Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1945, Europe, Volume V

860C.01/4–445

The Polish Ambassador (Ciechanowski) to the Secretary of State ⁷⁰

[Washington,] April 4, 1945.

Sir: I am instructed by my Government to bring the following most urgent matter to your attention:

At the request of the Polish Underground State in Poland, the Polish Government informed the British Government of the names of Vice Premier Jankowski, Delegate of the Polish Government in Poland, and of the other three Ministers⁷¹ who represent the Polish Government in the Underground State in Poland. In accordance with the request of the Polish Government, acting in understanding with the Underground State in Poland, this information was communicated by the British Government to the Government of the USSR.

From information received from Poland in the middle of March, 1945 the Polish Government learned that Colonel Pimienkov of the Soviet NKVD⁷² had suggested that the Delegate of the Polish Government in Poland should enter into conversations with General Ivanov, the Representative of the High Command of the I-st Byelorussian front with a view of discussing “matters of first rate importance”. Colonel Pimienkov added that the Delegate of the Polish Government would be guaranteed personal safety.

On April 1st, Prime Minister Arciszewski received in London the following information contained in a telegram from Poland: A meeting took place between the Delegate of the Polish Government and Colonel Pimienkov on March 17th. In the course of the conversation Colonel Pimienkov urged the necessity of disclosing the identity of the Polish Political Parties and insistently stressed the necessity of unification of all democratic groups. He likewise insistently demanded that a meeting between himself and the Commander of the dissolved Polish Home Army⁷³ should take place.

On his part, the Delegate of the Polish Government requested among other matters that facilities be granted by the Soviet authorities for a Delegation from Poland to go to London to communicate and discuss matters with the Polish Government.

On March 18th, Colonel Pimienkov held separate conversations with Delegates of the Polish Peasant Party, the National Democratic Party, the Democratic Party and the Labor Party. The subjects discussed by Colonel Pimienkov in these conversations were similar to those he had raised in his conversation with the Delegate of the Polish Government.

On March 20th, Colonel Pimienkov informed the Delegate of the Polish Government that his request that a Delegation consisting of twelve persons be allowed to go by plane to London for contact with the Polish Government had been granted.

On March 27th, the Delegate of the Polish Government, the Commander of the Polish Home Army dissolved by the Polish Government, as well as Mr. Puzak,⁷⁴ representative of the Polish Socialist Party, went to Pruszkow⁷⁵ where they had been invited allegedly for further conversations, this time with General Ivanov, Representative of Marshal Zhukov.⁷⁶ They did not return from this appointment.

On March 28th, the three remaining Ministers of the Polish Government in the Underground State, together with two representatives each of the National Democratic, the Peasant, the Labor and the Democratic Parties, and one interpreter, went to Pruszkow for conversations with General Ivanov. They likewise did not return and have sent no information regarding their fate either to the organizations which they represent, or to their families.⁷⁷

Thus, information is entirely lacking about fifteen prominent leaders of Polish political life.⁷⁸ There is reason to believe that they were driven away by automobile from Pruszkow on the 29th of March.

The Polish Government has communicated all the above enumerated facts on April 1st to the British Government asking for its immediate intervention in Moscow. The British Government promised to intervene without delay.

Acting on instructions of my Government, I have the honor to submit these very disturbing facts to your attention and to ask for your intervention with the Government of the USSR in this urgent matter.

While the Polish Government hitherto lacks definite information regarding the fate of its Representatives in Poland, it has reason to fear that the Soviet authorities may have used the stratagem of inviting these prominent political leaders allegedly for conversations in order to arrest them and possibly to deport them. It is to be feared that henceforth any conversations which the Soviet authorities may carry on with them will take place in isolation and under pressure.

I have the honor to stress the gravity and urgency of this matter.

Accept [etc.]

Jan Ciechanowski

70. A memorandum by the Acting Chief of the Division of Eastern European Affairs, Llewellyn E. Thompson, dated April 4, recorded a conversation with the Polish Ambassador as follows:

    “The Polish Ambassador stated that he had wished to hand the attached note personally to the Secretary but in view of the great importance which he attached to its receiving prompt consideration and the fact that he would probably not be able to see the Secretary without some delay as he realized the Secretary was very busy, he was leaving it with me. He said he hoped it would be brought to the attention of the Secretary, and, if possible, he would like the President also to know about it.

    “I replied that I would see that the note received prompt attention.” (860C.01/4–445)

71. Adam Bien, Stanislaw Jasiukowicz, and Antoni Pajdak.
72. People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (Narodny Kommissariat Vnuttrennykh Del), Soviet agency charged with state security and police. In the copy of letter of March 6 to Vice Premier Jankowski, released to the press by the Polish Ministry of Information in London on June 13, 1945, the Soviet officer signed himself: Pimienov, Colonel of the Guards. For a partial text of the letter of March 6, see Bronislaw Kusnierz, Stalin and the Poles: An Indictment of the Soviet Leaders (London, Hollis & Carter, 1949), p. 230.
73. Brig. Gen. Leopold Okulicki.
74. Kazmierz Puzak, President of the Polish underground parliament, the Council of National Unity (Rada Jednosci Narodwej) and General Secretary of the Polish Socialist Party.
75. Town near Warsaw.
76. Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov, Commander of the First Byelorussian Front.
77. In addition to Bien, Jasiukowicz, and Pajdak, the Polish leaders who disappeared on March 28 were: Zbigniew Stypulkowski, member of the presidium of the National Democratic Party; Kazimierz Kobylanski, a member of the Council of National Unity and a member of the National Democratic Party; Kazimierz Baginski, Vice President of the Council of National Unity and Vice Chairman of the Peasant Party; Stanislaw Mierzwa, member of the Central Committee of the Peasant Party; Jozef Chancinski, Chairman of the Christian Labor Party; Franciszek Urbanski, Executive Secretary of the Christian Labor Party; Eugeniusz Czarnowski, leader in the Democratic Party; Stanislaw Michalowski, leader in the Democratic Party; Jozef Stemler-Dombski, Vice Director of the Department of Information of the underground government. In addition to these leaders, Aleksander Zwierzynki, Vice President of the Council of National Unity and Chairman of the National Democratic Party, had been arrested by the Soviet authorities on March 8.
78. As was later learned, the 16 Polish leaders (with the inclusion of Zwierzynski) had in fact been arrested by Soviet authorities and had been flown to the Soviet Union to await trial for alleged anti-Soviet activities. The arrest, imprisonment, and trial of these Polish leaders are described by one of those arrested, Zbigniew Stypulkowski, in his book Invitation to Moscow (London, Thames and Hudson, 1951), pp. 211 ff.