Jeżow – Beria – Sierow a sprawa Polaków. Na szczytach totalitarnej władzy

Abstract

Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov was Minister (People’s Commissar) of the Interior (NKVD USSR) from 1936 to 1938. In these years falls the period of the so-called Great Terror. Using the hands of Yezhov, Stalin carried out the genocide of his own citizens. Poles – citizens of the USSR – suffered the most. Yezhov was shot. In his place there came Lavrentiy Beria (December 1938). Beria was the second person after Stalin for 15 years. His right hand man was a NKVD General – Serov. From the beginning of World War II until the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, State Security General Ivan Alexandrovich Serov was an active participant in all of the most important events of those years. He was the only person in the Soviet Union to be the head of both the “civilian” Committee of State Security (KGB) and the military Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU). In particular, Serov was responsible for the criminal pacification of Poland after 1944. The author of the article used mainly two priceless documents: The secrets of general Serov’s briefcase. Journals of the first Chairman of KGB. 1939–1963 (Polish: Tajemnice walizki generała Sierowa. Dzienniki pierwszego szefa KGB. 1939–1963). The Polish version was published in 2019. The second document are the memories of Beria’s son – Sergo Beria: Beria, mon pḕre. Au coeur du porvoir stalinien (Polish: Beria mój ojciec. W sercu stalinowskiej władzy, the Polish version was published in 2000). Moreover, the author used: P. Sudoplatov, Special Tasks: The Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness – A Soviet Spymaster (Polish: Wspomnienia niewygodnego świadka, the Polish version was published in 1999).