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partial revert. Undo WP:TEND edits and misrepresentation of sources. Use talk please
Undid revision 899191005 by Volunteer Marek (talk) WP:UCR, NPOV, WP:BLPREMOVE - if you attribute something to a BLP scholar, you'd better attribute it correctly. Ellman quite clearly states that there is no authoritative ruling here.
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| caption = [[Nikolai Yezhov|Yezhov]] and Stalin, USSR, 1937
| caption = [[Nikolai Yezhov|Yezhov]] and Stalin, USSR, 1937
| location = {{flag|Soviet Union|1936}}, modern-day [[Russia]], [[Ukraine]], [[Belarus]], [[Kazakhstan]] and others
| location = {{flag|Soviet Union|1936}}, modern-day [[Russia]], [[Ukraine]], [[Belarus]], [[Kazakhstan]] and others
| target = [[Poles]]
| target = [[Poles]] and others
| date = 1937–1938
| date = 1937–1938
| type = [[Genocidal massacre]]<br>[[Ethnic cleansing]]<br>Prison shootings
| type = [[Ethnic cleansing]]<br>Prison shootings
| fatalities = + / - 111,091
| fatalities = + / - 111,091
| perps = [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] [[NKVD]]
| perps = [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] [[NKVD]]
| weapons =
| weapons =
}}
}}
The '''''Polish Operation''''' of the [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] [[NKVD|security service]] in 1937–1938 was a [[Mass operations of the NKVD|mass operation of the NKVD]] carried out in the [[Soviet Union]] against [[Poles]] (labeled by the Soviets as "agents") during the period of the [[Great Purge]]. It was ordered by the [[Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Politburo]] against the so-called "Polish spies" and customarily interpreted by the [[NKVD]] officials as relating to 'absolutely all Poles'. It resulted in the sentencing of 139,835 people, and summary executions of 111,091 Poles.<ref name="Gellately-Kiernan"/><ref name="Goldman2011-217">{{cite book |author=Wendy Z. Goldman |year=2011 |url=https://books.google.ca/books?id=D0_HYK8R-8IC&pg=PA217#v=onepage&q=%22NKVD%20units%20interpreted%20the%20order%20as%20sanctioning%20the%20arrest%22%20%22of%20absolutely%20all%20Poles%22 |title=Inventing the Enemy: Denunciation and Terror in Stalin's Russia |location=New York |publisher=Cambridge University Press |ISBN=978-0-521-19196-8 |page=217}}</ref> The operation was implemented according to [[NKVD Order № 00485]] signed by Nikolai Yezhov.<ref name="Russian1" /> The majority of the shooting victims were ethnically Polish,<ref name="rp.pl"/> but not all, wrote [[Timothy Snyder]].<ref name="Snyder2010-103">{{cite book |last=Timothy Snyder |year=2010 |url=https://books.google.ca/books?id=ZCP6WKJwVr8C&lpg=PA103&dq=%22The%20Polish%20operation%20was%20in%20some%20respects%20the%20bloodiest%22&pg=PA103#v=onepage&q=%22The%20Polish%20operation%20was%20in%20some%20respects%20the%20bloodiest%22&f=false |title=Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin |location=New York |publisher=Basic Books |ISBN=978-0-465-00239-9 |pages=103–104}}</ref> The remainder were 'suspected' of being Polish, without further inquiry,<ref name="Russian1">{{cite web |url=http://www.memo.ru/history/POLAcy/00485ART.htm |script-title="Польская операция" НКВД 1937–1938 гг. |title="Polish Operation" of the NKVD, 1937-1938. |publisher=НИПЦ «Мемориал» |accessdate=May 27, 2012 |author=Н.В.Петров, А.Б.Рогинский |quote=''Original title:'' О фашистско-повстанческой, шпионской, диверсионной, пораженческой и террористической деятельности польской разведки в СССР |language=Russian}}</ref> or classed as possibly having pro-Polish sympathies.<ref name="nybooks-1">{{cite web |url=http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2011/jan/27/hitler-vs-stalin-who-was-worse/ |title=Hitler vs. Stalin: Who Was Worse? |publisher=The New York Review of Books |date=January 27, 2011 |accessdate=June 12, 2012 |author=[[Timothy Snyder]] |page=1, paragraph #7}}</ref> In order to speed up the process the NKVD personnel reviewed local telephone books and arrested persons with Polish-sounding names.<ref>{{cite journal |publisher=The New York Times Book Review |title=Bloodlands - Europe Between Hitler and Stalin - By Timothy Snyder |author=Joshua Rubenstein |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/books/review/Rubenstein-t.html |date=November 26, 2010}}</ref>
The '''''Polish Operation''''' of the [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] [[NKVD|security service]] in 1937–1938 was a [[Mass operations of the NKVD|mass operation of the NKVD]] carried out in the [[Soviet Union]] against [[Poles]] (labeled by the Soviets as "agents") during the period of the [[Great Purge]]. It was ordered by the [[Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Politburo]] against the so-called "Polish spies". It resulted in the sentencing of 139,835 people, and summary executions of 111,091 Poles and others.<ref name="Gellately-Kiernan"/><ref name="Goldman2011-217">{{cite book |author=Wendy Z. Goldman |year=2011 |url=https://books.google.ca/books?id=D0_HYK8R-8IC&pg=PA217#v=onepage&q=%22NKVD%20units%20interpreted%20the%20order%20as%20sanctioning%20the%20arrest%22%20%22of%20absolutely%20all%20Poles%22 |title=Inventing the Enemy: Denunciation and Terror in Stalin's Russia |location=New York |publisher=Cambridge University Press |ISBN=978-0-521-19196-8 |page=217}}</ref> The operation was implemented according to [[NKVD Order № 00485]] signed by Nikolai Yezhov.<ref name="Russian1" /> The majority of the shooting victims were ethnically Polish,<ref name="rp.pl"/> but not all, wrote [[Timothy Snyder]].<ref name="Snyder2010-103">{{cite book |last=Timothy Snyder |year=2010 |url=https://books.google.ca/books?id=ZCP6WKJwVr8C&lpg=PA103&dq=%22The%20Polish%20operation%20was%20in%20some%20respects%20the%20bloodiest%22&pg=PA103#v=onepage&q=%22The%20Polish%20operation%20was%20in%20some%20respects%20the%20bloodiest%22&f=false |title=Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin |location=New York |publisher=Basic Books |ISBN=978-0-465-00239-9 |pages=103–104}}</ref> The remainder were 'suspected' of being Polish, without further inquiry,<ref name="Russian1">{{cite web |url=http://www.memo.ru/history/POLAcy/00485ART.htm |script-title="Польская операция" НКВД 1937–1938 гг. |title="Polish Operation" of the NKVD, 1937-1938. |publisher=НИПЦ «Мемориал» |accessdate=May 27, 2012 |author=Н.В.Петров, А.Б.Рогинский |quote=''Original title:'' О фашистско-повстанческой, шпионской, диверсионной, пораженческой и террористической деятельности польской разведки в СССР |language=Russian}}</ref> or classed as possibly having pro-Polish sympathies.<ref name="nybooks-1">{{cite web |url=http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2011/jan/27/hitler-vs-stalin-who-was-worse/ |title=Hitler vs. Stalin: Who Was Worse? |publisher=The New York Review of Books |date=January 27, 2011 |accessdate=June 12, 2012 |author=[[Timothy Snyder]] |page=1, paragraph #7}}</ref> In order to speed up the process the NKVD personnel reviewed local telephone books and arrested persons with Polish-sounding names.<ref>{{cite journal |publisher=The New York Times Book Review |title=Bloodlands - Europe Between Hitler and Stalin - By Timothy Snyder |author=Joshua Rubenstein |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/books/review/Rubenstein-t.html |date=November 26, 2010}}</ref>


The Polish Operation was the largest ethnic shooting and deportation action during the [[Great Purge|Great Terror]] campaign of political murders in the Soviet Union, orchestrated by Nikolai Yezhov.<ref name="bookhaven">{{cite web |url=http://bookhaven.stanford.edu/tag/timothy-snyder/ |title=A letter from Timothy Snyder of Bloodlands: Two genocidaires, taking turns in Poland |publisher=Stanford University |work=The Book Haven |date=December 15, 2010 | accessdate=April 25, 2011}}</ref><ref name="B/E/F">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.ca/books?id=0WIhAQAAQBAJ&q=Snyder%3A+85%2C000+Poles#v=snippet&q=Snyder%3A%2085%2C000%20Poles&f=false | title=Memory and Theory in Eastern Europe | publisher=Palgrave Macmillan | work=Introduction | date=2013 | accessdate=18 February 2015 |author1=Uilleam Blacker |author2=Alexander Etkind |author3=Julie Fedor | page=21 | isbn=1137322063}}</ref> It&nbsp;is also the largest killing of Poles in history outside any armed conflict.<ref name="rp.pl"/>
The Polish Operation was the largest ethnic shooting and deportation action during the [[Great Purge|Great Terror]] campaign of political murders in the Soviet Union, orchestrated by Nikolai Yezhov.<ref name="bookhaven">{{cite web |url=http://bookhaven.stanford.edu/tag/timothy-snyder/ |title=A letter from Timothy Snyder of Bloodlands: Two genocidaires, taking turns in Poland |publisher=Stanford University |work=The Book Haven |date=December 15, 2010 | accessdate=April 25, 2011}}</ref><ref name="B/E/F">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.ca/books?id=0WIhAQAAQBAJ&q=Snyder%3A+85%2C000+Poles#v=snippet&q=Snyder%3A%2085%2C000%20Poles&f=false | title=Memory and Theory in Eastern Europe | publisher=Palgrave Macmillan | work=Introduction | date=2013 | accessdate=18 February 2015 |author1=Uilleam Blacker |author2=Alexander Etkind |author3=Julie Fedor | page=21 | isbn=1137322063}}</ref> It&nbsp;is also the largest killing of Poles in history outside any armed conflict.<ref name="rp.pl"/>
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The following categories of people were arrested by the NKVD during its Polish operation, as described in Soviet documents:
The following categories of people were arrested by the NKVD during its Polish operation, as described in Soviet documents:
# "Active" members of the [[Polish minority in Soviet Union]] (practically all Poles).<ref name="Gellately-Kiernan"/><ref name="Goldman2011-217"/>
# "Active" members of the [[Polish minority in Soviet Union]].<ref name="Gellately-Kiernan"/><ref name="Goldman2011-217"/>
# All [[immigrant]]s from [[Poland]].
# All [[immigrant]]s from [[Poland]].
# Political refugees from Poland (mostly members of the [[Communist Party of Poland]]).
# Political refugees from Poland (mostly members of the [[Communist Party of Poland]]).
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# Members of [[Polish Military Organisation|Polska Organizacja Wojskowa]] listed in the special list (most of them were not members of that organisation).
# Members of [[Polish Military Organisation|Polska Organizacja Wojskowa]] listed in the special list (most of them were not members of that organisation).


[[File:Partitioned Poland & the 2nd Republic.png|thumb|right|Outline of the [[Second Polish Republic]] on the map of the [[Partitions of Poland]]. Most territories [[Russian Partition|annexed by the Russian Empire]] by 1793 (in shades of green) remained in the Soviet Union after the [[Bolshevik Revolution]] and became the scene of the genocide of Poles in 1937–38.]]
[[File:Partitioned Poland & the 2nd Republic.png|thumb|right|Outline of the [[Second Polish Republic]] on the map of the [[Partitions of Poland]]. Most territories [[Russian Partition|annexed by the Russian Empire]] by 1793 (in shades of green) remained in the Soviet Union after the [[Bolshevik Revolution]] and became the scene of the killing of Poles in 1937–38.]]


===Killing process and death toll===
===Killing process and death toll===
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In [[Leningrad]], the [[NKVD]] reviewed local telephone books and arrested almost 7,000 citizens with Polish-sounding name with the vast majority of such nominal "suspects" were executed within 10 days of arrest.<ref name="arlindo-correia">{{cite web | url=http://www.arlindo-correia.org/040111.html | title=The Devils’ Playground | publisher=[[The New York Times]] | accessdate=April 26, 2011 | author=Joshua Rubenstein | quote=Rubenstein is the Northeast regional director of [[Amnesty International USA]] and a co-editor of ''The Unknown Black Book: The Holocaust in the German-Occupied Soviet Territories.''}}</ref>
In [[Leningrad]], the [[NKVD]] reviewed local telephone books and arrested almost 7,000 citizens with Polish-sounding name with the vast majority of such nominal "suspects" were executed within 10 days of arrest.<ref name="arlindo-correia">{{cite web | url=http://www.arlindo-correia.org/040111.html | title=The Devils’ Playground | publisher=[[The New York Times]] | accessdate=April 26, 2011 | author=Joshua Rubenstein | quote=Rubenstein is the Northeast regional director of [[Amnesty International USA]] and a co-editor of ''The Unknown Black Book: The Holocaust in the German-Occupied Soviet Territories.''}}</ref>


==Classification==
==Genocide characterization==
Historian [[Michael Ellman]] writes that the "national operations", including the "Polish Operation", may qualify [[genocide]] as defined by the UN convention. Ellman lists three main objections to defining the "Polish Operation" as a genocide. First, the order did not target Poles as an ethnicity but only members of the [[Polish Military Organisation]] (which was defunct) and other specific groups, which Ellman counters by saying that in implementation NKVD officers targetd Poles. Second, is that the number of people targets constituted only 22% of Poles in the USSR were targeted, which may not be sufficient to meet the UN convention's definition of "in part". Third, approximately a third of those targeted were not actually Poles. Ellman concludes by saying there is no authoritative ruling on the legal characterization of the "national operations" of 1937-38, including the Polish one.<ref name="paulbogdanor">[http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/soviet/famine/ellman1933.pdf Ellman, Michael. "Stalin and the Soviet famine of 1932–33 revisited." Europe-Asia Studies 59.4 (2007): 663-693.]</ref>
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Historian [[Michael Ellman]] asserts that the "national operations", particularly the "Polish Operation", may have constituted [[genocide]] as defined by the UN convention.<ref name="paulbogdanor">Michael Ellman, [http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/soviet/famine/ellman1933.pdf Stalin and the Soviet Famine of 1932-33 Revisited] [[PDF]] file</ref> His opinion is shared by [[Simon Sebag Montefiore]], who calls the Polish operation of the NKVD "a mini-genocide".[[Simon Sebag Montefiore]], refers to the "national operations", including the Polish one, as a "mini-genocide".<ref>Simon Sebag Montefiore. [https://books.google.co.il/books?redir_esc=y&id=f-HerzgvxssC&q=%22Polish+opertion%22#v=snippet&q=%22Polish%20operation%22&f=false ''Stalin. The Court of the Red Tsar''], page 229. Vintage Books, New York 2003. Vintage {{ISBN|1-4000-7678-1}}, quote: "A total of 350,000 (144,000 of them Poles) were arrested in this operation, with 247,157 short (110,000 Poles) - a mini-genocide"</ref> Polish writer and commentator, Dr [[Tomasz Sommer]], also refers to the operation as a genocide, along with Prof. [[Marek Jan Chodakiewicz]] among others.<ref name="rp.pl">{{cite journal |url=http://www.rp.pl/artykul/594183.html |trans-title=Nieopłakane ludobójstwo |title=Genocide Not Mourned |publisher=Presspublica |journal=[[Rzeczpospolita]] |date=2011-01-15 |via=Internet Archive |author=Prof. [[Marek Jan Chodakiewicz]] |deadurl=bot: unknown |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121004125909/http://www.rp.pl/artykul/594183.html |archivedate=2012-10-04 |df= }}</ref><ref name="se.pl">{{cite web | url=http://m.se.pl/wydarzenia/opinie/zbrodnia-wieksza-niz-katyn_157172.html | title=Tomasz Sommer: Ludobójstwo Polaków z lat 1937-38 to zbrodnia większa niż Katyń (Genocide of Poles in the years 1937-38, a Crime Greater than Katyn) | publisher=[[Super Express (newspaper)|Super Express]] | accessdate=April 28, 2011 | author=Franciszek Tyszka}}</ref><ref name="historyton.pl">{{cite web | url=http://historyton.pl/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=11729 | title=Rozstrzelać Polaków. Ludobójstwo Polaków w Związku Sowieckim (To Execute the Poles. Genocide of Poles in the Soviet Union) | publisher=Historyton | accessdate=April 28, 2011 | deadurl=yes | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111003143755/http://historyton.pl/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=11729 | archivedate=October 3, 2011 | df= }}</ref><ref name="wiara.pl">{{cite web | url=http://info.wiara.pl/doc/578542.Publikacja-na-temat-eksterminacji-Polakow-w-ZSRR-w-latach-30 | title=Publikacja na temat eksterminacji Polaków w ZSRR w latach 30 (Publication on the Subject of Extermination of Poles in the Soviet Union during the 1930s) | author= Andrzej Macura, [[Polska Agencja Prasowa]] | publisher=Portal Wiara.pl | date=2010-06-24 | accessdate=April 28, 2011 }}</ref><ref name="polishclub.org">{{cite web | url=http://www.polishclub.org/2011/03/22/prof-iwo-cyprian-pogonowski-rozkaz-n-k-w-d-no-00485-z-dnia-11-viii-1937-a-polacy/ | title=Rozkaz N.K.W.D.: No. 00485 z dnia 11-VIII-1937, a Polacy | publisher=Polish Club Online | date=22 March 2011 | accessdate=April 28, 2011 | author=Prof. [[Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski]] | quote= See also, Tomasz Sommer: Ludobójstwo Polaków w Związku Sowieckim (Genocide of Poles in the Soviet Union), article published by The Polish Review vol. LV, No. 4, 2010.}}</ref><ref name="naukowa.pl">{{cite web | url=http://www.naukowa.pl/Historia,7kt/Rozstrzelac-Polakow.-Ludobojstwo-Polakow-w-Zwiazku-Sowieckim-w-latach-1937-1938.-Dokumenty-z-Central,328396ks | title= Sommer, Tomasz. Book description (Opis). | publisher=Księgarnia Prawnicza, [[Lublin]] | work=Rozstrzelać Polaków. Ludobójstwo Polaków w Związku Sowieckim w latach 1937-1938. Dokumenty z Centrali (Genocide of Poles in the Soviet Union) | accessdate=April 28, 2011}}</ref><ref name="global364">{{cite journal |url=http://globalizacja.org/print/364 |trans-title=Konferencja "Rozstrzelać Polaków – Ludobójstwo Polaków w Związku Sowieckim" |title="To Shoot the Poles." Conference on the Genocide of Poles in the Soviet Union |location=Warsaw |publisher=Instytut Globalizacji oraz Press Club Polska in cooperation with the Memorial Society |via=Internet Archive |journal=Globalizacja.org |author=Dawid Ciężarkiewicz |deadurl=bot: unknown |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131112020824/http://globalizacja.org/print/364 |archivedate=2013-11-12 |df= }}</ref>


[[Simon Sebag Montefiore]], refers to the "national operations", including the Polish one, as a "mini-genocide".<ref>Simon Sebag Montefiore. [https://books.google.co.il/books?redir_esc=y&id=f-HerzgvxssC&q=%22Polish+opertion%22#v=snippet&q=%22Polish%20operation%22&f=false ''Stalin. The Court of the Red Tsar''], page 229. Vintage Books, New York 2003. Vintage {{ISBN|1-4000-7678-1}}, quote: "A total of 350,000 (144,000 of them Poles) were arrested in this operation, with 247,157 short (110,000 Poles) - a mini-genocide"</ref>
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Historian Terry Martin, refers to the "national operations", including the "Polish Operation", as ethnic cleansing and "ethnic terror". According to Martin, the singling out of diaspora nationalities for arrest and mass execution "verged on the genocidal".<ref>[https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/3229636/Martin%201998.pdf?sequence=2 Martin, Terry. "The origins of Soviet ethnic cleansing." The Journal of Modern History 70.4 (1998): 813-861.</ref>

According to historian [[Norman Naimark]] Stalin was paranoid of a Polish invasion into Russia, which led to anti-Polish campaigns throughout the 1930s. Naimark says that it is hard to classify the [[Great Purge]], including the "Polish Operation", as genocide since "ethnic, national, racial, religious, and even self-identified social and political groups were not attacked as such". Naimark states that Stalin acted again alleged political opponents (including their family and social circle), who were killed on that basis.<ref>[https://books.google.co.il/books?redir_esc=y&id=IB-hDQAAQBAJ&q=%22Polish+operation%22#v=snippet&q=%22Polish%20operation%22&f=false Genocide: A World History], Norman M. Naimark</ref>

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Historian Terry Martin, refers to the "national operations", including the "Polish Operation", as ethnic cleansing and "ethnic terror". According to Martin, the singling out of diaspora nationalities for arrest and mass execution "verged on the genocidal".<ref>[https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/3229636/Martin%201998.pdf?sequence=2 Martin, Terry. "The origins of Soviet ethnic cleansing." The Journal of Modern History 70.4 (1998): 813-861.]</ref>

Relating to the "national sweeps", including the "Polish operation", Historian Kevin McDermott notes that these acts of ethnic cleansing are compared by some scholars to Nazi policies, using the terminology "Stalinist genocide" in a manner that implies a moral equivalence to Nazi terror. However, McDermott states that he himself agrees with other historians, such as [[Moshe Lewin]] and [[Ian Kershaw]], who emphasize that the Holocaust was unique in that it was "a deliberate policy aimed at the total physical destruction of every member of an ethnic group. There was no equivalent of this under Stalinism".<ref>[https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14690760701571239 McDermott, Kevin. "Stalinism ‘From Below’?: Social Preconditions of and Popular Responses to the Great Terror." Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions 8.3-4 (2007): 609-622]</ref>

⚫
[[Tomasz Sommer]], editor in chief of [[Najwyższy Czas!]], referred in an interview to the [[Super Express (newspaper)|Super Express tabloid]] to the "Polish operation" as a genocide,<ref name="se.pl">{{cite web | url=http://m.se.pl/wydarzenia/opinie/zbrodnia-wieksza-niz-katyn_157172.html | title=Tomasz Sommer: Ludobójstwo Polaków z lat 1937-38 to zbrodnia większa niż Katyń (Genocide of Poles in the years 1937-38, a Crime Greater than Katyn) | publisher=[[Super Express (newspaper)|Super Express]] | accessdate=April 28, 2011 | author=Franciszek Tyszka}}</ref> as has historian [[Marek Jan Chodakiewicz]] in an opinion piece in [[Rzeczpospolita (newspaper)|Rzeczpospolita]],<ref name="rp.pl">{{cite journal |url=http://www.rp.pl/artykul/594183.html |trans-title=Nieopłakane ludobójstwo |title=Genocide Not Mourned |publisher=Presspublica |journal=[[Rzeczpospolita]] |date=2011-01-15 |via=Internet Archive |author=Prof. [[Marek Jan Chodakiewicz]] |deadurl=bot: unknown |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121004125909/http://www.rp.pl/artykul/594183.html |archivedate=2012-10-04 |df= }}</ref> along with a number of others in Polish media.<ref name="historyton.pl">{{cite web | url=http://historyton.pl/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=11729 | title=Rozstrzelać Polaków. Ludobójstwo Polaków w Związku Sowieckim (To Execute the Poles. Genocide of Poles in the Soviet Union) | publisher=Historyton | accessdate=April 28, 2011 | deadurl=yes | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111003143755/http://historyton.pl/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=11729 | archivedate=October 3, 2011 | df= }}</ref><ref name="wiara.pl">{{cite web | url=http://info.wiara.pl/doc/578542.Publikacja-na-temat-eksterminacji-Polakow-w-ZSRR-w-latach-30 | title=Publikacja na temat eksterminacji Polaków w ZSRR w latach 30 (Publication on the Subject of Extermination of Poles in the Soviet Union during the 1930s) | author= Andrzej Macura, [[Polska Agencja Prasowa]] | publisher=Portal Wiara.pl | date=2010-06-24 | accessdate=April 28, 2011 }}</ref><ref name="polishclub.org">{{cite web | url=http://www.polishclub.org/2011/03/22/prof-iwo-cyprian-pogonowski-rozkaz-n-k-w-d-no-00485-z-dnia-11-viii-1937-a-polacy/ | title=Rozkaz N.K.W.D.: No. 00485 z dnia 11-VIII-1937, a Polacy | publisher=Polish Club Online | date=22 March 2011 | accessdate=April 28, 2011 | author=Prof. [[Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski]] | quote= See also, Tomasz Sommer: Ludobójstwo Polaków w Związku Sowieckim (Genocide of Poles in the Soviet Union), article published by The Polish Review vol. LV, No. 4, 2010.}}</ref><ref name="naukowa.pl">{{cite web | url=http://www.naukowa.pl/Historia,7kt/Rozstrzelac-Polakow.-Ludobojstwo-Polakow-w-Zwiazku-Sowieckim-w-latach-1937-1938.-Dokumenty-z-Central,328396ks | title= Sommer, Tomasz. Book description (Opis). | publisher=Księgarnia Prawnicza, [[Lublin]] | work=Rozstrzelać Polaków. Ludobójstwo Polaków w Związku Sowieckim w latach 1937-1938. Dokumenty z Centrali (Genocide of Poles in the Soviet Union) | accessdate=April 28, 2011}}</ref><ref name="global364">{{cite journal |url=http://globalizacja.org/print/364 |trans-title=Konferencja "Rozstrzelać Polaków – Ludobójstwo Polaków w Związku Sowieckim" |title="To Shoot the Poles." Conference on the Genocide of Poles in the Soviet Union |location=Warsaw |publisher=Instytut Globalizacji oraz Press Club Polska in cooperation with the Memorial Society |via=Internet Archive |journal=Globalizacja.org |author=Dawid Ciężarkiewicz |deadurl=bot: unknown |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131112020824/http://globalizacja.org/print/364 |archivedate=2013-11-12 |df= }}</ref>


==See also==
==See also==

Revision as of 13:30, 28 May 2019

Polish Operation of the NKVD
Part of the Great Purge[1][2]
File:Nikolai Yezhov conferring with Stalin.jpg
Yezhov and Stalin, USSR, 1937
Location Soviet Union, modern-day Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and others
Date1937–1938
TargetPoles and others
Attack type
Ethnic cleansing
Prison shootings
Deaths+ / - 111,091
PerpetratorsSoviet NKVD

The Polish Operation of the Soviet security service in 1937–1938 was a mass operation of the NKVD carried out in the Soviet Union against Poles (labeled by the Soviets as "agents") during the period of the Great Purge. It was ordered by the Politburo against the so-called "Polish spies". It resulted in the sentencing of 139,835 people, and summary executions of 111,091 Poles and others.[3][4] The operation was implemented according to NKVD Order № 00485 signed by Nikolai Yezhov.[5] The majority of the shooting victims were ethnically Polish,[1] but not all, wrote Timothy Snyder.[6] The remainder were 'suspected' of being Polish, without further inquiry,[5] or classed as possibly having pro-Polish sympathies.[7] In order to speed up the process the NKVD personnel reviewed local telephone books and arrested persons with Polish-sounding names.[8]

The Polish Operation was the largest ethnic shooting and deportation action during the Great Terror campaign of political murders in the Soviet Union, orchestrated by Nikolai Yezhov.[9][10] It is also the largest killing of Poles in history outside any armed conflict.[1]

Order № 00485

Main article: Order № 00485

The top secret NKVD Order No. 00485, titled "On the liquidation of the Polish diversionist and espionage groups and POW units," was approved on August 9, 1937 by the Party's Central Committee Politburo, and was signed by Nikolai Yezhov on August 11, 1937.[5] It was distributed to the local subdivisions of the NKVD simultaneously with Yezhov's thirty-page "secret letter," explaining what the "Polish operation" was all about. The letter from Yezhov was titled, "On fascist-resurrectionist, spying, diversional, defeationist, and terrorist activity of Polish intelligence in the USSR".[11] Stalin demanded the NKVD to "keep on digging out and cleaning out this Polish filth."[2]

First page of one of the copies of the Order No. 00485, archived by the Kharkov branch of the NKVD.

The "Order" adopted the simplified so-called "album procedure" (as it was called in NKVD circles). The long lists of Poles condemned by a lower NKVD organ (so-called dvoika, a two-man team) during early meetings,[12] were then collected into "albums" and sent to the midrange NKVD offices for a stamp of approval by a troika (a three-man team; a communist official, NKVD leader, and party procurator). Poles were the first ever major Soviet population group to be sentenced in this manner.[12] After the approval of the entire "album", the executions were carried out immediately. This procedure was also used later on in other mass operations of the NKVD.[13]

The "Polish Operation" was a second in a series of national operations of the NKVD, carried out by the Soviet Union against ethnic groups including Latvian, Finnish, German and Romanian, based on a theory about an internal enemy (i.e. the fifth column) labelled as the "hostile capitalist surrounding" residing along its western borders.[2] In opinion of historian Timothy Snyder, this fabricated justification was intended only to cover-up the state-sanctioned campaign of mass-murder aiming to eradicate Poles as a national (and linguistic) minority group.[2] Another possible cause according to Snyder might have sprung from the necessity to explain the Soviet-made famine in Ukraine which required a political scapegoat. A top Soviet official Vsevolod Balitsky chose the Polish Military Organization which was disbanded in 1921. The NKVD declared that it continued to exist. Some Soviet Poles were tortured in order to confess to its existence, and denounce other individuals as spies. Meanwhile, the Communist International helped by revisiting its files in search of Polish members, producing another bountiful source of made-up evidence.[14]

Scale of the Polish Operation and its victims

The operation took place approximately from August 25, 1937 to November 15, 1938.[15] The largest group of people with Polish background, around 40 percent of all victims, came from the Soviet Ukraine, especially from the districts near the border with Poland. Among them were tens of thousands of peasants, railway workers, industrial labourers, engineers and others. An additional 17 percent of victims came from the Soviet Byelorussia. The rest came from around Western Siberia and Kazakhstan, where exiled Poles had lived since the Partitions, as well as from the southern Urals, northern Caucasus and the rest of Siberia, including the Far East.[3]

The following categories of people were arrested by the NKVD during its Polish operation, as described in Soviet documents:

  1. "Active" members of the Polish minority in Soviet Union.[3][4]
  2. All immigrants from Poland.
  3. Political refugees from Poland (mostly members of the Communist Party of Poland).
  4. Former and present members of the Polish Socialist Party and other non-communist Polish political parties.
  5. All prisoners of war from the Polish-Soviet war remaining in the Soviet Union.
  6. Members of Polska Organizacja Wojskowa listed in the special list (most of them were not members of that organisation).
Outline of the Second Polish Republic on the map of the Partitions of Poland. Most territories annexed by the Russian Empire by 1793 (in shades of green) remained in the Soviet Union after the Bolshevik Revolution and became the scene of the killing of Poles in 1937–38.

Killing process and death toll

According to archives of the NKVD: 111,091 Poles and people accused of ties with Poland, were sentenced to death, and 28,744 were sentenced to labor camps; 139,835 victims in total.[16] This number constitutes 10% of the total number of people officially convicted during the Yezhovshchina period, based on confirming NKVD documents.[17]

The Operation was only a peak in the persecution of the Poles, which spanned more than a decade. As the Soviet statistics indicate, the number of ethnic Poles in the USSR dropped by 165,000 in that period. "It is estimated that Polish losses in the Ukrainian SSR were about 30%, while in the Belorussian SSR... the Polish minority was almost completely annihilated."[15]

Timothy Snyder gives a conservative estimate of 85,000 confirmed Poles executed simultaneously across the country.[6]

Almost all victims of the NKVD shootings were men, wrote Michał Jasiński, most with families. Their wives and children were dealt with by the NKVD Order № 00486. The women were generally sentenced to deportation to Kazakhstan for an average of 5 to 10 years. Orphaned children without relatives willing to take them were put in orphanages to be brought up as Soviet, with no knowledge of their origins. All possessions of the accused were confiscated. The parents of the executed men – as well as their in-laws – were left with nothing to live on, which usually sealed their fate as well. Statistical extrapolation, wrote Jasiński, increases the number of Polish victims in 1937–1938 to around 200–250,000 depending on size of their families.[18]

Great Purge of Poles in Leningrad

In Leningrad, the NKVD reviewed local telephone books and arrested almost 7,000 citizens with Polish-sounding name with the vast majority of such nominal "suspects" were executed within 10 days of arrest.[19]

Classification

Historian Michael Ellman writes that the "national operations", including the "Polish Operation", may qualify genocide as defined by the UN convention. Ellman lists three main objections to defining the "Polish Operation" as a genocide. First, the order did not target Poles as an ethnicity but only members of the Polish Military Organisation (which was defunct) and other specific groups, which Ellman counters by saying that in implementation NKVD officers targetd Poles. Second, is that the number of people targets constituted only 22% of Poles in the USSR were targeted, which may not be sufficient to meet the UN convention's definition of "in part". Third, approximately a third of those targeted were not actually Poles. Ellman concludes by saying there is no authoritative ruling on the legal characterization of the "national operations" of 1937-38, including the Polish one.[20]

Simon Sebag Montefiore, refers to the "national operations", including the Polish one, as a "mini-genocide".[21]

According to historian Norman Naimark Stalin was paranoid of a Polish invasion into Russia, which led to anti-Polish campaigns throughout the 1930s. Naimark says that it is hard to classify the Great Purge, including the "Polish Operation", as genocide since "ethnic, national, racial, religious, and even self-identified social and political groups were not attacked as such". Naimark states that Stalin acted again alleged political opponents (including their family and social circle), who were killed on that basis.[22]

Historian Terry Martin, refers to the "national operations", including the "Polish Operation", as ethnic cleansing and "ethnic terror". According to Martin, the singling out of diaspora nationalities for arrest and mass execution "verged on the genocidal".[23]

Relating to the "national sweeps", including the "Polish operation", Historian Kevin McDermott notes that these acts of ethnic cleansing are compared by some scholars to Nazi policies, using the terminology "Stalinist genocide" in a manner that implies a moral equivalence to Nazi terror. However, McDermott states that he himself agrees with other historians, such as Moshe Lewin and Ian Kershaw, who emphasize that the Holocaust was unique in that it was "a deliberate policy aimed at the total physical destruction of every member of an ethnic group. There was no equivalent of this under Stalinism".[24]

Tomasz Sommer, editor in chief of Najwyższy Czas!, referred in an interview to the Super Express tabloid to the "Polish operation" as a genocide,[25] as has historian Marek Jan Chodakiewicz in an opinion piece in Rzeczpospolita,[1] along with a number of others in Polish media.[26][27][28][29][30]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c d Prof. Marek Jan Chodakiewicz (2011-01-15). "Genocide Not Mourned" [Nieopłakane ludobójstwo]. Rzeczpospolita. Presspublica. Archived from the original on 2012-10-04 – via Internet Archive. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ a b c d Matthew Kaminski (October 18, 2010). "Savagery in the East". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved April 26, 2011.
  3. ^ a b c Robert Gellately, Ben Kiernan (2003). The specter of genocide: mass murder in historical perspective. Cambridge University Press. p. 396. ISBN 0521527503. Polish operation (page 233 –)
  4. ^ a b Wendy Z. Goldman (2011). Inventing the Enemy: Denunciation and Terror in Stalin's Russia. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 217. ISBN 978-0-521-19196-8.
  5. ^ a b c Н.В.Петров, А.Б.Рогинский. ""Polish Operation" of the NKVD, 1937-1938" "Польская операция" НКВД 1937–1938 гг. (in Russian). НИПЦ «Мемориал». Retrieved May 27, 2012. Original title: О фашистско-повстанческой, шпионской, диверсионной, пораженческой и террористической деятельности польской разведки в СССР {{cite web}}: Invalid |script-title=: missing prefix (help)
  6. ^ a b Timothy Snyder (2010). Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin. New York: Basic Books. pp. 103–104. ISBN 978-0-465-00239-9.
  7. ^ Timothy Snyder (January 27, 2011). "Hitler vs. Stalin: Who Was Worse?". The New York Review of Books. p. 1, paragraph #7. Retrieved June 12, 2012.
  8. ^ Joshua Rubenstein (November 26, 2010). "Bloodlands - Europe Between Hitler and Stalin - By Timothy Snyder". The New York Times Book Review. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. ^ "A letter from Timothy Snyder of Bloodlands: Two genocidaires, taking turns in Poland". The Book Haven. Stanford University. December 15, 2010. Retrieved April 25, 2011.
  10. ^ Uilleam Blacker; Alexander Etkind; Julie Fedor (2013). Memory and Theory in Eastern Europe. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 21. ISBN 1137322063. Retrieved 18 February 2015. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  11. ^ Original document. Full text of the Order in the Russian language. "О фашистско-повстанческой, шпионской, диверсионной, пораженческой и террористической деятельности польской разведки в СССР." Хлевнюк О. В. Политбюро: Механизмы политической власти в 1930-е гг. М., 1996.
  12. ^ a b George Sanford (2007). Katyn and the Soviet Massacre of 1940: Truth, Justice and Memory. Routledge. p. 33. ISBN 1134302991.
  13. ^ Nicolas Werth (20 May 2010). "The NKVD Mass Secret National Operations (August 1937 - November 1938)" (PDF). Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence. MassViolence.org. pp. 4 of 10. ISSN 1961-9898. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 February 2018 – via Internet Archive. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  14. ^ Timothy Snyder (2005), Sketches from a Secret War Yale University Press, p. 129. ISBN 030010670X
  15. ^ a b "The 'Polish operation' of the NKVD" (PDF). The Baltic and Arctic Areas under Stalin. Ethnic Minorities in the Great Soviet Terror of 1937-38. University of Stefan Wyszyński in Warsaw. January 25–26, 2011. pp. 17–. UMEA International Research Group. Abstracts of Presentations. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-23 – via Internet Archive. Official documents of the State Security Administration show that 'ethnicity alone was sufficient grounds for arrest.' – Dr. Iryna Ramanava, National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. {{cite web}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter |authors= (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  16. ^ O.A. Gorlanov. "A breakdown of the chronology and the punishment, NKVD Order № 00485 (Polish operation) in Google translate". Retrieved April 26, 2011.
  17. ^ McLoughlin, References, p. 164.
  18. ^ Michał Jasiński (2010-10-27). "Zapomniane ludobójstwo stalinowskie (The forgotten Stalinist genocide)". Gliwicki klub Fondy. Czytelnia. Archived from the original on March 23, 2012. Retrieved April 28, 2011. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  19. ^ Joshua Rubenstein. "The Devils' Playground". The New York Times. Retrieved April 26, 2011. Rubenstein is the Northeast regional director of Amnesty International USA and a co-editor of The Unknown Black Book: The Holocaust in the German-Occupied Soviet Territories.
  20. ^ Ellman, Michael. "Stalin and the Soviet famine of 1932–33 revisited." Europe-Asia Studies 59.4 (2007): 663-693.
  21. ^ Simon Sebag Montefiore. Stalin. The Court of the Red Tsar, page 229. Vintage Books, New York 2003. Vintage ISBN 1-4000-7678-1, quote: "A total of 350,000 (144,000 of them Poles) were arrested in this operation, with 247,157 short (110,000 Poles) - a mini-genocide"
  22. ^ Genocide: A World History, Norman M. Naimark
  23. ^ Martin, Terry. "The origins of Soviet ethnic cleansing." The Journal of Modern History 70.4 (1998): 813-861.
  24. ^ McDermott, Kevin. "Stalinism ‘From Below’?: Social Preconditions of and Popular Responses to the Great Terror." Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions 8.3-4 (2007): 609-622
  25. ^ Franciszek Tyszka. "Tomasz Sommer: Ludobójstwo Polaków z lat 1937-38 to zbrodnia większa niż Katyń (Genocide of Poles in the years 1937-38, a Crime Greater than Katyn)". Super Express. Retrieved April 28, 2011.
  26. ^ "Rozstrzelać Polaków. Ludobójstwo Polaków w Związku Sowieckim (To Execute the Poles. Genocide of Poles in the Soviet Union)". Historyton. Archived from the original on October 3, 2011. Retrieved April 28, 2011. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  27. ^ Andrzej Macura, Polska Agencja Prasowa (2010-06-24). "Publikacja na temat eksterminacji Polaków w ZSRR w latach 30 (Publication on the Subject of Extermination of Poles in the Soviet Union during the 1930s)". Portal Wiara.pl. Retrieved April 28, 2011.
  28. ^ Prof. Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski (22 March 2011). "Rozkaz N.K.W.D.: No. 00485 z dnia 11-VIII-1937, a Polacy". Polish Club Online. Retrieved April 28, 2011. See also, Tomasz Sommer: Ludobójstwo Polaków w Związku Sowieckim (Genocide of Poles in the Soviet Union), article published by The Polish Review vol. LV, No. 4, 2010.
  29. ^ "Sommer, Tomasz. Book description (Opis)". Rozstrzelać Polaków. Ludobójstwo Polaków w Związku Sowieckim w latach 1937-1938. Dokumenty z Centrali (Genocide of Poles in the Soviet Union). Księgarnia Prawnicza, Lublin. Retrieved April 28, 2011.
  30. ^ Dawid Ciężarkiewicz. ""To Shoot the Poles." Conference on the Genocide of Poles in the Soviet Union" [Konferencja "Rozstrzelać Polaków – Ludobójstwo Polaków w Związku Sowieckim"]. Globalizacja.org. Warsaw: Instytut Globalizacji oraz Press Club Polska in cooperation with the Memorial Society. Archived from the original on 2013-11-12 – via Internet Archive. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)

Further reading

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