Register of the Poland. Ambasada (Soviet Union) records

Finding aid prepared by Andrew Sorokowski

Hoover Institution Library and Archives

434 Galvez Mall

Stanford University

Stanford, CA 94305-6003

hoover-library-archives@stanford.edu

URL: http://www.hoover.org/library-and-archives

Title: Poland. Ambasada (Soviet Union) records

Date (inclusive): 1941-1944

Collection Number: 45014

Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives

Language of Material: Polish

Physical Description: 60 manuscript boxes, 1 card file box, 2 oversize folders (30.5 Linear Feet)

Abstract: Reports, correspondence, accounts, lists, testimonies, questionnaires, certificates, petitions, card files, maps, circulars, graphs, protocols, and clippings relating to World War II, the Soviet occupation of Poland, the Polish-Soviet military and diplomatic agreements of 1941, the re-establishment of the Polish embassy in Moscow, Polish prisoners of war in the Soviet Union, deportations of Polish citizens to the Soviet Union, labor camps and settlements, relief work by the Polish social welfare department delegations among the deportees, the Polish armed forces formed in the Soviet Union, evacuation of Polish citizens to the Middle East, the Katyn massacre of Polish officers, and the breakdown of Polish-Soviet relations in 1943. Includes material on the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Soviet government, 1928-1929. A digital copy of this entire collection is available at https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/zespol/-/zespol/24351 .

Creator: Poland. Ambasada (Soviet Union)

Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives

Access

Box 60 may not be used without permission of the Archivist. The remainder of the collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.

Use

For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Acquisition Information

Materials were acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 1945, with an increment received in 1959.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Poland. Ambasada (Soviet Union) records, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Alternative Form Available

Also available on microfilm (79 reels).

A digital copy (digitized from microfilm by the Polish State Archives) is available in Poland's National Digital Archive at https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/zespol/-/zespol/24351 .

Historical Note

Polish-Soviet diplomatic relations were severed with the Soviet occupation of Eastern Poland on September 17, 1939. After the German invasion of the USSR in June 1941, however, the Soviet government re-established diplomatic relations with the Polish government, then in exile in London. An agreement was signed on July 30, 1941, followed by a military accord on August 14. The Poles were allowed to re-establish an Embassy in Moscow, to form an army on Soviet territory for the common struggle against Germany, and to set up a network of Polish citizens deported to the USSR in 1939-1941.

Friction soon developed in several areas, leading to an eventual break in diplomatic relations. Of particular concern to the Polish government were the Polish deportees, many of whom were forced to accept Soviet rather than Polish citizenship. The activities of the Polish social welfare workers awoke the suspicions of the Soviet authorities, who conducted a series of arrests in June and July of 1942. Finally, the question of the fate of between 8,300 and 8,400 Polish officers who had been taken prisoner by the Soviet forces in 1939 and who were supposed to be released from the prison camps at Kozel'sk, Starobelsk and Ostashkov became a source of Polish-Soviet discord. The discovery by the Germans of mass graves of between 4,443 and 4,800 Polish officers at Katyn on April 13, 1943 seemed to confirm Polish suspicions. The Soviet authorities responded by accusing the Polish government of collaboration with the Germans. On April 25, 1943, the Soviet government broke diplomatic relations with the Polish government, and the mission of the Polish Embassy was officially terminated.

The Polish ambassador in Moscow from 1941 to July 5, 1942 was Stanislaw Kot. After the general evacuation, when the Embassy was moved to Kuibyshev, the post was assumed by Tadeusz Romer. He remained there until July 25, 1943, although his official status had been revoked in April of that year. The Romer papers are located at the Public Archives of Canada, and a microfilm copy has been deposited at the Hoover Institution.

A major part of the activity of the Polish Embassy was the organization of a network of social welfare "delegations" administered by "hommes de confiance" appointed by the Social Welfare Department. The Embassy representatives were responsible for the physical well-being, and in some cases the religious and educational care, of the more than one million Polish citizens deported by the Soviet authorities to labor camps and settlements in 1939-1941. A mass southward evacuation of these deportees was effected in 1943, and many made their way to Britain via Iran. A large number were interviewed in Tehran in 1943 regarding their experiences in the USSR. The interviews themselves are a part of the General Wladyslaw Anders Collection at the Hoover Institution.

Scope and Content of Collection

Reports, correspondence, accounts, lists, testimonies, questionnaires, certificates, petitions, card files, maps, circulars, graphs, protocols, and clippings relating to World War II, the Soviet occupation of Poland, the Polish-Soviet military and diplomatic agreements of 1941, the re-establishment of the Polish embassy in Moscow, Polish prisoners of war in the Soviet Union, deportations of Polish citizens to the Soviet Union, labor camps and settlements, relief work by the Polish social welfare department delegations among the deportees, the Polish armed forces formed in the Soviet Union, evacuation of Polish citizens to the Middle East, the Katyn massacre of Polish officers, and the breakdown of Polish-Soviet relations in 1943. Includes material on the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Soviet government, 1928-1929.

A digital copy of this entire collection is available at https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/zespol/-/zespol/24351 .

An item level inventory of the collection (in Polish) is available at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Related Collection(s)

Tadeusz Romer papers, Hoover Institution Library & Archives

Wladyslaw Anders collection, Hoover Institution Library & Archives

Poland. Ministerstwo Spraw Zagranicznych records, Hoover Institution Library & Archives

Subjects and Indexing Terms

World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons

World War, 1939-1945 -- Deportations from Poland

Poland -- History -- Occupation, 1939-1945

World War, 1939-1945 -- Refugees

World War, 1939-1945 -- Soviet Union

Prisoners of war

World War, 1939-1945 -- Diplomatic history

World War, 1939-1945 -- Poland

Poland -- Foreign relations -- Soviet Union

Soviet Union -- Foreign relations -- Poland

World War, 1939-1945 -- Conscript labor

Refugees

World War, 1939-1945 -- Civilian relief

Katyn Massacre, Katynʹ, Russia, 1940

Soviet Union -- Politics and government -- 1917-1936

Polish people -- Soviet Union

ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE FILE 1941-1943

Scope and Contents note

Circulars, instructions, orders, plans, and proposals, arranged by type of document.

box 1

General 1941-1942

box 2

Circulars, instructions, and orders 1941-1942

Instructions and orders 1941-1943

Personnel records 1941-1943

Plans and proposals 1941-1943

box 3

Plans and proposals 1941-1943

OFFICE FILE OF THE CONSULAR LEGAL DEPARTMENT 1941-1944

Scope and Contents note

Reports, lists, questionnaires, card files, and petitions, arranged alphabetically by subject.

box 3

General

Administration

Citizenship and passportization

General

Foreign citizenship

General

box 4

Czech

Soviet

United States

Polish citizenship

Questionnaires and lists

box 5

Polish passportization

box 6

Polish passportization

Soviet passportization

Registration

box 7

Registration

Deportations

General

Lists of deportees

General

As of December 30, 1942

Residence applications

Interventions

General

box 8

Arrests after amnesty

Courts, Soviet

box 9

Property

Correspondence

Lists

box 10

Reports

Miscellaneous

Labor camps, settlements, and prisons

General

List

Legalizations

General

box 11

Certificates and lists

Extracts

Deaths

box 59

General

box 12

Card file

box 13

Card file (continued)

box 14

List

box 15

Notes

drawer L06

Notes

box 15

Miscellaneous

Nationalities

General

Lists and petitions

Reports

Central European Federation

Eastern question

box 16

Internal affairs

Jews

Polskie Sily Zbrojne (PSZ) (Polish Armed Forces)

General

Berling, Colonel Zygmunt, Polish military units formed by under Soviet authorities, report 1944 June 5

Financial and personnel matters

box 17

Griazovets camp, prisoners of war and internees (as of August 3, 1941) at, list

Kalwaria camp (Lithuania), officers interned at

Koltubanka and Totskoe labor camps (Orenburg, formerly Chkalov, region), Polish citizens at

Prisoners of war, missing (Kozel'sk, Starobelsk and Ostashkov camps), list 1941 December

Railway workers 1941-1942

Red Army, Poles in

Service, military

box 18

Laws on universal military service obligation

box 18

Release and deferment, etc.

box 18

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), official relations with

box 18

Women volunteers, questionnaires

box 19

Miscellaneous contracts, lists, correspondence, etc.

Prisoners of war

General

Lists

Searches

Visas

OFFICE FILE OF THE FINANCIAL DEPARTMENT 1941-1944

Scope and Contents note

Reports, accounts, and inventory, arranged alphabetically by type of document.

General

box 19

Biurobin (Foreigners' Service Office) accounts 1941-1944

box 19

Informational materials

box 19

Budget

box 19

Inventory

Reports

box 19

1941 August 7 - 1943 May 12

box 19

1943 January 1

OFFICE FILE OF THE POLITICAL-INFORMATIONAL DEPARTMENT 1928-1943

Scope and Contents note

Correspondence, reports, protocols, lists, and clippings, arranged alphabetically by type of document.

General

box 19

Matusinski affair

box 20

Polish-Soviet Agreement 1941

Press and radio

Sikorski, General Wladyslaw, visit of

USSR

Antisemitism, report

Officials (party and government)

Comintern, report and lists 1928

Communist Party of the Soviet Union Central Committee, list 1928(?)

Government, Council of People's Commissars, list 1928(?)

Government, Party, and Comintern, table 1928(?)

box 21

Circulars

Clippings

Polish-Soviet Declaration of Friendship and Mutual Aid, signing of 1941

Various

Correspondence 1941-1943

Indices of correspondence

General

1941 September 9 - 1942 December 31

1941-1942

box 22

Courier post

Ministerstwo Spraw Zagranicznych (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) 1941-1942

Narodnyi komissariat po inostrannym delam (NKID) (People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs)

Received

Sent

1942 January 3 - 1942 December 30

box 23

1942 January 8 - 1943 April 26

1943 January 8 - 1943 April 20

Newspaper issue, Pravda 1929 March 3

Notes received by the Ambassador, Kuibyshev 1942

Protocols 1941-1943

Conversations with NKID, folder 1

Conversations with NKID, folder 3

Conversations with NKID, folder 4

box 24

Reports received from and sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 1941-1942

Miscellaneous

OFFICE FILE OF THE SOCIAL WELFARE DEPARTMENT 1941-1944

Scope and Contents note

Reports, testimonies, protocols, lists, certificates, card files, questionnaires, and photographs, arranged alphabetically by type of document.

Subject file

Children

box 24

Culture and education

Deportation and life in USSR

box 25

Evacuation

Delegations, Embassy Social Welfare Department

Arkhangel'sk region

Arkhangel'sk

box 26

Arkhangel'sk

Kotlas

Arkhangel'sk and Vologda regions

box 27

European Russia

Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic

box 28

General

Dzhambul

Kirov, Molotov, and Krasnoiarsk

box 29

Krasnoiarsk Territory

Novosibirsk and Altai regions

Primor'e (Maritime Territory), Vladivostok

General

Calendar of documents

box 30

Correspondence

Lists, prisoners of war

Notebooks

box 31

Notebooks

Siberia

Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, Samarkand, Tashkent, etc.

General

box 32

General

Deportations

box 33

General

box 34

History

Discipline

Finances

General

Allowances for individuals

Budget Commission

Budget, monthly

box 59

Budget, monthly

Grants-in-aid

box 35

Individual aid

Legal affairs

Liquidation of delegations

Personnel

box 36

Applications for employment

box 36

Arrests 1942

box 36

Deportation and evacuation from USSR 1942

box 36

Red Cross

box 36

Religious life of Polish citizens in USSR

Soldiers' families

box 37

Aid

box 37

Evacuation

box 37

Stroibatal'iony (Construction Battalions) and Red Army, Polish citizens in

box 38

Stroibatal'iony (Construction Battalions) and Red Army, Polish citizens in

Miscellaneous

box 39

Card files, Embassy social welfare representatives and delegations

box 40

Card files, Embassy social welfare representatives and delegations (continued)

Certificates

box 41

1941-1942

box 41

1942

box 41

Correspondence 1941-1942

box 41

Graphs

Lists

box 41

Children and orphans, numbers and distribution of (as of April 25, 1943)

box 41

Deportees, numbers and distribution of

box 41

Evacuees

Social welfare establishments

box 41

As of December 1, 1942

box 41

As of February 15, 1943

box 41

As of February 16, 1943

box 42

Notes on telephone conversations 1941-1943

Photographs, women deportees, Komi A.S.S.R.

Letka region

Syktyvkar region

Questionnaires, religious life of Polish citizens in USSR

Registers

Children, transport of

box 43

Social welfare establishments

box 44

Social welfare establishments

Reports

General

1941-1943

1941 November 1 - 1943 February 15

1942 December

1942-1943

1943 March 16

Calculation of number of deportees 1943 June 14

Deportees, conditions of life of

North and Central European Russia (Kuibyshev) 1943 April 10

Ural region-Chelabinsk and Sverdlovsk regions

Uzbek and Turkmen SSR

Fergana Valley, Surkhandar'ia region and Stalinabad

Karaganda, Akmolinsk and Kustanai regions (Kuibyshev) 1943 August 30

box 45

Kazakh SSR 1943 April 3

Kirghiz and South and Central Kazakh SSR 1943 March

Finances

"Individual Aid from the Polish Embassy in the USSR for Polish Citizens" (Tehran) 1943 July 17

Liquidation of delegations 1942 October 30

Relief from abroad

Religious life and clergy 1943 August 14

Social welfare representatives, Ural region, evaluations of

Transport and supply

General

"Soviet Allotments of Food and Manufactured Goods for the Polish Population and the Welfare Establishments" (Tehran) 1943 July 28

Transport Department

Testimonies

Adults

box 46

Bialystok Province

Lwow Province

Nowogrod Province

box 47

Polesie Province

Stanislawow Province

Tarnopol Province

box 59

Wolyn Province

box 48

Wolyn Province

Various

Children

box 49

Bialystok Province

Lwow Province

Nowogrodek Province

Polesie Province

Stanislawow Province

Tarnopol Province

box 50

Warsaw Province

Wilno Province

Wolyn Province

Various delegations

Testimonies and protocols of the Investigative Commission of the Polish Ministry of Justice, Tehran 1943-1944

box 51

Akmolinsk delegation

Alma-Ata delegation

Ashkhabad delegation

Barnaul delegation

Chelabinsk delegation

Chimkent delegation

Chkalov (now Orenburg) delegation

Dzhambul delegation

Kirov delegation

Krasnoiarsk delegation

Kustanai delegation

Pavlodar delegation

Petropavlovsk delegation

Samarkand delegation

Semipalatinsk delegation

box 52

Syktyvkar delegation

Various delegations

CORRESPONDENCE 1941-1943

Scope and Contents note

Official correspondence of the Polish Embassy in Moscow and Kuibyshev, including correspondence of Ambassadors Stanislaw Kot and Tadeusz Romer, arranged alphabetically by name of principal correspondent and preceded by registers of correspondence for August 1941 through December 1942.

Registers of correspondence

box 52

1941 August 19 - 1941 December 31

box 52

1942 January 1 - 1942 July 17

box 52

1942 July 17 - 1942 December 31

box 53

Kot, Ambassador Stanislaw, official correspondence, Moscow 1941-1942

Ministerstwo Pracy i Opieky (Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare), London, correspondence with, Kuibyshev 1942-1943

Narodnyi komissariat po inostrannykh delam (NKID) (People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs), correspondence with, Kuibyshev 1942

Letters sent

Letters received

Romer, Ambassador Tadeusz, official correspondence, Kuibyshev 1942-1943

Letters sent and received 1942

Letters received 1942-1943

Various correspondence

box 54

1942

box 54

1942-1943

MAPS undated

Scope and Contents note

Arranged alphabetically by title.

box 54

"Deportations of Polish Citizens from Territories Occupied by the Soviet Union from 1939-1941"

box 54

"Distribution of Polish Citizens Released by the Soviet Authorities after the Conclusion of the Polish-Soviet Agreement of the July 30th [sic] 1941"

box 54

"Mapa Specjalna Rozmieszczenia Ludnosci Polskiej w Z.S.S.R." ("Special Map of the Distribution of the Polish Population in the U.S.S.R.")

box 54

"Settlements of Polish Citizens Deported from Poland by the Soviet Union during the Period 1939-1941"

box 54

"Soviet Empire in Europe and Asia"

drawer L06

Oversize

box 54

MISCELLANY undated

UNSORTED MATERIAL undated

box 55

Materials not yet described.

box 56

Materials not yet described.

box 57

Materials not yet described.

box 58

Materials not yet described.

drawer L06

OVERSIZE MATERIAL undated

Scope and Contents note

Original, hand-made map of Soviet forced labor camps and prisons from which Polish citizens were released between 1941 and 1943.

DECLASSIFIED U.S. GOVERNMENT RECORDS 1941-1942

Scope and Contents note

Formerly security-classified records of the U.S. government, released in full or in part. Includes some interfiled, unclassified government records. Arranged chronologically by date of release by Hoover, then chronologically thereunder by date of creation.

box 58, folder 6

2016 January release of records 1941-1942

Scope and Contents note

Consists of the following:

Statement by the Polish government, in French, 7 July 1941 [originally in box 20].

List, "Stores for the Polish Forces - Arriving in Russia in Convoy P.Q.1," 29 September 1941 [originally in box 38].

Letter from Monsieur L. Baggallay, H.Ms British Embassy, regarding Latvians deported to Russia, 4 February 1942 [originally in box 21].

Telegram from British Military Mission, Moscow, 19 March [1942] and Aide Memoire from the British Military Mission attaching "Notes by British Chiefs of Staff Regarding the Polish Forces in Russia," 28 November 1941 [originally in box 16].

Statement regarding Polish-Soviet relations, in French, 27 July 1942 [two copies, one originally in box 3, the other originally in box 36].

box 60

2 ink stamps, 1 rolled paper form

Access

Box 60 may not be used without permission of the Archivist.

box 61

1 microfilm reel

box 44B

Material not yet described