Military Courts for Civilians in Poland (1946)

Abstract

At the end of WWII (1944), Polish citizens living on Polish territory were judged predominantly by the military courts of the Soviet Red Army and of Soviet secret security forces – NKVD (People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs). In addition to that, Polish civilians were judged by the military courts of the Polish Army entering Poland from the east, from the Soviet Union. The military court system of the Polish Army was in fact under the control of the Soviet Union. As the war finished, the martial law was officially finished on 17 December 1945. And in January 1946, the communist regime set up military courts for civilians in each administrative district. Those military courts for civilians were dealing exclusively with the civilians and not with the military staff – neither officers nor soldiers – affairs. They had a special task: to fulfill the concept of the class struggle and to physically destroy the opposition – both real opposition and fictional one. Military courts were following the orders of the communist party and finished their activity in 1955. They were the most important and the most tragic institutional phenomenon in the whole history of the so-called judicial system of communist People’s Poland.