Soviet tanks in occupied territory at the Poland/East Germany border
NKVD DIRECTIVES FOR OCCUPIED COUNTRIES OF EASTERN EUROPE – 1947
A secret documented unearthed in 1981 reveals the destructive directives from Moscow regarding the manner in which occupied countries of eastern Europe (and east Germany) shall be treated post-WW2. The document was elaborated by Laurent Beria, head of the NKVD (today’s KGB), and was released on June 2, 1947.
According to the Yalta agreement signed by US president Truman, UK prime-minister Churchill and Soviet leader Stalin, the agreement did not imply occupation of eastern Europe countries. The document says otherwise.
Source – Opresiunea cultelor religioase din Romania în timpul dictaturii comuniste, 2002 (Romanian). Extract here Directivele NKVD pentru ţările din Europa de Est
– 45 zasad zniewolenia – (Polish extract)
The directives seek the destruction of education, health, the impoverishment of citizens and the liquidation (execution) of citizens who pose a threat to the Soviet presence. All heads of government, public administration and major factories were to be controlled and coordinated by secret agents from Kremlin or by local secret collaborators, hijacking the national economies.
The official 1947 document contained 45 directives, as follows:
1. It is forbidden to receive on the territory of the embassies locals detected by us as informers. The meetings with these persons is organized by our special services designated for this purpose, and the meetings can only take place in public places. Information are received by the embassy through our special bodies, in this case with our officer handing them to the highest degree from the embassy.
2. No relation between our soldiers and the civilian population is allowed. It is forbidden for our officers visit local to their homes; it is also forbidden that soldiers to establish relationships with local women. Do not allow relations between our soldiers and civilians or local soldiers.
3. The citizens who maintain ties with the Polish Communist Party, Polish Socialist Party, with the Communist Youth Organization, the Polish Home Army and other associations – will be liquidated (executed). For this purpose you will make use of military.
4. Military actions will taken by the soldiers who stayed in our territory (the Soviet Union is envisaged) before entering the Kościuszko Army. We seek its complete destruction.
5. The unification of all parties into one party needs to be accelerated, making sure that all the key roles go to persons who work for our secret services.
6. Youth organizations must be unified quickly. From leaders of local organizations all the way up to leadership positions, all positions must be allocated to persons appointed by our special services.
7. Officials elected as deputies in the congress shall not be allowed to keep their mandate throughout the entire period of the election. Parliamentarians can not, under any circumstances, call for meetings between companies/ businesses. If there is no way to avoid such meetings, all must be done to remove the presence of people who may come up with new concepts or protect the public demands. Private initiatives must be completely eliminated. For every congress, special persons must be prepared and only those working for our secret services.
8. Special attention will be given to persons with good organizational skills and popularity. These people should be hired, and in case they refuse our cooperation, their access to higher-level posts will be blocked.
9. All government workers, with the exception of those working in the mining industry and for our special services, must receive low wages. This refers especially to health, justice, culture, and those who hold leadership positions.
10. We must have collaborators in all government bodies, including factories, without the knowledge of the local administration bodies.
11. The local mass-media will not be allowed to publish data regarding the quality of the goods transported to us (USSR). Under no circumstances should this activity be called “commerce”. This activity will be called “commodity exchange”.
12. Constant pressure must be made on public services in order for them to not release documents proving land ownership; the only released documents will be those that prove the quality of the land, but never the property holder.
13. The policy towards the small family farm will seek to make it an unprofitable household. Then, collectivization must begin. If greater resistance from the peasants is met, their assigned means of production must be reduced, while at the same time increase their state quota (obligations towards the state). If this method doesn’t work, agriculture must be organized in such a manner that it cannot ensure the national food supply anymore, forcing the country into imports.
14. Everything must be done so that all public decisions and orders – either those of legal, economic or organizational nature – must always be adopted with delay.
15. Everything must be done for certain cases to be discussed simultaneously by several committees, offices and institutions, but none of them have the right to take a final decision before consulting with the other (exception cases aimed at mines industry).
16. The workers unions can not exert any influence on the activity of the plants Their only purpose is to put into practice the decisions of the higher management.
17. Trade unions have no right to resist any decision taken by the management. Unions must get involved only in minor issues like: public holidays, applications for pensions and loans, cultural and entertainment activities, trips, allocation of goods, the justification of decisions taken by the political leadership.
18. The only leaders who should be promoted in hierarchy are those who flawlessly execute all orders given to them, without questioning anything.
19. All local political, administrative or state leaders must be compromised in front of their employees in such a way, so that it becomes impossible for them to return to their original entourage.
20. Local military staff may be entrusted with leadership positions in places where our special services are already infiltrated.
21. For each armed action and firing exercise, the amount of the ammunition will be permanently controlled, regardless of the type of weapon.
22. All research institutes and laboratories must be monitored, keeping records of any valuable research.
23. Special attention must be paid to inventors, innovators, and their work supported and developed, but every invention must be recorded at the center. The only research that it permitted is research applicable within the mining industry, or research that has our special indications. Inventions that ensure increased production of finished goods and ,in parallel, the decrease in extraction of raw materials, are forbidden. If an invention has become public, it must be sold abroad in western currency, using the justification that it’s too expensive to implement in the country. Documents containing data regarding the value and the description of the invention will never be published. All data and documents concerning the value and the detailed description of the invention will come into our possession.
24. Punctuality regarding shipments of any kind must be disrupted (except those included in the N. K. – 552-46 regulations).
25. Various training sessions and conferences must be initiated in factories, proposals and observations must be written down, along with their respective authors.
26. Public talks must be initiated with factory workers dealing with current issues related to production, namely those that highlight negative past issues. The causes of the phenomena must also come into question.
27. Views expressed by the local leaderships may have national or historical reasoning, but they can not lead to national unity.
28. Attention should be paid so that cities’ water network may not be disconnected from the main water network. Old drainpipes and wells must be systematically liquidated over time.
29. Reconstruction of industrial sites and the construction of new ones must be organized in such a manner that all residual materials will be be dumped into water deposits that could be used as drinking water reserves.
30. In rebuilt cities or newly built housing facilities, it is no longer allowed to have any surplus space that could be used to shelter animals or store food reserves.
31. Private enterprises, small artisans and small industrialists shall only receive materials and equipment that lead to poor quality production. The final price of their goods must also be higher than the price of similar products made by the state.
32. State bureaucracy must be expanded at the highest level in all areas. Criticism regarding the poor functioning of the public administration is allowed, but the reduction of the number of staff nor the normal functioning of the bureaucracy will not be allowed.
33. Great care should be given to all manufacturing projects from the mining industry, especially enterprises targeted by us. A good supply to the internal market must be prevented.
34. Special attention should be paid to the churches. Cultural-educational activity must be conducted so as to result in a general antipathy towards them. All church printers, archives, content of sermons, songs, religious education, but also at the funeral ceremonies must be scrutinized.
35. All valuable teachers from elementary schools, colleges and universities must be removed, especially those who enjoy popularity. Their seats must be filled by people appointed by us, with a weak or mediocre level of training. The differences between disciplines must be analyzed in order to reduce the amount of documentary material; high schools will stop teaching Latin and old Greek, philosophy, logic and genetics. History textbooks must not mention rulers who served or wanted to serve in the best interest of the country. They will insist on the greed and wickedness of any king, on the negative effect of the monarchy and the oppressed people’s struggle. In specialized schools, specialization will be narrowed down.
36. Artistic or sporting activities will be organized in order to celebrate the local fight against invaders (insisting on Germans, excluding Russians) and to popularize the struggle for socialism.
37. It is prohibited to publicize any information regarding locals who lived on our territory (USSR) before the revolution or during the Second World War, or who fought with us during the war.
38. If any local organization is created in order to support the alliance with us, but also insist on working in economic management or the government, we must immediately start a campaign by indicting nationalism and chauvinism. This must be done following these steps: the desecrate of monuments that belong to us, destroy cemeteries, distribute manifestos that denigrate our nation and our culture and doubting the value of contracts signed with us. Locals must be involved in the propaganda work, using the hatred that exists against those organizations.
39. Special attention will be given to the construction and reconstruction of roads, bridges, pathways and networks, regardless of how remote or inaccessible they are, in order to facilitate possible military interventions, and to access any military resistance from all sides.
40. All political opponents must be jailed. All possible means will be used to try to recruit opponents who enjoys respect from the local population. If they dont join us, they will be compromised through smear campaigns. Before they become engraved in the consciousness of the masses, they must be liquidated through so called “unforseen events” (contingency) or be imprisoned on charges of common crimes. Only in very special cases will political trials be allowed, which will be held on charges of “high treason”
41. The rehabilitation of political convicts will be forbidden. If a rehabilitation becomes inevitable, it will be allowed only provided that the case be considered a judicial mistake. The convict will not be judged, but only pardoned; the trial will not be resumed, and the authors of the wrong judgment will never be summoned.
42. Public criticism or even prosecution of those appointed in leading positions by the (communist) party , who produced losses or dissatisfaction among the employees, is prohibited. In drastic cases, they will be removed from office, and then appointed in similar or higher positions. At the end, they will be placed in leadership positions or put in reserve for future subsequent changes.
43. The public will be notified by public trials against people (primarily the military, deputies, important public services, teachers) who will stand accused of attitude against the people, against socialism and industrialization. It’s an action that draws the attention of the masses.
44. Those who occupy various small-scale positions will be replaced by workers with the least training, or unqualified.
45. Priority to colleges and universities will be given almost exclusively to those who come from the lowest social classes, who are not interested to improve professionally to the highest level and only seek to receive a diploma.