaries of 1500–1806 are rather loose. Considering the history of Poland,the year 1500 is symbolic and stands for two other dates: 1493, when the first bicameral Sejm was summoned, and 1505 when the Nihil Novi constitution (law) was passed. For the German States, the boundary of the year 1500 is even less explicit, although the authors emphasize the historical significance of the beginnings of capitalist forms of production in the German territories. The end date, the year 1806, marks the collapse of the German Reich. The year 1795, the date of the Third Partition of Poland, would be probably more appropriate for the Commonwealth. The geographical area under consideration is marked by the German Reich, the territories settled by the German speaking population, such as Ducal Prussia and Livonia, and many cities in the Polish Crown largely populated by Germans, especially Danzig (Gdańsk), Thorn (Toruń) and Elbing (Elbląg) on one side,and the Commonwealth of the Two Nations, extended by the areas populated by speakers of Polish (that is, Ducal Prussia and parts of Silesia) on the other. -
Death at KATYN
) ' ..... 1 IJ DEATH AT- KATYN DEAtH AT KATYN Published by NATIONAL COMMITTEE of AMERICANS of POLISH DESCENT 105 EAST 22ND STREET NEW YORK, N. Y. Printed in U.S.A. I THE GRAYES OF KATYN The wooded region lying around Kosgory. near Smo MAGNA EST VERITAS ET PRAEVALEBIT lensk, j.s known to the local population as the Katyn This bookl~t is composed of two parts. The first is a Forest. Today this forest-land in one vast cemetery. In mass graves, piled systematically layer on layer, lie the resume of all the facts so far available which bear on the bodies of thousands of Polish officers captured by the massacre of thousands of officers, flower of the Polish Soviet Army in the autumn of 1939. More than 3,000 of Army, whose murdered bodies were found lying in mass these bodies have already been disinterred, and there is graves near Smolensk, in the spring of 1943. The second reason to believe that the total number may exceed section is the personal narrative of a P'blish officer who 8,000. These men who, as prisoners of war, wer.e under by good fortune escaped the fate of his comrades-in-arms. the protection of the provisions of the Hague Conven tion and of the enactments of the Geneva agreements, The Publishers. were murdered in cold blood. one by one, by a single shot accurately fired into the base of the skull. Who Murdered The Polish Officers? For more than a year the question of who is responsible for this mass murder at Katyn has been the subject of controversy in the press of the world. -
The Crime of Genocide Committed Against the Poles by the USSR Before and During World War II: an International Legal Study, 45 Case W
Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law Volume 45 | Issue 3 2012 The rC ime of Genocide Committed against the Poles by the USSR before and during World War II: An International Legal Study Karol Karski Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/jil Part of the International Law Commons Recommended Citation Karol Karski, The Crime of Genocide Committed against the Poles by the USSR before and during World War II: An International Legal Study, 45 Case W. Res. J. Int'l L. 703 (2013) Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/jil/vol45/iss3/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Journals at Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law by an authorized administrator of Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons. Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law Volume 45 Spring 2013 Issue 3 The Crime of Genocide Committed Against the Poles by the USSR Before and During WWII: An International Legal Study Karol Karski Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law·Vol. 45·2013 The Crime of Genocide Committed Against the Poles The Crime of Genocide Committed Against the Poles by the USSR Before and During World War II: An International Legal Study Karol Karski* The USSR’s genocidal activity against the Polish nation started before World War II. For instance, during the NKVD’s “Polish operation” of 1937 and 1938, the Communist regime exterminated about 85,000 Poles living at that time on the pre- war territory of the USSR. -
New Security Architecture’ in Europe: a Critical Examination of the Concept
Russia and its ‘New Security Architecture’ in Europe: A Critical Examination of the Concept CEPS Working Document No. 310/February 2009 Andrey S. Makarychev Abstract The paper first summarises Russia’s present critique of the international security architecture and its aspiration to build something new and better. The author then presents a matrix of four models of international society as a framework within which to try and discern what Russia may be seeking. While it is clear that Russia objects to one of these models, that of a unipolar US-led world, its current foreign policy discourse and actions offer no clear guidance as to what its aims are in this regard, as there are confusions and contradictions in the different elements of official Russian discourse. CEPS Working Documents are intended to give an indication of work being conducted within CEPS research programmes and to stimulate reactions from other experts in the field. Unless otherwise indicated, the views expressed are attributable only to the author in a personal capacity and not to any institution with which he is associated. ISBN 978-92-9079-852-1 Available for free downloading from the CEPS website (http://www.ceps.eu) © Centre for European Policy Studies, 2009 Contents Russia’s critique of the existing security architecture and the search for a new one .................... 1 Four models of international society............................................................................................. 4 Russia and the four models ........................................................................................................ -
The Katyn Massacre: Cover-Up, Suppression, and the Politics of War, from an American Perspective Joe Grundhoefer
Hamline University DigitalCommons@Hamline Departmental Honors Projects College of Liberal Arts Spring 2017 The Katyn Massacre: Cover-up, Suppression, and the Politics of War, From an American Perspective Joe Grundhoefer Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.hamline.edu/dhp Part of the American Politics Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Grundhoefer, Joe, "The Katyn Massacre: Cover-up, Suppression, and the Politics of War, From an American Perspective" (2017). Departmental Honors Projects. 64. https://digitalcommons.hamline.edu/dhp/64 This Honors Project is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Liberal Arts at DigitalCommons@Hamline. It has been accepted for inclusion in Departmental Honors Projects by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Hamline. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. The Katyn Massacre: Cover-up, Suppression, and the Politics of War, From an American Perspective By Joseph M. Grundhoefer An Honors Thesis Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for graduation with honors in History from Hamline University April 2017 Abstract In the spring of 1940, roughly twenty two thousand Polish officers, the cream of Poland’s intelligentsia, were executed in Katyn forest. While the Soviet Union blamed Nazi Germany for the massacre, in the past seventy years all gathered evidence including documents from the Soviet archives, point out to the Soviet Union as responsible for the killings. However, the British and American governments, who had knowledge of the Katyn Massacre, were engaged in a suppression of the truth, during the war and into the early years of the Cold War, even while they confronted the Soviet Union over Poland’s independence. -
Biuro Polityczne WKP
5 marca 1940 r. - Biuro Polityczne WKP (b) [Wszechzwiązkowej Komunistycznej Partii (bolszewików)] podjęło decyzję o rozstrzelaniu polskich jeńców wojennych z obozów w Kozielsku, Starobielsku i Ostaszkowie oraz więźniów, przetrzymywanych w więzieniach tzw. Zachodniej Ukrainy i Zachodniej Białorusi. Dokonana na podstawie tej decyzji masowa egzekucja obywateli polskich określana jest umowną nazwą „Zbrodni Katyńskiej”. Do chwili ujawnienia sowieckich dokumentów dotyczących losów polskich jeńców wojennych w ZSRR po 17 września 1939 r., tj. do początku lat dziewięćdziesiątych ubiegłego stulecia, pod pojęciem „Zbrodnia Katyńska” rozumiano wymordowanie przez organy represyjne ZSRR jeńców z obozów w Kozielsku, Starobielsku i Ostaszkowie. Przy czym znany był tylko los jeńców z Kozielska, rozstrzelanych, jak wyszło na jaw w 1943 r., w Katyniu. Wśród wspomnianych dokumentów sowieckich znajdował się dokument o kluczowym znaczeniu – decyzja Biura Politycznego WKP (b) z 5 marca 1940 r., z której wynikało że zakres pojęciowy pojęcia „Zbrodnia Katyńska” należy rozszerzyć. 5 marca 1940 r. Biuro Polityczne WKP (b) podjęło bowiem decyzję nie tylko o rozstrzelaniu 14, 5 tys. polskich jeńców wojennych z trzech, wyżej wymienionych obozów, ale także 11 tys. osób cywilnych – więźniów, przetrzymywanych w więzieniach tzw. Zachodniej Białorusi i Zachodniej Ukrainy. Kolejne dokumenty pozwoliły stwierdzić, że w rzeczywistości liczba rozstrzelanych więźniów była mniejsza i wyniosła 7 305 osób. Ostatecznie więc ofiarą „Zbrodni Katyńskiej”, w jej nowym, rozszerzonym rozumieniu, padło łącznie ponad 21 tys. obywateli polskich. Jak doszło do podjęcia decyzji z 5 marca 1940 r. ? Po zakończeniu niewypowiedzianej wojny z Polską w sowieckich obozach jenieckich znalazło się ok. 125 tys. polskich jeńców. Obozy te były nadzorowane przez specjalnie do tego celu powołany Zarząd ds. Jeńców Wojennych NKWD ZSRR (szefował mu mjr NKWD Piotr Soprunienko). -
1 Kurów, 10 Kwietnia 2016 R. Ekscelencjo Czcigodny Ks. Biskupie ! Czcigodni Księża ! Dostojni Goście! Szanowni Państwo !
Kurów, 10 kwietnia 2016 r. Ekscelencjo Czcigodny Ks. Biskupie ! Czcigodni Księża ! Dostojni Goście! Szanowni Państwo ! Tragiczne wydarzenia rozpoczął zbrodniczy pakt Ribbentrop -Mołotow /23.08.1939/ zawarty między faszystowskimi Niemcami Hitlera, a sowiecką Rosją Stalina. Doprowadził on do /niemieckiej 1.09.1939 i sowieckiej 17.09.1939/ agresji na Polskę – wywołując II wojnę światową. /Już w pierwszych dniach agresji sowieci zamordowali 25 – 30 tys. żołnierzy, policjantów, urzędników i cywilów/. W wigilię Bożego Narodzenia 1939 r. wywieziono w nieznane miejsce i zamordowano blisko 200 kapelanów. Z 9/10 lutego rozpoczęły się deportacje na Syberię. Do niewoli sowieckiej dostało się ponad 250 tys. oficerów i żołnierzy polskich /10 generałów, 55 pułkowników, 126 podpułkowników 5131 oficerów niższego stopnia /majorów - 316, kapitanów- 843, poruczników/ 4096 podoficerów i 181223 szeregowców/. Ponad 14 tys. oficerów umieszczono w obozach w Kozielsku /Rosja/ ok. 4,5 tys., Starobielsku /Ukraina/ ok. 3910 i Ostaszkowie /Rosja/ok. 6,5 tys. Natomiast ok. 7 tys. polskich obywateli: /urzędników, ziemian, nauczycieli, sędziów, prokuratorów, policjantów po aresztowaniu na terenach wschodnich Rzeczypospolitej zajętych przez Armię Czerwoną/ osadzono w innych więzieniach. Dnia 5.03.1940 r. władze sowieckie podjęły zbrodniczą decyzję o rozstrzelaniu 21.857 polskich jeńców /ponad 20% polskiej kadry oficerskiej w 97% narodowości polskiej/. Zbrodni dokonano w: - Katyniu /pod Smoleńskiem (Rosja) gdzie obecnie jest cmentarz/ wymordowano 4410 jeńców z obozu kozielskiego od 3.04.- 12.05.1940 r. /Zginęli tam: kontradmirał Ksawery Czernicki, generałowie: Bronisław Bochatyrewicz, Henryk Minkiewicz i Mieczysław Smorawiński. Jedyna kobieta, która zginęła w Katyniu ppor. rez. Janina Lewandowska (32 lata), córka gen. Józefa Dowbór-Muśnickiego organizatora i dowódcy I Korpusu Polskiego w Rosji (1917-1918), dowódcy zwycięskiego Powstania Wielkopolskiego z 27 XII-1918 r./. -
By Wayne Turner and Phil Yates
By Wayne Turner and Phil Yates UPDATED ON 12 FEB 2013 LITHUA N IA Vilnius (Wilna) S O V I E T UNION Soviet Union Invades Poland 17 September 1939. E A S T PRUSSIA Szczuczyn BELORUSSIAN FRONT ARMY GROUP NORTH er Białystok Narew Riv NAREW THIRD GROUP ARMY (Part) P ripy POL A ND at River FOURTH B ug German-Soviet Border Pinsk ARMY MODLIN Rive & NAREW r negotiated under the Modlin GROUP Molotov-Ribbentropp Legionowo (Part) Pact. Kampinos Sieraków Siedlce Surrendered T M A R S H Forest Brześć P Y A E S WARSAW 14 Sept. R I Brochów P V i st ul a Łódź Ri ver Wytyczno Włodowa EIGHTH Mielniki ARMY Szack Lublin Piotrków Radom 5 Surrendered SEPT EM 11 Sept. Trawniki B Chełm Kowel ER KRAKOW TENTH ARMY Sandomierz ARMY (Remnants) Częstochowa Tomaszów- San River Lubelski CARPATHIAN UKRAINIAN ARMY ARMY GROUP (Remnants) FRONT SOUTH Lvov Tarnopol Kraków Przemyśl Niepołomice FOURTEENTH D n ARMY ie ste C A R P A T H I r R A N iver M O 18 CORPS U N T A I N S Tartar Pass S LOV A K IA 0 Miles 50 100 150 0 KM 50 100 150 200 Ro MA N IA 2012 has been a very busy year for Battlefront and Flames Of War, so busy in fact that we won’t have an Early-war book coming out this year. However, more Early-war books are in the pipeline, and with the next couple of books the focus moves east. We thought we’d give you a sneak peek at what we have in store for you next year.