Operational Order

Of the People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Union of SSR

11 Auguest 1937

Moscow

No. 00485

Distributed together with the present order is the closed letter concerning the fascist-rebel, espionage, diversionist, sabotage, and terrorist activity of Polish intelligence in the USSR, and also materials of the investigation into the “PMO” [Polish Military Organization] case. These document disclose a picture of a long-standing and relatively unpunished divsionist-espionage work of Polish intelligence on the territory of the USSR.

It is evident from these materials that the subversive activity of Polish intelligence has been and continues to be carried out so openly that the fact that this activity has gone unpunished can only be explained by the poor work of the organs of the GUGB [Main Directorate of State Security, a part of the Commissariat of Internal Affairs, or NKVD] and the carelessness of chekists [investigative officers of the NKVD, formerly the “cheka” or “extraordinary commission”].

Even now work in local areas on the liquidation of Polish diversionist-espionage groups and organizations of the PMO has not been completely developed. The tempo and scale of investigation is very low. The main contingents of Polish intelligence have evaded even operational notice (of the mass of refugees from Poland, which has been calculated about approximately 15,000 persons, only 9,000 are accounted for in the whole USR. In Western Siberia, of the approximately 5,000 refugees in that territory no more than 1,000 are accounted for.) The same situation exists concerning political immigrants from Poland. As for agent work [i.e. reports], that is almost completely absent. Moreover, the existing agent work, as a rule, consists of double agents planted by Polish intelligence itself.

This insufficiently determined liquidation of the Polish intelligence cadre is all the most dangerous now when the Moscow center of the “PMO” has been smashed and many of its most active members arrested. Polish intelligence, in anticipation of its further inevitable collapse, is attempting to spread, and in some cases has already put into action, its diversionist network in the economy of the USSR and, primarily, in its defense-related establishments.

In this connection the fundamental task of the organis of the GUGB at the present time is to smash the anti-Soviet work of Polish intelligence and the complete liquidation of the widely-spread diversionist-insurrectionist base of the “PMO”, as yet untouched, and of the basic personnel of Polish intelligence in the USSR.

I ORDER:

1. On August 1937 to begin a broad operation directed towards the complete liquidation of local organizations of the “PMO” and, first of all, of its diversionist-espionage and insurrectionist cadre in industry, transport, and in Soviet and collective farms.

The entire operation must be completed within three months, that is, by November 20 1937.

2. Subject to arrest are:

a) the most active members of the “PMO” who have been uncovered in the process of investigation and not located so far, according to the attached list;

b) All prisoners of war of the Polish Army who still remain in the USSR;

c) Refugees from Poland regardless of the time of their entry into the USSR;

d) Political emigrants and those who have been exchanged for political reasons from Poland;

e) Former members of the Polish Socialist Party (PPS) and of other Polish anti-Soviet political parties;

f) the most active part of the local anti-Soviet nationalist elements in Polish regions.

3. The arrests to be carried out in two stages:

a) To be arrested in the first stage those listed above, those who work in the organs of the NKVD, in the Red Army, in defense factories, in defense sectors of all other factories, in railroad, water, and air transport, in the electrical power areas of all industrial establishments, in natural gas and oil refineries;

b) To be arrested in the second stage are all those remaining who work in industrial establishments of a non-defense character, in Soviet and collective farms and establishments.

4. Together with the initiation of the arrest operation begin investigative work. The main blow of the investigation should be concentrate on the complete exposure of the organizers and directors of diversionist groups with the goal of complete exposure of the diversionist network. All those who are named during the confessions of arrested spies, saboteurs, and diversionists are to be IMMEDIATELY ARRESTED. A special grpu of operative workers is to be assigned to lead the investigation.

5. All those arrested are to be divided into two categories, according to the disclosure of their guilt during the investigative process:

a) the first category, subject to execution [“shotting”], which is to comprise all espionage, diversionist, sabotage, and insurrectionist cadre of Polish intelligence;

b) the second category, the less active among them, subject to confinement in prisons and camps for a period of 5 to 10 years.

6. Of those who have been assigned to the first and second categories during the process of investigation, lists are to be compiled every 10 days with a brief outline of investigative and agent materials that explain the degree of guilt of the arrested persons, these lists to be sent for final confirmation to the NKVD of the USSR.

The assignment to the first or second category on the basis of review of the agent and investigative materials is to be carried out by the People’s Commissar for Internal Affairs of the republic, the chief of the UNKVD of the province [“oblast’”] or region [“krai”], together with the corresponding Procurator of the republic, province, or region.

The lists are to be sent to the NKVD of the USSR under the signature of the People’s Commissar for Internal Affairs of the republic, the chiefs of the UNKVD, and the Procurator of the respective republic, region, and province.

After the confirmation of the lists in the NKVD of the USSR and the office fo the Procurator of the USSR the sentence is to be carried out immediately, that is those in the first category are to be shot and those in the second are to be sent to prisons and camps according to the instructions of the NKVD of the USSR.

7. Release from prisons and camps of those who were convicgted of Polish espionage and who have completed their terms of imprisonment is to be halted. Materials for review of each of them is to be presented to the Special Comission of the NKVD of the USSR [the “Osoboe Soveshchanie”].

8. The whole work of the smashing of the “PMO” and of all the other sections of Polish intelligence is to be used intelligently and skillfully for the purpose of obtaining new agents against Poland.

In the selection of agents special attention must be paid to measure that will guarantee the organs of the NKVD from penetration into its network of double agents of Polish intelligence.

Lists of all the agents identified for recruitment, with detailed personal information about them, are to be sent for confirmation to the chief of the GUGB of the NKVD comrade FRINOVSKII.

9. Report by telegraph concerning the course of the operation every 5 days, that is, the 1st, 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th, 25th, and 30th of each month.

Signed: PEOPLE’ COMMISSAR FOR INTERNAL AFFAIRS OF THE USSR GENERAL COMMISSAR OF STATE SECURITY – EZHOV

 

(Source: Lubianka. Stalin i Glavnoe Upravlenie Gosbezopasnosti NKVD 1937-1938. Dokumenty. Moscow: Mezhdunarodnyi Fond ‘Demokratia’; Izdatel’stvo „Materik”, 2004, Document No. 166, pp. 301-303.