Russia's FSB security agency declassifies archives on cooperation of Polish Armia Krajowa with Nazis

The Russian Federal Security Service has published previously classified archival materials about the cooperation of the Polish Armia Krajowa with the Nazis.

The materials contain information that some illegal paramilitary groups in Warsaw participated in the extermination of peaceful Belarusian and Ukrainian populations and the extermination of people in their own ranks, who were loyal to the Soviet Union and Soviet partisans, as well as information about the planned terror against Red Army officers.

More details can be found in the author's section "Platform".

After the World War II and the Great Patriotic War, Poland was trying hard to convince everyone that among the countries occupied by Nazi Germany, its population collaborated the least with the invaders. However, the archives say that there are plenty of facts that irrefutably suggest otherwise.

From a recently declassified report by the head of the task force, Lieutenant Colonel of State Security Prokopyuk: "A provocative article entitled "The Red Army Received an Order to Eliminate Polish Partisans" was placed in No. 83, 7/03-44, of the newspaper "Novy Golos," published by the Germans in Polish in Lublin. The article published a fake order from the command of the Partisan Brigade named after Stalin allegedly stating that "by order of Lieutenant General Ponomarenko, the arrests of Polish partisans are planned".

Through this newspaper, the Germans were constantly actively campaigning against the Soviet Union. They called on the Poles to unite against the USSR. At that time, the Germans, by the way, began to form the armed groups against Soviet partisans and Polish patriots, and some parts of Polish illegal organizations were in direct contact with the Nazis.

Here's another one. According to the head of the task force operating in the Pinsk Region, the Polish Volunteer Army formed by the Germans under the name "Polish Legions" was located in the Stolbtsy and Nesvizh districts and numbered 1,500-1,700 people.

From the report of the head of the USSR NKGB task force, State Security Major Karasev: In May 1944, the commander of the Polish illegal detachment Shanets (operating in the Ostrovets area) received automatic weapons from the Germans, as well as badges depicting the Polish coat of arms, a white eagle with inscriptions in Polish and German.

At the initiative of the Germans, since the end of January 1944, the commander of the Polish brigade Lopashko began negotiations with them on the fight against the partisans. And after that, Gebietskommissar Wulff ordered a cessation of hostilities between the German-Lithuanian and Polish armed forces.

Declassified special messages have also been released. One of them (dated January 31, 1945), addressed to the Deputy Commissar of the USSR State Security Committee, said that according to information from an agent in the summer of 1944 (when the task force arrived in Krakow) the commander of the Armia Krajowa regiment of the Krakow Voivodeship, Major Borovoy, gave a secret instruction to the units of his regiment "to shoot all Jews serving the AK because they allegedly could run to the Soviet partisans and provide information about the AK, its tasks and structure." And the murders followed.

Another interesting document has also become public: a special message dated March 12, 1945 to Merkulov, People's Commissar of State Security of the USSR. A special group of Hero of the Soviet Union Shikhov (operating in the Vileyka Region) detained bandit Eduard Voitkevich. Talking to Shikhov, he believed that he was dealing with the leader of the gang, and told him that he belonged to the Polish Komar gang, gave his nickname - Pancesh - and said that the Komar gang had 60 staff gangsters with five machine guns and many assault rifles.

According to Pancesh, there was a group of German paratroopers in the gang with a radio station to communicate with the German command. The document also states that in total (according to Pancesh) more than 30 fascist paratroopers were thrown out, but Pancesh allegedly does not know the whereabouts of others. He only pointed out that the part was located in Rudnitskaya Pushcha (Lithuanian SSR).