Lt Col Stanisław Michowski and Conspiracy in the Army. A sanctioned crime Cover Image

Lt Col Stanisław Michowski and Conspiracy in the Army. A sanctioned crime
Lt Col Stanisław Michowski and Conspiracy in the Army. A sanctioned crime

Author(s): Marcin Arbuz
Subject(s): History, Recent History (1900 till today), WW II and following years (1940 - 1949), Post-War period (1950 - 1989)
Published by: Towarzystwo Naukowe Katolickiego Uniwersytetu Lubelskiego Jana Pawła II
Keywords: splinter trial; Stanisław Michowski; conspiracy in the army; political persecutions in Poland after 1945

Summary/Abstract: The article presents Lt Col Stanisław Michowski in the context of political persecutions taking place at the turn of the 1940s and the 1950s in the postwar Poland. Michowski was an airman of the Polish Armed Forces, who after the Second World War returned to homeland. He recommenced his service in the army, but he was expelled and arrested shortly afterwards. He was one of the defendants, and was later convicted and executed, during what historiography of the period calls “the conspiracy in the army”. The operation was carried out by the Main Directorate of Information of the Polish Army and was aimed against prewar soldiers, soldiers of the Polish Armed Forces in the West, or those who were active in resistance in Poland during the Second World War. As an airman, Michowski was accused of participating in the so-called conspiratorial group of the Air Forces. The alleged aim of the group was conspiring against the communist government and their forceful abolishment with the help of the army. The overwhelming majority of accusations were ungrounded. Confessions fabricated during many hours of interrogations served as a basis for bills of indictment resulting in numerous executions. One of the executed was Lt Col Stanisław Michowski.

  • Issue Year: 16/2019
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 107-122
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: English