A ‘Potemkin Reality’: Bolshevik Preparations for Visits of Polish Diplomats and Officials to Soviet Institutions and Enterprises in the 1930s

AbstractOn the basis of materials from post-Soviet and Polish archives the author discusses attempts to show Soviet reality in as good a light as possible by hiding the traditional communist disorder that were taken by the Bolsheviks in relation to Polish diplomats and consular officials and tourists in the 1930s as well as provides the answer to the question of what their perception of the mystification under way was. As Soviet materials attest, until the mid-1930s the Soviets strove to show foreigners the ‘Soviet paradise’ in a positive light. They expended much energy in that regard. The greatest undertaking was the visit of the French politician Édouard Herriot, but as the data provided in the present article, this practice was also used, to a lesser extent, in relation to other foreigners. A profound analysis of the archival base allows the author to state that employees of the Polish Foreign Service in the Soviet Union did not allow themselves to be swayed by the propagandistic images showed them by their Soviet hosts.Keywords: PropagandaSoviet UnionPolandPolish diplomatic corps in the USSR Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.Notes1 Dariusz Tołczyk, Gułag w oczach Zachodu, (Warsaw: Prószyński Media, 2009), 122.2 The subject of the Great Famine (Holodomor) in Ukraine and in the other parts of the Soviet Union has now been sufficiently unearthered and examined. In 2015 over 18,000 different studies on the Holodomor in Ukraine were cataloged. See: Nataliia Levchuk, Tetiana Boriak, Oleh Wolowyna, Omelan Rudnytsky, and Alla Kovbasiuk, “Vtraty mis’koho i sils’koho natselennia Ukraïny vnaslidok Holodomoru v 1932–1934 rr.: novi otsinky”, Ukraïns’kyi istorychnyi zhurnal 4 (2015), 86.3 On the visit of Édouard Herriot in the Soviet Union and the propagandistic utilization of his stay by the Bolsheviks to deny the existence of famine as well as to show the “achievements of socialism,” see for example Robert Kuśnierz, Ukraina w latach kolektywizacji i Wielkiego Głodu (1929-1933), (Toruń: GRADO, 2005), 183-188; Iaroslav Papuha, „Vizyt Eduarda Errio v Ukraїnu pid chas Holodomoru”, Holodmor Studies, 15 October, 2017, online edition: https://www.holodomorstudies.com/research1.html. See also: Dmytro Zlepko (ed.), Der ukrainische Hunger-Holocaust. Stalins Verschwiegener Völkenmord 1932/1933 an 7 Milionen ukrainischen Bauern im Spiegel geheimgehaltener Akten des deutschen Auswärtigen Amtes. Eine Dokumentation, (Sonnenbühl: H. Wild, 1988), 173-177.4 See Tomasz Stempowski (ed.), „Najbardziej tajemniczy kraj świata”. Związek Sowiecki w fotografiach i tekstach Juliena H. Bryana 1930-1959 / „The Most Mysterious of Coutries”. The Soviet Union in the Photographs and Writings of Julien H. Bryan, 1930-1959, (Warsaw: Instytut Pamięci Narodowej Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, 2020), 16.5 Haluzevyi derzhavnyi arkhiv Sluzhby bezpeky Ukraïny v Kyievi (The Branch State Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine in Kyiv, henceforth: HDASBU), fond 65, sprava S-1036, tom I, arkush 235-236.6 Famine occurred in some parts of Ukraine also later, and cases of cannibalism took place even in 1935. See Robert Kuśnierz, „«Dobrze jest już wtedy, gdy nie jest bardzo źle»…, czyli o sytuacji wsi ukraińskiej po Wielkim Głodzie”, Dzieje Najnowsze 2 (2020): 63-65.7 Nearly three weeks after the above-mentioned visit Kurnicki wrote in a report to the headquarters of military intelligence: “I state categorically that solely using the hunger of the peasant, they, throwing [him] scraps as to a hungry dog, managed to compel him to execute a huge amount of agricultural labor, and then coerce the same peasant to recognize them for their humanitarian action of additional feeding. By means of using systematic terror, they managed to break the peasant masses to the degree that, despite the tragic experiences of the past year, they gained the fulfillment of the entire plan khlebozdachi [grain compulsory delivery quotas imposed on the peasants], taking away once again nearly the entire crop.” Robert Kuśnierz (ed.), Pomór w „raju bolszewickim”. Głód na Ukrainie w latach 1932-1933 w świetle polskich dokumentów dyplomatycznych i dokumentów wywiadu (Toruń: Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek, 2008), 131.8 HDASBU, f. 65, spr. S-1047, ark. 164.9 Archiwum Akt Nowych w Warszawie [The Archive od Modern Records in Warsaw], zespół: Sztab Główny [Main Staff, SG], sygn. IV/5, k. 946-947.10 The woman worked in the Institute of the Production of Plants in Leningrad servicing foreigners.11 HDASBU, f. 65, spr. S-1047, ark. 266.12 She was the first wife of the composer Yulii Meius.13 HDASBU, f. 65, spr. S-1047, ark. 160.14 Ibidem, ark. 135, 148-149.15 Ibidem, ark. 166.16 Ibidem, ark. 170.17 Ibidem, ark. 136.18 Ibidem, ark. 142, 155.19 Ibidem, ark. 168.20 Ibidem, ark. 137, 143, 155, 157-158.21 The Osobyi otdel was the name of the military counterintelligence in the USSR.22 Ibidem, ark. 152.23 Ibidem, ark. 169.24 Ibidem, ark. 160.25 Jan Karszo-Siedlewski and Zdzisław Miłoszewski prepared two very detailed reports on 1 November 1933 from their trip. AAN, SG, sygn. IV/5, k. 910-939, and 940-947.26 Ibidem, k. 940-941.27 Karszo-Siedlewski prepared a very many analytical and apt reports on the subject of processes taking place in the USSR and their possible consequences. Two years before the Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939, Jan Karszo-Siedlewski, as one of only a few Polish diplomats, correctly foresaw that the communist regime will “in the near future” attack its neighbor to the west. Before leaving the Soviet Union at the end of 1937, in one of his last reports, called by himself his “testament on Soviet territory,” he described his relationship to the reigning system: “After taking a closer look at the Soviet regime, one cannot resist feeling growing repulsion, contempt, and hatred toward a bunch of people who, having put on the mask of Communism, which is supposed to make humanity happy, are able to wallow in human blood and misery, preying on the stupidity and helplessness of millions”. Robert Kuśnierz, In the World of Stalinist Crimes: Ukraine in the Years of the Purges and Terror (1934–1938) from the Polish Perspective, (Edmonton-Toronto: CIUS Press, 2020), 111, 115, 349.28 HDASBU, f. 65, spr. S-1047, ark. 160-161.29 This region was created in 1925 as a result of the korenizatsiia (indigenization) policy implemented in the Soviet Union in the 1920s. It was based on promoting official personnel from the region where an institution was located, or at least promoting those who spoke the local language. It was supposed to bring the Communists closer to the people, who approached them as just another foreign, Moscow-based power establishment. As a result of the policy of korenizatsiia, autonomous national-minority districts and village councils were established, schooling among national minorities was promoted, as was their literature and press. With respect to the Polish community, this policy resulted, as it was mentioned, in the creation of two such districts, one in Soviet Ukraine (named for Julian Marchlewski, 1925–35) and the other one in Soviet Belarus (named for Felix Dzerzhinsky, 1932–37). Kuśnierz, In the World of Stalinist Crimes, 183. More on the Markhlevskii raion see e.g.: Henryk Stroński, Zlet i padinnia: Pols’kyi natsionalnyi raion v Ukraïni u 20–30-ti roky, (Ternopil: Oblasna drukarnia,1992); idem, “Koniec eksperymentu. Rozwiązanie Marchlewszczyzny i deportacje ludności polskiej do Kazachstanu w latach 1935–1936 w świetle nowych dokumentów archiwalnych”, Ucrainica Polonica, 1 (2007), 201-220.30 HDASBU, f. 65, spr. S-1036, vol. I, ark. 282.31 From 1946 on the village was named Ivanivka.32 Ibidem, ark. 283.33 Ibidem, ark. 283-284.34 Kuśnierz, In the World of Stalinist Crimes, 335-336.35 HDASBU, f. 65, spr. S-1036, vol. I, ark. 289.36 Kuśnierz, In the World of Stalinist Crimes, 336.37 Following the above-mentioned trip, Captain Władysław Harland prepared a special report. See Kuśnierz (ed.), Pomór w „raju bolszewickim”, 114-115. Years later the trip was recollected also by Stanisław Zabiełło. See Robert Kuśnierz, “Nevidomyi pol’s’kyi dokument pro Velykyi holod w Ukraïni: zi spohadiv kerivnyka radians’koho viddilu khhidnoho departamentu MZS II Rechipospolytoï Stanisława Zabełła”, Ukraïns’kyi istorychnyi zhurnal, 6 (2020), 36-44. Some of the photographs they made at the time have been published. See Kuśnierz, In the World of Stalinist Crimes, 368-370; See also Robert Kuśnierz, “Unknown Polish Photographs of the Holodomor”, Holodomor Studies 2 (2010), 249-255.38 HDASBU, f. 65, spr. S-1047, ark. 137, 151.39 The reference is to the Italian psychiatrist, criminologist, and propagator of anthropometry Cesare Lombroso. He invented the Italian positivistic school of criminology, according to which, on the basis of links between physical and psychological features, together with anthropometry (innate predisposition to criminality), one could attribute to a certain person a concrete fault.40 Centralne Archiwum Wojskowe w Warszawie (The Central Military Archive), zespół: Oddział II Sztabu Głównego (Generalnego) Wojska Polskiego z lat 1921–1939 (The Second Department of the Main (General) Staff of the Polish Army, 1921-1939), sygn. I.303.4.3159, k. 248-249. See also Kuśnierz, In the World of Stalinist Crimes, 331-332.41 Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi voiennyi arkhiv v Moskve (The Russian State Military Archive in Moscow), fond 308 k, opis’ 19, delo 59, list 37.42 CAW, Oddz. II SG, sygn. I.303.4.1867, k. 121.43 Ibidem, k. 276.44 Kuśnierz, In the World of Stalinist Crimes, 330.Additional informationNotes on contributorsRobert KuśnierzRobert Kuśnierz (PhD with Habilitation) is a professor at the Institute of History of the Pomeranian University in Słupsk, Poland. He is a specialist in the history of the Soviet Union, and in particular of Soviet Ukraine. He also studies Polish military intelligence and the diplomatic services of the Second Polish Republic during the interwar period. He wrote or edited among others eight scholarly books on these subjects. The most recent is In the World of Stalinist Crimes: Ukraine in the Years of the Purges and Terror (1934–1938) from the Polish Perspective. Edmonton-Toronto: CIUS Press / University of Alberta Press, 2020.Prof. Robert Kuśnierz received several Polish, American and Canadian grants and scholarships, including those awarded by Harvard University and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland.