1. “W marcu kolejne prace eksumacyjne na wojskowych Powqzkach,” RMF24, 25 October 2012, at http://www.rmf24.pl/fakty/polska/news-w-marcu-kolejne-prace-ekshumacyjne-na-wojskowych-powazkach,nId,644349 (last accessed 30 September 2013). The investigation, led by the Polish Institute of National Remembrance, involves 117 victims of Stalinist justice.

2. Hodos, George, Show Trials: Stalinist Purges in Eastern Europe (New York, 1987).Google Scholar

3. Though outside the scope of this paper, the topic of totalitarianism is a subject of debate. Kurczewski, Jacek, for example, argues in The Resurrection of Rights in Poland (Oxford, 1993)Google Scholar that Stalinist rule was both totalitarian and authoritarian.

4. The concept of judicial murder originally appeared in eighteenth-century German law. Voltaire used the term judicial assassins (assassins juridique).

5. The IPN file referred to in this article is from archival materials related to the Fieldorf trial as well as documentation amassed by Polish prosecutors in the post-1989 period. IPN BU 1769/8: Akta Głowne Prokuratora w sprawie zbrodnia popełnionych na szkodę Augusta Emila Fieldorfa (hereafter IPN BU 1769/8). See also S. Marat and J. Snopkiewicz, Zbrodnia, sprawa generala Fieldorfa—“Nila” (Warsaw, 1989), and Maria Fieldorf and Leszek Zachuta, Generał Fieldorf “Nil“: Fakty, dokumenty, relacje, 2nd ed., 2 vols. (Warsaw, 2006-07).

6. See, for example, Courtois, Stéphane et al., eds., The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression, trans. Jonathan Murphy and Mark Kramer (Cambridge, Mass., 1999),Google Scholar and Judt, Tony, Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945 (London, 2007), 167.Google Scholar

7. Loebl, Eugene, Sentenced and Tried: Stalinist Purges in Czechoslovakia, trans. Maurice Michael (London, 1969), 259.Google Scholar Emphasis in the original.

8. Davies, Norman, God's Playground: A History of Poland, vol. 2, 1795 to the Present (New York, 1982), 159.Google Scholar

9. His nom de guerre comes from his route back into Poland, inter alia, over the Nile (Nil, in Polish). Fieldorf and Zachuta, Generał Fieldorf “Nil,” 164. See also the film Generał Nil, directed by Ryszard Bugajski (Warsaw: Monolith Films, 2009), DVD.

10. The PKWN was set up as a temporary executive organ in July 1944 by decree of the State National Council. Concerning the detention of the remaining leaders of the resistance, see Davies, God's Playground, 472, and R. F. Leslie, “The Years of Tempest, May 1943-December 1944,” in Leslie, R. F., ed., History of Poland since 1863 (Cambridge, Eng., 1980), 282-83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11. Jasinski, Grzegorz and Ukielski, Pawel, Guidebook to the Warsaw Rising Museum (Warsaw, 2007), 176.Google Scholar See also IPN1769/1399.

12. Władyslaw Tkaczew, “Relacje między organami informacji a sądownictwem i prokuraturą w Wojsku Polskim w latach 1946-1947,” in Witold Kulesza and Andrzej Rzepliński, Przestępstwa sędziów iprokuratorów w Polsce lat 1944-1956 (Warsaw, 2000), 389-411. See also Fieldorf and Zachuta, Generał Fieldorf “Nil,” 425-85.

13. IPN 1796/1355.

14. In its early manifestations, Soviet law could not break free from the universal principles of criminal law, despite the adoption of progressive new terminology. See Gsovski, Vladimir and Grzybowski, Kazimierz, eds., Government, Law, and Courts in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, 2 vols. (London, 1959).Google Scholar

15. IPN 1796. See also Anne Applebaum, “The Three Lives of Helena Brus,” Sunday Telegraph, 6 December 1998, reprinted at http://www.anneapplebaum.com/1998/12/06/thethree-lives-of-helena-brus/ (last accessed 14 November 2013), and Applebaum, Anne, Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956 (London, 2012).Google Scholar

16. Butler, William E., Soviet Law, 2nd ed. (London, 1988), 107.Google Scholar

17. Vyshinsky, Andrei Y., The Law of the Soviet State, trans. Hugh W. Babb (Westport, Conn., 1948), 503.Google Scholar

18. Kurczewski, , Resurrection of Rights in Poland, 44–45.Google Scholar

19. This was stated by Maria Górowska, whose profile is discussed below. See also Stan, Lavinia, ed., Transitional Justice in Eastern Europe and Former Soviet Union: Reckoning with the Communist Past (London, 2008), 93.Google Scholar

20. Snyder, Timothy, Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin (London, 2010), 73.Google Scholar

21. This was set out in the 1926 Soviet Criminal Code, which was amended in 1934.

22. Voslensky, Michael, Nomenklatura: Anatomy of the Soviet Ruling Class, trans. Eric Mosbacher (London, 1983), 47.Google Scholar

23. Judt, Postwar, 177.

24. Hodos, Show Trials, xiii.

25. Judt, Postwar, 188.

26. Serov was acting commissar for External Affairs and head of Security Services in the Red Army on Polish territory. I am indebted to Andrzej Paczkowski for this information.

27. Several of “the sixteen” had been detained earlier in Majdanek.

28. Fieldorf was mentioned in the trial proceedings, along with the AK and its successor, the Niepodległość (NIE), which were considered illegal organizations engaged in subversive activities against Red Army detachments. See Moscow Trial of 16 Polish Diversionistsjune 18-21,1945 (Moscow, 1945).

29. The chief prosecutor was Major Generał Nikolai Afanas'ev, the state councillor and chief prosecutor was Roman Rudenko (later chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials), and the presiding judge was Colonel Generał Vasilii Ul'rikh, who was referred to as a “uniformed toad with watering eyes” by his peers. Antonov-Ovseyenko, Anton, The Time of Stalin: Portrait of a Tyranny (New York, 1981), 83.Google Scholar

30. Ibid.

31. Davies, Norman, Europe at War 1939-1945: No Simple Victory (London, 2007), 195 Google Scholar

32. Some of the accused were acquitted; the rest received prison sentences of between four months and ten years. Further information as to the trial proceedings was released by the Russian authorities only in the 1990s. Fieldorf and Zachuta, Generał Fieldorf“ Nil,” 343.

33. See Zaborski, Marcin, “Zarys ustroju i dziejów Adwokatury Polskiej,” Palestra 11–12 (2012): 56–70.Google Scholar

34. The 1935 constitution was declared a fascist document by the Soviet authorities. See Rzepliński, Andrzej, “Przystosowanie ustroju sadownictwa do potrzeb pańistwa totalitarnego w Polsce w latach 1944-1956,” in Kulesza and Rzepliński, eds., Przestępstwa sędziów i prokuratorów, 9-37.Google Scholar

35. The TRJN was a coalition government formed by the Polish communists and the Polish government-in-exile which was established by the KRN.

36. Bosiacki, Adam, “Prawo stalinowskie i jego recepcja w Polsce 1944-1956—zarys problematyki,” in Kulesza, and Rzepliński, , eds., Przestępstwa sędziów i prokuratorów, 40–47.Google Scholar

37. Rzepliński, , “Przystosowanie ustroju sądownictwa do potrzeb,” in Kulesza, and Rzepliński, , eds., Przestępstwa sędziów i prokuratorów, 17.Google Scholar

38. Ibid., 20. The president of the Supreme Military Court worked with the minister of defense, together with an adviser whose function was fulfilled by a Soviet officer.

39. Dziennik Ustaw, no. 38 (1950), item 350.

40. Lityński, Adam, “Na drodze ku nowej procedurze karnej: O postępowaniu przygotowawczym w latach 1943-1950,” in Kulesza, and Rzepliński, , eds., Przestępstwa sędziów i prokuratorów, 49–66.Google Scholar

41. Kładoczny, Piotr, “Kara śmierci jako wykładnik polityki karnej państwa w latach 1944-1956,” in Kulesza, and Rzepliński, , eds., Przestępstwa sędziów i prokuratorów, 67–81.Google Scholar

42. Dziennik Ustaw, no. 5 (1930), item 43.

43. IPN 1769/1399. See Marcin Zaborski, “Szkolenie sędziów nowego typu w Polsce Ludowej, część 1,” Palestra 1-2 (1998): 79-92; Zaborski, “Szkolenie sędziów nowego typu w Polsce Ludowej, część 2,” Palestra 3-4 (1998): 105-10; Zaborski, “Szkolenie sędziów nowego typu w Polsce Ludowej, część 3,” Palestra 5-6 (1998): 131-51; and Zaborski, “Szkolenie sędziów nowego typu w Polsce Ludowej, część 4,” Palestra 7-8 (1998): 99-105.

44. Rzepliński, Andrzej, Sądownictwo w Polsce Ludowej: Między dyspozycyjnością a niezawisłością (Warsaw, 1989), 17.Google Scholar

45. bid.

46. Ibid.

47. Ibid., 18.

48. IPN 1796/1396-1397.

49. Ibid., 17.

50. IPN 1796/1397.

51. These ten-month courses were established throughout the country until 1950. From 1951 to 1953 they were systematically closed. The duration of law studies then increased to fourteen months.

52. See Rzepliński, “Przystosowanie ustroju sa.downictwa do potrzeb,” in Kulesza and Rzepliński, eds., Przestępstwa sędziów i prokuratorów, and Zaborski, “Szkolenie sędziów nowego typu w Polsce Ludowej, część 1” and “Szkolenie sędziów nowego typu w Polsce Ludowej, część 2.“

53. Rzepliński, , Sądownictwo w Polsce Ludowej, 19.Google Scholar

54. Ibid., 18.

55. In a letter to his daughter. IPN 1769/1405 and 1571.

56. Z. Uniszewski, “Sędzia,” Tygodnik Solidarność, no. 7 (1990), and IPN 1796/1406.

57. IPN 1796/1395.

58. IPN 1769/1553.

59. Majer, Piotr, “Aparat bezpieczeństwa publicznego a organy wymiaru sprawieliwości—elementy wspólpracy,” in Kulesza, and Rzepliński, , eds., Przestępstwa sędziów i prokuratorów, 475-84.Google Scholar

60. Henryk Cieśluk, IPN1796/1414. Rzepliński also notes claims about the incompetence of the military courts established by the Soviets, which were comprised mainly of Soviet officials; the operation of these courts came under the control of the Supreme Court and the Supreme Military Court. Rzepliński, Sądownictwo w Polsce Ludowej, 19. Regarding the appointment of potentially unqualified judicial officials, Edward Ochab said, “It was a difficult period in the life of our nation, but, viewed as a whole, it was the greatest turning point in our country's history.” Quoted in Teresa Toranska, “Them“: Stalin's Polish Puppets, trans. Agnieszka Kolakowska (New York, 1987), 39.

61. Fieldorf and Zachuta, Generał Fieldorf “Nil,” 490. The interrogation was led by Kazimierz Górski, who was the subject of criminal investigation in the prosecution's case in 1990.

62. Ibid.

63. Fieldorf and Zachuta, Generał Fieldorf “Nil,” 541.

64. Ibid.

65. Ibid., 547-48.

66. Loebl, Sentenced and Tried, 47.

67. Lay assessors were also selected according to their political manipulability.

68. IPN 1796/1355.

69. The court made no effort to learn more about the organization of the AK in order to gain more information about alleged orders to kill targets. IPN 1796/1397.

70. IPN 1796/1397, Sr 294/51 in the Kedyw archive; the evidence was most likely withheld by the Ministry of Public Security. IPN 1418.

71. Smith, Tom Rob, Child 44 (London, 1997), 45.Google Scholar

72. IPN 1796/1397, and Fieldorf and Zachuta, Generał Fieldorf “Nil,” 496.

73. IPN1796/1397. See Fieldorf and Zachuta, Generał Fieldorf “Nil,” 561n9.

74. IPN 1796/1397 and Fieldorf and Zachuta, Generał Fieldorf “Nil,” 496. According to the court notes, at the trial Liniarski did not know if the instructions came from Kedyw. The court refused clarification as to Kedyw hierarchy, activities, and territorial action. IPN 1796/1397.

75. IPN 1796/1402.

76. IPN 1796. See also Fieldorf and Zachuta, Generał Fieldorf “Nil.“

77. Fieldorf and Zachuta, Generał Fieldorf “Nil,” 575.

78. Ibid., 595. Fieldorf's father also appealed to Bierut.

79. Fieldorf and Zachuta, Generał Fieldorf “Nil,” 600.

80. Ibid. According to Andrejew, Mieczysiaw Maślanko did not dispute the evidence against Fieldorf. Fieldorf and Zachuta, Generał Fieldorf “Nil,” 644. Maślanko testified before the Ministry of Justice commission (discussed below) that the Fieldorf case was a continuation of the Trial of the Sixteen. See ibid., 691.

81. Ibid.

82. Andrzej Paczkowski, personal correspondence, 2 September 2012.

83. Fieldorf and Zachuta, Generał Fieldorf “Nil,” 641. Jakub Berman, a product of prewar legal education, was in charge of the Polish secret police (Urząd Bezpieczeństwa) from 1944 to 1953, Hilary Mine was responsible for economic affairs from 1944 to 1956, and Stanislaw Radkiewicz was head of the Polish secret police from 1944 to 1954. See Torańska, Them. See also Fieldorf and Zachuta, Generał Fieldorf “Nil,” 575.

84. Quoted in Fieldorf and Zachuta, Generał Fieldorf “Nil,” 602.

85. IPN 1796/1418.

86. Ibid.

87. IPN 1796/1402.

88. The secret sections were organized by the director of the Special Department of Judicial Supervision and the director of the Special Department of the Supervision of the Prosecution. The commission discovered that from 1950 to 1954 the secret section heard 506 cases and examined 114 proceedings. Names of judges appeared repeatedly in the archive files, all of whom were from the Ministry of Justice. The mastermind of the courts' construction, as well as the supervisor of the proceedings and caseload, was the president of the regional court in Warsaw, Ilia Rubinow. IPN 1976/1361. See also Stanowska, Maria and Strzembosz, Adam, Sędziowie warszawscy w czasie próby 1981-1988 (Warsaw, 2005), 25–41.Google Scholar

89. In fact, Wladyslaw Liniarski was questioned about the Fieldorf case in 1957 before the district court, where he withdrew his testimony because it had been given under torture.

90. Fieldorf and Zachuta, Generał Fieldorf “Nil,” 633.

91. am grateful to Norman Davies for this information. Personal correspondence, 29 August 2013.

92. Norman Davies, “The Deep Stains of Dictatorship,” review of The Taste of Ashes: The Afterlife of Totalitarianism in Eastern Europe, by Marci Shore, New York Review of Books, 9 May 2013, at http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/may/09/deep-stains-dictatorship/?pagination=false (last accessed 14 November 2013). Davies, personal correspondence, 29 August 2013.

93. Friszke, Andrzej, “Epilogue: Polish Communism in Contemporary Debates,” in Kemp-Welch, Anthony, ed. and trans., Stalinism in Poland, 1944-1956: Selected Papers from the Fifth World Congress of Central and East European Studies, Warsaw, 1995 (New York, 1999), 149-52.Google Scholar

94. Kurczewski, , Resurrection of Rights in Poland, 67–99.Google Scholar

95. Kurczewski, , Resurrection of Rights in Poland, 72. See also Kemp-Welch, ed. and trans., Stalinism in Poland, 1944-1956.Google Scholar

96. Andrzej Gaberle passed away in February 2012.

97. IPN 1796/1395.

98. IPN 1796/1401. In other words, not all the judges were qualified to sit on the bench of the Supreme Court. Merz, for example, was appointed on an annual basis. Rzepliński, “Przystosowanie ustroju sądownictwa do potrzeb,” in Kulesza and Rzepliński, eds., Przestępstwa sędziów i prokuratorów, 27.

99. Górowska wrote a final political testament that was sent to the prosecution upon her death in 1998. In it she notes that the AK was a criminal organization. She based her claims on the evidence that was provided by the witnesses. The reasons for the poor state of health of the two key witnesses would have been known to her. IPN 1796/1363.

100. IPN 1796/1460.

101. IPN 1796/1472.

102. IPN 17961401.

103. See Zaborski, “Zarys ustroju i dziejów Adwokatury Polskiej,” and Rzepliński, “Przystosowanie ustroju sadownictwa do potrzeb,” in Kulesza and Rzepliński, eds., Przestępstwa sędziow i prokuratorów.

104. See Witold Kulesza, “Odpowiedzialność karna sędziów i prokuratorów za zbrodnię sadowa,” in Kulesza and Rzepliński, eds., Przestępstwa sędziów i prokuratorów, 507-15.

105. The notion of perverting the course of justice is not found in Polish criminal law.

106. See Kulesza, “Odpowiedzialność karna sędziów i prokuratorów,” in Kulesza, and Rzepliński, , eds., Przestępstwa sędziów i prokuratorów, and Piotrowicz, Ryszard W. and Blay, Sam K. N., eds., The Unification of Germany in International and Domestic Law (Amsterdam, 1997), 162-69.Google Scholar

107. A key feature of the decisions is their length, usually half a page of typewritten notes relating to the charges, decision, sentence, and signatures, usually countersigned by Bierut. Kulesza, “Odpowiedzialność karna sędziów i prokuratorów,” in Kulesza and Rzepliński, eds., Przestępstwa sędziów i prokuratorów, 509.

108. The article states, “Whoever enters into an association that is designed to overthrow the democratic system of the Polish state, or engages, participates, directs, or provides it with weapons or assistance, will be punished by imprisonment or capital sentence.“

109. Kulesza, “Odpowiedzialność karna sędziów i prokuratorów,” in Kulesza and Rzepliński, eds., Przestępstwa sędziów i prokuratorów, 511.

110. Ibid.

111. Ibid.

112. Ibid.

113. Dziennik Ustaw, no. 155 (1998), item 1016. “The Act on the Institute of National Remembrance,” 18 December 1998, at http://www.ipn.gov.pl/portal/en/31/327/The_Act_on_the_Institute_of_National_Remembrance.html (last accessed 15 November 2013).

114. Note that the 30 November 2006 amendment to the 1998 law, in force from 15 March 2007, extended these statutory limitation periods.

115. Denned in Article 6(c) of the 1945 Charter of the International Military Tribunal of Numemberg, 82 UNTS 279, and Article 7 of the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

116. Merz was one such official. See IPN1769/1553.

117. Wolińska-Brus called Poland “a despicable country” in which she saw the investigation of her involvement in the Fieldorf case as a witch hunt that was “vengeful” and “anti-Semitic.” See IPN Sygnatura (Sygn.) Akt PO. Sledztwo (SI.) 6/97: Bezprawnego pozbawienia wolnosci Augusta Fieldorfa pzrez prokuratura Naczelnej Prokuratury Wojskowej pplk Helene Wolinska p-ko pplk. w st. spocz. Helena Wolinska-Brus c. Jana art. 248 § 2kk w zw. Art. 2ai2b ust. zdn. 06.04.84r. Gl. Kom.Bad.Zbr. p-ko Nar. Polskiemu, K-l-225. See also Applebaum, “The Three Lives of Helena Brus.“

118. Retroactivity of a law may not have been expressly provided for in the constitution at the time, but it quickly became one of the fundamental components of the rule of law, as interpreted by the Constitutional Tribunal in judgments K 5/90, 40; K 7/90, 50-51. Jorg Arnold and Ewa Weigend, “Prawo karne, zmiana systemu politycznego i obrachunek z przeslosciq w Polsce i w Niemczech,” in Albin Eser and Andrzej Zoll, eds., Prawo karne a problem zmiany ustroju politycznego / Strafrecht und politischer Systemweschel (Kraków, 1998), 19-72.

119. See IPN Sygn. Akt PO. SI. 6/97,1018-19.

120. It should be noted that the British War Crimes Act 1991 confers jurisdiction on British courts to try for war crimes committed in Nazi Germany or German-occupied territories during WWII persons who were not British citizens at the time but who have become British or naturalized citizens since that period.

121. Applebaum, “The Three Lives of Helena Brus.“

122. See Kulesza, “Odpowiedzialność karna s^dziow i prokuratorów,” in Kulesza and Rzepliński, eds., Przestępstwa sędziów i prokuratorów. Wolińska-Brus had far-reaching authority and was responsible for following the orders transmitted by the Ministry of Public Security which resulted in allegations of torture and creating an atmosphere of terror. There are documents pointing to her political loyalty. See IPN 6/97, 2213-15.

123. Abrams, Brad, “The Politics of Retribution: The Trial of Jozef Tiso,” East European Politics and Societies 10, no. 2 (March 1996): 255-92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar See also Pelikan, Jifi, ed., The Czechoslovak Political Trials, 1950-1954: The Suppressed Report of the Dubcek Government's Commission of Inquiry (Stanford, 1971),Google Scholar and Loebl, Sentenced and Tried.

124. See W. V. Wallace, review of Sentenced and Tried, by Eugene Loebl, Prague's 200 Days: The Struggle for Democracy in Czechoslovakia, by Harry Schwartz, The Czechoslovak Crisis 1968, ed. by lames, Robert Rhodes, and The Czech Black Book, ed. by Littell, Robert, International Affairs 46, no. 1 (January 1970): 168-70.Google Scholar

125. The identities were revealed through the correspondence between judicial officials and the Fieldorf family, namely Maria Fieldorf, the general's daughter. See Fieldorf and Zachuta, Generał Fieldorf “Nil.“