Stanisław Radkiewicz
Encyclopedia
Stanisław Radkiewicz was a Polish
communist activist with Soviet citizenship, member of the pre-war Communist Party of Poland
and of the post-war Polish United Workers' Party
(PZPR). As head of the Polish communist secret police
(Urząd Bezpieczeństwa or UB) between 1944 and 1954 he was one of the chief organizers of Stalinist terror in Poland in those years.
He also served as a political commissar
and was made a Divisional General
in Communist Poland.
Unlike some other individuals responsible for the Stalinist terror in the 1940s and 1950s, Radkiewicz was never held responsible for his crimes, although in 1956, after the Poznań protests
and his official "self-critique" he was removed from his post as Minister of Public Security and made the Minister of State Agricultural Farms (PGRs) .
of Kosów Poleski in the Polesie Voivodeship
. He was the son of farmer Franciszek and Paulina née Lenczewska. He finished third grade. In 1915, together with his family he was deported by the retreating Tsarist army to Russia
. During the Bolshevik Revolution he joined the Komsomol
. After the Polish-Soviet War
, in 1922, his family moved back to their home village, but Stanisław soon moved to the Soviet Union where he worked in the Polish Bureau of the Communist Party of Byelorussia. In 1925 he was send clandestinely by Moscow back into Poland to take charge of the youth section of the illegal Polish Communist Party (KPP). Three years later he was arrested for activity against the sovereignty and independence of the Polish Republic and sentenced to four years in prison. After being released he served as a functionary of the KPP. He was arrested again 1937 and served half a year in prison. In 1938 on the orders of Joseph Stalin
the KPP was disbanded and its leaders executed as part of the Great Purge
. Radkiewicz however was spared as he enjoyed Stalin's confidence and was in fact put in charge by Stalin of liquidating KPP's party cells in Poland.
he volunteered for the Red Army
but was later transferred and made a political commissar
of the Polish 1st Tadeusz Kościuszko Infantry Division
and later a Division General
. He was also a delegate to the first Polish Sejm under communist rule.
(MBP) although it continued to be known by its UB acronym partly because of the fact that local offices continued under the old name. In the period after 1945, the secret police grew rapidly under Radkiewicz's direction, with twelve thousand agents in April 1945 and twenty four thousand in December 1945. At its height, in 1953, the organization had thirty three thousand agents. Under Radkiewicz's tenure, the UB became better organized, developed its standard methods of operation and perfected techniques of terror that it used against political opponents. It constituted a "state within a state" in Stalinist Poland and even high ranking members of the communist party were afraid of it.
Radkiewicz's UB focused its activities on several main areas:
. On Radkiewicz's orders, PSL candidates in the elections were harassed and removed from electoral lists, ballots send to areas of high PSL support were intercepted and never delivered so that voting never took place, PSL town hall meetings were attacked by units of Milicja Obywatelska
(MO) and UB and finally, particularly active members of the party were murdered. Radkiewicz issued an order to his agents in which he instructed them to prepare an action of "liquidating" members of the PSL which, according to him opposed communist rule in Poland and which supposedly supported the anti-communist underground. The order also stated that these liquidations were to be made to look as the work of the anti-communist underground, combined with a press campaign directed against "anti-government terrorist bandits", which would place the blame for the murders on various anti-communist organizations. As a result, between the spring of 1945 and January 1947, at least 140 members of the PSL were murdered by the UB, among them notable figures such as Narcyz Wiatr
and Władysław Kojder. (The leader of PSL, Stanisław Mikołajczyk, in the face of widespread election fraud and growing state terror against his party, fled Poland in April 1946).
The head of the 5th Department was Julia Brystiger
who, together with Radkiewicz organized the secret police's operations aimed at the Catholic Church in Poland. In October 1947, Brystiger - who was an interrogator of political prisoners widely known for her sadism and Gestapo-like methods of torture during questioning - presented a seminar entitled On the Clergy's Offensive Against Our Task at a conference for secret police chiefs and Radkiewicz was the main discussant. In her presentation Brystiger stated that the "final time of merciless fight with the Church" was coming soon and that in order to win it the secret services of the Communist party would need to employ "any means necessary". Radkiewicz, in his follow up remarks noted that "The clergy is not like the PSL (The Polish People's Part). With them it won't be as easy as it was with the PSL". As a result, in the autumn of 1950 Radkiewicz split Section V of the 5th Department into its own department (also the 5th) whose purpose was exclusively "fight against the clergy".
The actions against the Catholic Church took several forms, including harassment of priests and nuns, attempts to alienate the Polish church from the Vatican
via the use of moles and agent provocateurs, seizure and expropriation of church property, and staging of incidents which were meant to embarrass the Catholic hierarchy in the eyes of the public and Western opinion (for example, planting of weapons in Churches). In particularly "difficult" cases of politically active priests and Catholics who "didn't get the message", Radkiewicz ordered their elimination from public life, or, if all else failed, murder.
, Józef Różański
and Anatol Fejgin
), but Radkiewicz went unpunished. After he made a public critique of his actions, he was made the Minister of State Farms. In May 1957 he was removed from the Central Committee of the communist party and, for three years, from the party itself. From 1960 until 1968 he served as the general director of the Bureau of State Reserves and retired in 1968.
Over the years he was awarded the Cross of Grunwald
and the Order of the Banner of Work
(Order Sztandaru Pracy).
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
communist activist with Soviet citizenship, member of the pre-war Communist Party of Poland
Communist Party of Poland
The Communist Party of Poland is a historical communist party in Poland. It was a result of the fusion of Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania and the Polish Socialist Party-Left in the Communist Workers Party of Poland .-1918-1921:The KPRP was founded on 16 December 1918 as...
and of the post-war Polish United Workers' Party
Polish United Workers' Party
The Polish United Workers' Party was the Communist party which governed the People's Republic of Poland from 1948 to 1989. Ideologically it was based on the theories of Marxism-Leninism.- The Party's Program and Goals :...
(PZPR). As head of the Polish communist secret police
Ministry of Public Security of Poland
The Ministry of Public Security of Poland was a Polish communist secret police, intelligence and counter-espionage service operating from 1945 to 1954 under Jakub Berman of the Politburo...
(Urząd Bezpieczeństwa or UB) between 1944 and 1954 he was one of the chief organizers of Stalinist terror in Poland in those years.
He also served as a political commissar
Political commissar
The political commissar is the supervisory political officer responsible for the political education and organisation, and loyalty to the government of the military...
and was made a Divisional General
Divisional General
Divisional General is a rank used in many armies to denote a rank of general, corresponding to command of a division. For convenience Divisional General is almost always translated into English as Major-General, the equivalent rank used by the UK, USA, etc., although this translation is, strictly...
in Communist Poland.
Unlike some other individuals responsible for the Stalinist terror in the 1940s and 1950s, Radkiewicz was never held responsible for his crimes, although in 1956, after the Poznań protests
Poznan 1956 protests
The Poznań 1956 protests, also known as Poznań 1956 uprising or Poznań June , were the first of several massive protests of the Polish people against the communist government of the People's Republic of Poland...
and his official "self-critique" he was removed from his post as Minister of Public Security and made the Minister of State Agricultural Farms (PGRs) .
Early life
Radkiewicz was born in the village of Rozmierki in the powiatPowiat
A powiat is the second-level unit of local government and administration in Poland, equivalent to a county, district or prefecture in other countries. The term powiat is most often translated into English as "county", although other terms are also sometimes used...
of Kosów Poleski in the Polesie Voivodeship
Polesie Voivodeship
Polesie Voivodeship was an administrative unit of interwar Poland . It ceased to exist in September 1939, following German and Soviet aggression on Poland .-Population:...
. He was the son of farmer Franciszek and Paulina née Lenczewska. He finished third grade. In 1915, together with his family he was deported by the retreating Tsarist army to Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. During the Bolshevik Revolution he joined the Komsomol
Komsomol
The Communist Union of Youth , usually known as Komsomol , was the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Komsomol in its earliest form was established in urban centers in 1918. During the early years, it was a Russian organization, known as the Russian Communist Union of...
. After the Polish-Soviet War
Polish-Soviet War
The Polish–Soviet War was an armed conflict between Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine and the Second Polish Republic and the Ukrainian People's Republic—four states in post–World War I Europe...
, in 1922, his family moved back to their home village, but Stanisław soon moved to the Soviet Union where he worked in the Polish Bureau of the Communist Party of Byelorussia. In 1925 he was send clandestinely by Moscow back into Poland to take charge of the youth section of the illegal Polish Communist Party (KPP). Three years later he was arrested for activity against the sovereignty and independence of the Polish Republic and sentenced to four years in prison. After being released he served as a functionary of the KPP. He was arrested again 1937 and served half a year in prison. In 1938 on the orders of Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
the KPP was disbanded and its leaders executed as part of the Great Purge
Great Purge
The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938...
. Radkiewicz however was spared as he enjoyed Stalin's confidence and was in fact put in charge by Stalin of liquidating KPP's party cells in Poland.
World War II
During World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
he volunteered for the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
but was later transferred and made a political commissar
Political commissar
The political commissar is the supervisory political officer responsible for the political education and organisation, and loyalty to the government of the military...
of the Polish 1st Tadeusz Kościuszko Infantry Division
Polish 1st Tadeusz Kosciuszko Infantry Division
The Polish 1st Tadeusz Kościuszko Infantry Division was an infantry division in the Soviet-organized Polish armed forces formed in 1943 and named for the Polish and American revolutionary Tadeusz Kościuszko...
and later a Division General
Division General
Division General was a military rank in the Bosnian army from 1992 to 1998.See also: Divisional General...
. He was also a delegate to the first Polish Sejm under communist rule.
Head of secret police
Radkiewicz was made head of the UB secret police in 1944, shortly after the formation of the PKWN "Lublin Committee" explicitly with Stalin's approval. In 1945 (actually, December 31, 1944), the PKWN was transformed into the Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland and the UB was renamed Ministry of Public Security of PolandMinistry of Public Security of Poland
The Ministry of Public Security of Poland was a Polish communist secret police, intelligence and counter-espionage service operating from 1945 to 1954 under Jakub Berman of the Politburo...
(MBP) although it continued to be known by its UB acronym partly because of the fact that local offices continued under the old name. In the period after 1945, the secret police grew rapidly under Radkiewicz's direction, with twelve thousand agents in April 1945 and twenty four thousand in December 1945. At its height, in 1953, the organization had thirty three thousand agents. Under Radkiewicz's tenure, the UB became better organized, developed its standard methods of operation and perfected techniques of terror that it used against political opponents. It constituted a "state within a state" in Stalinist Poland and even high ranking members of the communist party were afraid of it.
Radkiewicz's UB focused its activities on several main areas:
- agitation and armed terror, including secret murders, directed at the only legal political opposition to the communist party, the Polish People's Party (also known as "Polish Peasant Party", PSL) (which was forced to merge into the communist controlled satellite United People's PartyUnited People's Party (Poland)The United People's Party was an agrarian political party in the People's Republic of Poland. It was formed on 27 November 1949 from the merger of the communist Stronnictwo Ludowe party with remnants of the independent People's Party of Stanisław Mikołajczyk .ZSL became - as intended from its very...
(ZSL) in 1949) - tracking down, arresting and executing members of the anti-communist underground organizations, such as Freedom and Independence (WiN), National Armed Forces (NSZ) or other "Cursed soldiersCursed soldiersThe cursed soldiers is a name applied to a variety of Polish resistance movements formed in the later stages of World War II and afterwards. Created by some members of the Polish Secret State, these clandestine organizations continued their armed struggle against the Stalinist government of Poland...
" and non-violent civilian organizations. Additionally, the UB played a significant role in organizing Operation Vistula. - attacking and suppressing the activity of the Catholic Church in Poland, as well as other, non-Catholic, religious organizations.
Action against the Polish People's Party
In December 1945 Radkiewicz direct a general action against the only legal opposition party in Poland at the time, the PSL. The purpose of the action was to ensure a communist victory in the upcoming elections and in the Polish people's referendum of 1946Polish people's referendum, 1946
The People's Referendum of 1946, also known as the "Three Times Yes" referendum, was a referendum held in Poland on 30 June 1946 on the authority of the State National Council...
. On Radkiewicz's orders, PSL candidates in the elections were harassed and removed from electoral lists, ballots send to areas of high PSL support were intercepted and never delivered so that voting never took place, PSL town hall meetings were attacked by units of Milicja Obywatelska
Milicja Obywatelska
Milicja Obywatelska was a state police institution in the People's Republic of Poland. It was created in 1944 by Soviet-sponsored PKWN, effectively replacing the pre-war police force. In 1990 it was transformed back into Policja....
(MO) and UB and finally, particularly active members of the party were murdered. Radkiewicz issued an order to his agents in which he instructed them to prepare an action of "liquidating" members of the PSL which, according to him opposed communist rule in Poland and which supposedly supported the anti-communist underground. The order also stated that these liquidations were to be made to look as the work of the anti-communist underground, combined with a press campaign directed against "anti-government terrorist bandits", which would place the blame for the murders on various anti-communist organizations. As a result, between the spring of 1945 and January 1947, at least 140 members of the PSL were murdered by the UB, among them notable figures such as Narcyz Wiatr
Narcyz Wiatr
Narcyz Wiatr was a Polish populist political activist, member of the agrarian Polish People's Party, a prisoner at the Bereza Kartuska prison and during World War II a leader of Peasants' Battalions a anti-Nazi underground resistance movement, with the rank of...
and Władysław Kojder. (The leader of PSL, Stanisław Mikołajczyk, in the face of widespread election fraud and growing state terror against his party, fled Poland in April 1946).
Action against the Catholic church in Poland
As early as September 1945, Radkiewicz ordered the organization of the 5th Department of UB whose task was to "counter organizations and groups active against the interests of the (communist) party". Within the 5th Department, Section V was charged with investigating and building actions against the Catholic Church. Within the section, Sub-Section I was charged with investigating those active in the Catholic Church (including the clergy) while Sub-Section II's focus was to be on the Catholic press and secular Catholic organizations.The head of the 5th Department was Julia Brystiger
Julia Brystiger
Julia Brystiger was a Polish Communist activist and member of the security apparatus in Stalinist Poland...
who, together with Radkiewicz organized the secret police's operations aimed at the Catholic Church in Poland. In October 1947, Brystiger - who was an interrogator of political prisoners widely known for her sadism and Gestapo-like methods of torture during questioning - presented a seminar entitled On the Clergy's Offensive Against Our Task at a conference for secret police chiefs and Radkiewicz was the main discussant. In her presentation Brystiger stated that the "final time of merciless fight with the Church" was coming soon and that in order to win it the secret services of the Communist party would need to employ "any means necessary". Radkiewicz, in his follow up remarks noted that "The clergy is not like the PSL (The Polish People's Part). With them it won't be as easy as it was with the PSL". As a result, in the autumn of 1950 Radkiewicz split Section V of the 5th Department into its own department (also the 5th) whose purpose was exclusively "fight against the clergy".
The actions against the Catholic Church took several forms, including harassment of priests and nuns, attempts to alienate the Polish church from the Vatican
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
via the use of moles and agent provocateurs, seizure and expropriation of church property, and staging of incidents which were meant to embarrass the Catholic hierarchy in the eyes of the public and Western opinion (for example, planting of weapons in Churches). In particularly "difficult" cases of politically active priests and Catholics who "didn't get the message", Radkiewicz ordered their elimination from public life, or, if all else failed, murder.
Party membership
In December 1954 Radkiewicz was removed from the position of Minister of Security, and in July 1955 he stepped down from the Political Bureau of the communist party. After workers' unrest in Poznan in 1956, several other members of the security services responsible for the Stalinist terror in Poland were put on trial (among others Roman RomkowskiRoman Romkowski
General Roman Romkowski born Natan Grünspau [Grinszpan]-Kikiel, was a Polish-Jewish communist, second in command in Berman's Ministry of Public Security during the late 1940s and early 1950's. Along with several other high functionaries including Dir. Anatol Fejgin, Col. Józef Różański, Dir...
, Józef Różański
Józef Rózanski
Józef Różański was a communist in prewar Second Polish Republic, member of the Soviet NKVD and later, colonel of the Stalinist Ministry of Public Security of Poland. Born into a Jewish family in Warsaw, Różański became active in the Communist Party of Poland before World War II...
and Anatol Fejgin
Anatol Fejgin
Anatol Fejgin was a Polish-Jewish communist before World War II, and after 1949, commander of the Stalinist political police at the Ministry of Public Security of Poland, in charge of its notorious Special Bureau...
), but Radkiewicz went unpunished. After he made a public critique of his actions, he was made the Minister of State Farms. In May 1957 he was removed from the Central Committee of the communist party and, for three years, from the party itself. From 1960 until 1968 he served as the general director of the Bureau of State Reserves and retired in 1968.
Over the years he was awarded the Cross of Grunwald
Cross of Grunwald
Order Krzyża Grunwaldu 1943-1960, Krzyż Grunwaldu 1960-1992 was a military decoration created in November 1943 by the High Command of Gwardia Ludowa, a World War II Polish resistance movement in Poland organised by the Polish Workers Party...
and the Order of the Banner of Work
Order of the Banner of Work
The Order of the Banner of Work was a governmental award in Poland during the twentieth-century era of the communist People's Republic of Poland....
(Order Sztandaru Pracy).