Conferences of the NKVD of the USSR and the Gestapo

In 1939 , after the signing of the Nonaggression Pact between Germany and the Soviet Union in August, the Polish campaign of the Wehrmacht ^{[2] [3]} and the Polish campaign of the Red Army ^{[2] [4]} , the territory of the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was divided between Nazi Germany and the USSR.

According to the Russian historian O. V. Vishleva, from the documents stored in the Political Archive of the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany , it follows that on March 29-31, 1940, representatives of the Soviet commission, but not the special delegation of the NKVD, were in Krakow, as followed T. Komorowski is claimed by some Western and Russian authors, and by the Soviet checkpoint for the evacuation of refugees. This commission, like a similar German one, was formed on the basis of intergovernmental agreement. The Soviet delegation consisted of three people: BC Yegnarov , captain of the NKVD border troops of the USSR, chairman of the Soviet Main Commission for the Evacuation of Refugees (in fact, on March 17, 1940, NKVD officer BC Yegnarov was awarded the rank of colonel. A false message about the rank of BC Yegnarov emphasizes the secret nature of the meeting ^[5] ), I. I. Nevsky, a member of the Soviet Main Commission for the Evacuation of Refugees, and V. N. Lisin, a member of the local commission for the evacuation of refugees. The delegation’s tasks included discussing a number of issues related to the organization of the exchange of refugees, and signing a protocol with representatives of the German commission.

The German side was headed by the head of the Krakow Regional Office, O. G. Wechter , who was the chairman of the German Main Commission, his deputy in this commission, Major of the Gendarmerie G. Flade and two representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The German commission also included representatives and representatives from other departments, which, however, did not participate in the official part of the meeting related to the discussion and signing of the protocol (in particular, the SS Hauptsturmfuhrer K. Lishka - representative of the SD) was mentioned in the list.

As a result of the discussion, the Soviet-German protocol of March 29, 1940 was signed, which was an addition to the resettlement agreement of November 16, 1939. He clarified a number of points of the latter, taking into account the experience gained during the resettlement process, modified his first article in relation to the refugee problem , and defined the circle of people who could be allowed to pass through the border to their former places of residence as refugees.

In his memoirs, Khrushchev notes: “ Serov [at that time the head of the Ukrainian NKVD], according to his official duties, established contacts with the Gestapo. The representative of the Gestapo officially arrived by mutual agreement in Lviv with his agents ... The pretext was the “exchange of people” between us and Germany ” ^[6] .

Some English and Polish authors ( Robert Conquest , Tadeusz Komorowski , Michael Stanton) take a different position, claiming that there were more meetings (up to four), and they had a different status. At the same time, evidence is provided of references to contemporaries of the events of Tadeusz Komorowski (see below) and Khrushchev.

Zakopane Conference

According to Robert Conquest ^{[7], the} conference was held in Zakopane , a famous resort in the Tatras . Conquest ^{[7] also} claims that it was at this conference that the decision was made on repressions against the Polish resistance: operations AB (carried out by the Germans in 1940; about 7,000 people were killed to suppress resistance in Poland) and a special operation in Krakow (the Germans arrested 183 teachers of local universities and sent them to concentration camps). In the same place, the Soviet side proposed transferring Polish officers located in the USSR to Germany, but was refused. Subsequently, these officers were shot by the NKVD ( Katyn execution ).

Conference in Krakow

As indicated by individual authors, another meeting took place in March 1940 in Krakow ^[8] . In the book of memoirs of Tadeusz Komorowski "Armia Podziemna ”, written in the UK and published in 1951 in the USA, contains the following statement:

“In March 1940 we received news that a special delegation of the NKVD had arrived in Krakow, where it was going to discuss with the Gestapo actions against the Polish resistance. The NKVD was already aware of the existence of a centralized organization, managed by a single headquarters. The negotiations in Krakow lasted several weeks ” ^[9]

According to one of the former leaders of the Home Army, Tadeusz Bur-Komorowski , cited in his memoirs in 1950, joint actions during the occupation of the country, in particular the fight against the Polish Resistance , were discussed at conferences ^[10]

The Russian historian O. V. Vishlev indicates that the version of Conquest contradicts existing archival documents ^[11] .

The historian, director of the Historical Memory Foundation A. R. Dyukov, notes that a fake document is used to prove cooperation between the NKVD and the Gestapo - the so-called “General agreement on cooperation, mutual assistance, joint activity between the Main Directorate of State Security of the NKVD of the USSR and the Main Directorate of Security of the National -Socialist Workers Party of Germany (Gestapo) ”, which first appeared in 1999 in the Moscow anti-Semitic newspaper Pamyat. ^{[12] [13]}

As historian V. A. Zubachevsky notes , when the myth of cooperation between the NKVD and the Gestapo at the beginning of World War II is introduced into the public consciousness, the publication of falsified documents is used ^[14]

• Soviet-German agreements of 1939
• Soviet-German relations
• Polish campaign of the Red Army (1939)