Ezhov to Stalin with a copy of A.I. Uspensky about the course of the Polish operation

Archive: AP RF. F. 3. Op. 58. D. 255. L. 24-41. Script. Typescript.

April 15, 1938

№ 102983

Owls. secret

Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks Comrade. STALIN

I am sending a copy of telegram No. 926 of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR comrade. USPENSKY on the results of the operation and the investigation into the Poles.

I ask you to discuss the issue of the arrest of KOSIOR Kazimir, the People's Commissariat for Forestry of Ukraine, who is being held on the basis of a number of testimonies of active participants in the POV.

People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR

General Commissar of State Security Ezhov

In accordance with your instructions, all organs of the NKVD in Ukraine were tasked with defeating the Polish espionage, sabotage and insurgent underground in Ukraine. However, the resolution of this operational task was complicated by the fact that some of the leaders of the peovyatsky [1] underground LAZOVERT, previously arrested and convicted in 1937 - head. of the Polish bureau of the Central Committee of the CP(b)U, BEGAILO - former secretary of the Vinnitsa Regional Committee of the CP(b)U, KAPTSEVICH - former commander of the 58th Infantry Division and others did not reveal during the investigation the military sabotage plans of the Polish main headquarters in Ukraine and did not show about those numerous organizations and groups that have been planted by Peovyak in Ukraine for a long time.

Based on the investigative data of the ongoing operation to defeat the Polish spy-sabotage underground, it is revealed that in Ukraine for a long time, with almost impunity, a very extensive “Polish organization of troops” (POV) operated. As established by the investigation, the POV began to widely deploy espionage and sabotage activities as early as 1920, immediately after the war.

Subsequently, the POV carried out this work in accordance with the plan developed by the Polish General Staff, under the leadership of Pilsudski, for the deployment of military sabotage, insurrectionary and espionage work by the Peowyak in Ukraine.

The cadres of Peovyatsk spy-sabotage organizations and groups in Ukraine were mainly composed of the local population of Polish nationality and were transferred from Poland for many years by Peovyatsk agents under the guise of political emigrants and defectors. The penetration of the Peowyak cadres into the Red Army, the defense enterprise and installations, railway transport and other important defense sectors was facilitated by the fact that the Peowyak had many of their agents in the party and Soviet apparatus.

It has been established that as early as 1920, under the directive of Pilsudski, the participants of the POV, especially the former associates of Pilsudski in the teaching staff, began to infiltrate the CP (b) U, later some of them penetrated into leadership positions in party and Soviet institutions, in the Red Army, transport, industry. Thus, such prominent people as SKARBEK, LAZOVERT, THEODOR KANETSIY, deputy head of the cultural industry of the Central Committee of the CP(b)U (all were convicted), were in responsible work in the Central Committee of the CP(b)U.

They, using their position in the party and Soviet apparatuses, easily carried out the directives of the Polish headquarters on the placement of Peovyatsky and other Polish espionage and sabotage personnel. As a result of this, the Peovyatsk agents penetrated into the party and Soviet apparatus, into economic bodies, into transport, into the army, into the bodies of the NKVD and the police.

Arrested in the case of the anti-Soviet Ukrainian nationalist center ZATONSKY, KAPULOVSKY, BORYSENKO, PROKOPPCHUK and others, in their testimony, they note that the anti-Soviet Ukrainian nationalist center represented by LYUBCHENKO, ZATONSKY, PORAIKO and others had a complete conspiracy with the Polish government on a joint action of Ukrainian nationalists and Polish fascists during the war against the Soviet Union.

In particular, ZATONSKY negotiated this with the Polish government in 1936 in Warsaw, during negotiations with the Minister of Education of Poland SVENTOSLAVSKY and during meetings in Kyiv with the Polish Consul General KARSHOSEDLETSKI.

The arrested KAPULOVSKY, a member of the military headquarters of the anti-Soviet Ukrainian nationalist center, ZRAZHEVSKY, the director of the Berdichevsky timber industry enterprise, and others show that the leaders of the Ukrainian nationalists and the leadership of the Peovyatsky underground in Ukraine acted in contact, and the lower levels of the Ukrainian nationalist and Peovyatsky underground intertwined with each other and coordinated production espionage and sabotage insurgent work on the right bank of Ukraine, especially in areas populated by Poles.

On the basis of this conspiracy, over the years, espionage and military sabotage activities of the “Polish military organization” and numerous agents of Polish intelligence agencies in Ukraine have been widely deployed.

Taking advantage of the direct support of the bourgeois nationalists and relying on their agents in the CP(b)U, the Peowyaks, on Pilsudski's directive, managed to carry out large-scale colonial work in the Ukraine over the course of a number of years. In particular, they created the Institute of Polish Culture in Kyiv, the Polish Pedagogical Institute, the Polish office of the Academy of Sciences, Polish theaters in Kyiv and locally.

Polish newspapers, numerous Polish clubs, a large network of Polish schools (in 1933 there were 390 Polish national schools in Ukraine) and other Polish institutions that were headquarters for organizing military sabotage and espionage work, breeding grounds for Peovyatsky spy and sabotage personnel, a school for teaching them espionage and sabotage and hiding places and appearances of Polish agents, who were transferred from behind the cordon and scoured all over Ukraine.

As a result of many years of unpunished work of the Peowyak to expand their Peowyak base, the Poles still have their numerous hidden cadres in Ukraine, who, having penetrated the CP (b) U and disguised themselves as a party card, carry out subversive work, spy, prepare sabotage. Recently, 1,848 Poles, members of the POV and other anti-Soviet espionage and sabotage organizations and groups that have made their way into the CP(b)U, have been arrested in Ukraine.

A number of those arrested show that the Polish headquarters makes a big bet in wartime on the deployment of subversive, espionage and sabotage-insurgent work by the Poles who have penetrated the CP (b) U, hoping that they, as “trusted”, will remain in the rear during the war southwestern front of the Red Army, while the rest of the Poles could be sent deep into the USSR.

The Poles most widely carried out espionage, sabotage and insurrectionary work on the right bank of Ukraine: - in parts of the Red Army of the Kyiv military district and Kamenetz-Podolsk and Zhytomyr regions, where the Poles had their numerous strongholds in forestry organizations, in sugar and glass-porcelain factories.

The arrested former commander of the 51st Infantry Division PROKOPCHUK (a native of Poland), who at the same time was a member of the Ukrainian military-nationalist organization and the POV, testifies that the Peowyaki in Ukraine had their own military headquarters, from which he names: KAPTSEVICH, the former commander of 58 1st Rifle Division (convicted), RACHINSKY, former commander of the Kyiv Air Defense Brigade (convicted), YUSHKEVICH, former commander of the 13th Rifle Corps (removed from his post, is in Moscow at the disposal of an NPO).

As PROKOPCHUK shows, the Peowyak military headquarters was led by KVYATEK, the former deputy commander of the troops of the Kharkov Military District (arrested, located in Moscow, a request was sent to send him to Kyiv).

We have a large number of testimonies of POV participants (KAPTSEVICH, RACHINSKY, PROKOPPCHUK, SHPERKOVICH - head of the chemical service of the air defense brigade, VOYNO-DANCHISHIN - commander of the division of the 25th artillery regiment, GONSIOROVSKII - head of the 1st part of the headquarters of the 3rd cavalry division and others) about the fact that, in accordance with the mobilization and sabotage plan for expanding underground work in Ukraine, developed by the Polish General Staff under the leadership of Pilsudski, the peowyak organizations and groups and all other Polish agents were to launch destructive work during the mobilization period, as well as during the war in order to disorganize southwestern front of the Red Army and its rear. These diversions were prepared in the direction of:

a) destruction of defense industrial enterprises and artillery depots;

b) destructive work at the main strategic nodes of the southwestern direction (Zhmerynka, Kazatin, Korosten, Grechany, Shepetovka), as well as the destruction of the Kyiv group of bridges across the Dnieper and bridges across the Southern Bug and Teterev;

c) destruction of bases for supplying the army and the population with food;

d) destruction of the air defense system;

e) disruption of the mobilization of the second-order and third-order units of the Red Army;

f) bacteriological sabotage, by poisoning water pipes, wells, food and fodder

g) treason on the front of the command staff of the Red Army - participants in the POV, as well as other commanders and Red Army soldiers of Polish nationality, whom the Peowyaks were supposed to process.

In the system of military communications of the Kyiv military district, the sabotage organization created by the POV, on the instructions of the Polish headquarters, was liquidated, headed by the head of the military communications department of the headquarters of the Kyiv military district KULIKOVSKII and his assistant KULESHO, both Polish agents (convicted). KULIKOVSKY, KULESHO and other members of this organization showed that over the past 3 years they have created sabotage groups at the strategic nodes of Kazatin, Zhmerinka, Korosten, Grechany, Shepetovka, as well as on railway bridges across the rivers Dnieper, Sluch, Teterev and Southern Bug. Along with the preparation of acts of sabotage for wartime, the members of the organization carried out subversive work in the construction of strategic and highway roads and the mobilization system of military communications.

Thus, they succeeded in disrupting the construction of the strategic railways Kyiv-Vasilkov and Novomoskovsk-Zolotonosha, as well as the construction of loading and unloading sites at the stations of Zhitomir, Novograd-Volynsk and Kurnaya.

The arrested member of this organization, the assistant to the head of the department of the 3rd department of the headquarters of the Kyiv military district of the State Department of Health, shows that he, as a demolition specialist, was entrusted with the leadership of a sabotage group in the Zhmerinsky direction.

The GUZ names a number of participants in sabotage groups.

A sabotage group created by Polish agents was also opened: the commander of the 6th railway regiment VOYNOV (arrested) and his assistant PAVLOVSKY (convicted).

VOYNOV and PAVLOVSKY testified that they had planted sabotage groups to destroy the railway junctions of Grechany, Shepetovka and Korosten.

In the apparatus of the Kyiv mobokrug, a Peovyatskaya espionage and sabotage group was opened, which was carrying out work to disrupt the mobilization of Red Army units.

The White Guards and other anti-Soviet elements, the commanders of the reserve, devoted to Soviet power, were attested and removed from the register; the postscript to parts of road transport, horses, carts and teams was confused.

Arrested PROKOPCHUK reveals that he was recruited into the POV by KVYATEK in 1933. In the same year, KVYATEK connected PROKOPCHUK with the head of the Vinnitsa Regional Committee of the POV BEGAILO, the former secretary of the Vinnitsa Regional Committee of the CP(b)U. KVIATEK and BEGAILO instructed PROKOPCHUK to carry out subversive work in the mobilization system in order to disrupt the mobilization of the 96th Infantry Division, which was then commanded by PROKOPCHUK, as well as to recruit commanders of Polish nationality and, together with them, organize treason at the front.

To lead the sabotage groups, PROKOPCHUK recruited the former assistant commander of the 288th regiment SHCHITINSKY (to be established) and the head of the workshops of the tank battalion ZYUBROVSKY (arrested) into the POV. After the appointment of PROKOPCHUK as the commander of the 51st Infantry Division, he laid down sabotage peovyatsky groups in parts of this division.

Arrested on the testimony of PROKOPCHUK, the commanders of units of the 96th Infantry Division, the Poles STRELBITSKY, GALINSKY, SHANTAR, NEMETs and others, confessed to participation in the POV and to their espionage and subversive work. A number of Peovyatsky sabotage groups were opened in the air defense system, created by the commander of the Kyiv air defense brigade RACHINSKY and the head of the chemical service of this brigade SHPERKOVICH. The members of these sabotage groups were supposed to destroy the means of anti-aircraft and anti-chemical defense of Kyiv at the time of mobilization.

The arrested commander of the battalion of the 5th Searchlight Regiment of the Kyiv Air Defense Brigade, TARCHINSKY, confessed that in the Searchlight Regiment he led the Peovyatskaya group, which, before its liquidation, managed to render 6 searchlight stations unusable. Members of the Peowyatsk groups in the Red Army, in their sabotage and subversive work, intertwined with members of the Peowyatsk underground among the Polish civilian population. It has been established that the Polish clubs that existed in Ukraine carried out active work to involve the commanders of the Red Army of Polish nationality in the POV.

The arrested chief of the 1st part of the headquarters of the 3rd cavalry division GONSIOROVSKII testified that he was recruited into the POV in 1925 by the head of the Polish club in Belaya Tserkov, ILNITSKY. After moving to Berdichev, GONSIOROVSKII, at the direction of Ilnitsky, contacted the head of the Polish club in Berdichev - KOVALSKI, on whose instructions he created peovyatsky groups in parts of the cavalry division. GONSIOROWSKI names 26 POV participants among the Polish civilian population.

The arrested assistant to the commander of the 132nd regiment of the 44th division DOMBROVSKII testified that he was recruited in the POV by the head of the Polish club in Zhytomyr, on whose behalf he carried out recruiting work in the POV in his regiment.

DOMBROVSKY names a number of members of the POV sabotage group arrested by him in the regiment.

The arrested battalion commander of the 137th Infantry Regiment GLAVATSKIY names 3 commanders of the Red Army who led the Peovyatsk insurgent detachments, in which 80 Poles from the Polish population in Volyn have already been recruited. According to a number of investigative cases, it is established that the UNSHLIKHTA military school that previously existed in Moscow served as a hotbed of Peovyatsky personnel in the Red Army.

(..)

Arrested by us in recent days, DZERZHANOVSKY, the head of the forest management party, ZRAZHEVSKY, the director of the Berdichevsky timber industry enterprise, LYSAK, the director of the Slavuta timber industry enterprise, PLUTO, the engineer of the Berdichevsky forestry enterprise, and others show that the peovyaks, as well as members of the anti-Soviet Ukrainian nationalist organization who worked together with the peovyaks, worked in the Narkomles system, carried out the following subversive work:

a) an area of 46,000 hectares in the zone of fortified areas of the Polish direction was sabotaged, as a result of which the military structures of the fortified areas turned out to be blind - they do not have an area of fire. In addition, 17,000 hectares of forests in the zone of Novograd-Volynsky, Korostensky and Kyiv fortified areas have not been cleared at all, as a result of which these fortified areas are largely blind and not combat-ready. By checking, we found that in the Korosten fortified area, out of 455 structures - 277 do not have a shelling area;

b) in accordance with the instructions of the Polish headquarters, clearings were cut from west to east in the forests of Kamenetz-Podolsk and Zhytomyr regions in order to create facilities for the accumulation and advancement of Polish troops. At the same time, the instructions of the military specialist on strategic cuttings were not followed;

c) the implementation of the mobilization task of the Council of People's Commissars of Ukraine on the special felling of 9,860 hectares of forest in the border zone was disrupted (only 163 hectares were cut down);

d) stocks of valuable wood for the aviation industry were destroyed, as a result of which the forests of Ukraine would have to remain without this type of wood for several years. In the forestry of the border strip of Kamenetz-Podolsk and Zhytomyr regions, peovyatsky sabotage groups and rebel detachments are liquidated, which during the war were supposed to operate in the immediate rear of the Red Army (destroy communications, defense installations, organize rebel demonstrations, bandit raids, etc.) .

Arrested workers of the People's Commissariat of Forests system, peovyak ZRAZHEVSKY, PLUTO, LYSAK, KHOTYNETS and others show that they created military sabotage groups and insurgent detachments in the forests of Slavutsky, Izyaslavsky, Antoninsky, Pluzhnyansky, Staro-Konstantinovsky, Shepetovsky, Smotrychsky and other areas of the Kamianets-Podilsky region , Berdichevsky, Dzerzhinsky, Chudnovsky, Yanushpolsky and Pliskovsky districts of the Zhytomyr region, as well as in the forests of a number of districts in the Kiev region.

As these arrested persons testify, these sabotage groups and insurgent detachments included Poles - members of the POV and Ukrainian nationalists, Petliurists, hetmans, bandits and kulaks.

The arrested ZRAZHEVSKY and PLYUTO show that the Peovyatsk military sabotage and insurgent work in the forests is led by the Narkomles vrid KOSIOR Kazimir and senior officials of the Narkomles system: DZERZHANOVSKY, STEFANSKY, YAVORSKY, KATVITSKAYA and MA-ZANOVSKY (all, with the exception of KOSIOR, were arrested, started to interrogation).

The arrested DZERZHANOVSKY also names KOSIOR Kazimir as the leader of the Peovyat work in the forests. On April 11, we arrested a responsible worker of the People's Commissariat of Forests, ZAPORIZHETS, one of the prominent members of the anti-Soviet Ukrainian nationalist organization in the system of the People's Commissariat of Forests, headed by the former People's Commissariat of Forests KUZ'MENKO. ZAPOROZHETS shows a complete collusion between the nationalist organization and the Peovyatsky organization, headed by Kazimir KOSIOR. The sabotage and insurgent ranks of these organizations in the Lespromkhozes in a number of cases were united. Zaporozhets shows about his personal connection with KOSIOR Kazimir, who until recently gave him sabotage and sabotage instructions.

The arrested head of the financial department of the People's Commissariat of Forests KHUDOKORMOV, who was a member of the Trotskyist organization in the system of the People's Commissariat of Forests, headed by the former deputy of the People's Commissariat of Forests SEMENOV, testifies that in 1937 KOSIOR Kazimir contacted him and suggested that he continue sabotage, especially in matters related to defense work in the forests of Ukraine. SEMENOV, who was arrested by us, also testifies about the espionage connection with KOSIOR Kazimir. Thus, six active members of the espionage and sabotage organization in the system of the People's Commissariat of Forests directly expose Kazimir KOSIOR as the head of this organization.

According to our intelligence data, Kazimir KOSIOR served in the Polish national units of the Red Army during the Civil War, in a command position.

From 1930 to 1934, Kazimir KOSIOR worked abroad as a representative of Soyuznefteexport and is known in Berlin for his drunken orgies and wild lifestyle.

Abroad, KOSIOR was associated with a major spy, an employee of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, PODOLSKII (arrested in Moscow).

The data of undercover surveillance of KOSIROM Kazimir speak of his sharply embittered moods.

I ask you to authorize the arrest of KOSIOR Kazimir. In order to decisively defeat the Peovyatskaya espionage and sabotage agents in the Red Army, I ask you to allow me, in agreement with the commander of the KVO, comrade. TYMOSHENKO and a member of the military council comrade. KHRUSHCHEV, to arrest the Poles of the Red Army - members of the Peovyatsk organizations with a subsequent report. [2]

I report that today I am leaving for Kamenetz-Podolsk to launch an operation against peovyak in Kamenetz-Podolsk and Zhytomyr regions. I will report on the course of the operation and new results of the investigation by telegraph. In the next few days I will send the protocols of interrogations.

USPENSKY

[1] Slang term for the Polish Military Organization (POW).

[2] On the first page there is a handwritten note: “For the arrest. I. St.