Augustów Roundup In Polish Press

"Grom's" file found In Lubyanka [NKVD/NKGB/SMERSH/KGB/FSB] Archives

Source:  Nasz Dziennik
Date: Friday, December 2, 2011, Nr. 280 (4211)
Autor: Adam Bialous

Yesterday, Białystok’s regional office of the IPN [Pol. abr. Institute of National Remembrance] sent a request to the Russian Federation to provide them with the content of the second ciphered report of Viktor Abakumov  to the NKVD [Rus. abr. The Peoples Commissariat for Internal Affairs (Народный комиссариат внутренних дел, Narodnyy Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del, НКВД] chief Lawrentyi Beria - Nasz Dziennik reported.

Prosecutors from the Regional Office of the IPN’s Commission for the Prosecution  of Crimes Against the Polish Nation in Białystok, investigating the “Augustów Roundup” had recently found out about the existence of this document.  This information is very detailed, indicating its specific archival number, and even the specific shelf on which it was deposited.  The Polish prosecutors are also intimately familiar with its content.  Their request for assistance sent to Russia via Poland’s Chief Prosecutors’ Office is entitled “[Request” for assistance in a criminal [prosecution] matter.” IPN requests a very specific document. “During the investigation, it was determined that the Central Archive of the Federal Security Services [FSB] in Moscow is in possession of a ciphered telegram of the head of the Chief Directorate for Military Counterintelligence “Smersh” [СМЕРШ, acronym of СМЕРть Шпионам, SMERt' SHpionam; "Death to spies"] to the People’s Commissar for Defense of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Viktor Abakumov, bearing number 25871”  - we read in the IPN's  press release.  This information was confirmed by the prosecutor Zbigniew Kulikowski, who leads the prosecutors’ team at the IPN’s Białystok regional office.  “I have the exact number of this document, and I know where it is.  We know not only that it is at Lubyanka, but also in which specific archival group [of documents], and what is its assignation” - he told Nasz Dziennik.

Polish prosecutors are also in possession of detailed information as to the content of this extremely important investigation document. - It reveals that during the "Augustów Roundup", [the Russian units] detained the commanding officer of the Home Army named Kurpinski, [whose] nom de guerre [was] “Grom”, and who was born in 1906.  His name corresponds precisely with the name of one of the Roundup’s victims on our list, which we prepared at the IPN quite some time ago.  This list contains the name of Szymon Kurpinski, nom de guerre “Grom”  who was born in 1906.  Everything matches - says the prosecutor.  The Abakumov’s second [ciphered] telegram contains, among other things, the number of weapons confiscated during the roundup.

In its request for assistance, they also ask the Russian side to make available the personal files and death certificates of its citizens who were likely to have carried out the executions of more-or-less 600 individuals arrested during the roundup.   It also mentions the names of “Smersh” functionaries: Gorgonov and Zelenin.  - During our investigation, we determined that those responsible for the liquidation of Polish citizens, and members of the Home Army were the Deputy-Chief of the General Staff of the Military Counterintelligence “Smersh” units with the People’s Commissar for Defense of the Soviet Socialist Republics, Major General Ivan Ivanovitch Gorgonov, as well as the Chief of Command of the Military Counterintelligence “Smersh” to the People’s Commissar for Defense of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics with the Third Byelarussian Front of the Red Army, Lt. General Pavel Vasilyewitch Zelenin - explains prosecutor Kulikowski.

IPN’s investigators also want to obtain files gathered by the Soviet authorities about those detained during the roundup.  - We know that there were investigations conducted in the Soviet Union. The Russian side may have files of some 575 investigations against the individuals detained during the roundup.  As defined by the existing procedures - the request was sent via the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Poland, which is translating it into Russian and will send it accordingly.

The files concerning the “Augustów Roundup” consist of documents gathered primarily by the "Citizen’s Committee to Locate Inhabitants of Suwałki Region Who Disappeared in August 1945" and were deposited with the Regional Commission for Investigation of Crimes Against the Polish Nation in Białystok on October 16, 2001.  The IPN’s investigative capabilities had been all but exhausted within Poland.  Polish prosecutors had appealed for help to the Russians on many occasions, the last of these requests being sent in 2009, and in June 2011.

At the end of August this year, Białystok’s office of IPN received the Russian response.  It was evasive, however, and based on its content the prosecutors were unable to ascertain whether it was in response to the request sent by the Białystok’s IPN office in 2009, or the last one from June 2011?  - This brief document informed us that in addition to the information provided to Poland in 1995, and in 2003, and concerning the detention and disappearance of some 600 citizens of the Republic of Poland in July 1945 in the Suwałki area, it does not have any further information - reported Nasz Dziennik, per Prosecutor Zbigniew Kulikowski, heading up the prosecuting team at Białystok’s IPN office.

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