Edward Próchniak (; 4 December 1888 in

Puławy Puławy (, also written Pulawy) is a city in eastern Poland, in Lesser Poland's Lublin Voivodeship, at the confluence of the Vistula and Kurówka River, Kurówka Rivers. Puławy is the capital of Puławy County. The city's 2019 population was Cen ...

– 21 August 1937) was a leading Polish communist activist and one of the founders of the

Communist Party of Poland The interwar Communist Party of Poland (, KPP) was a communist party active in Poland during the Second Polish Republic. It resulted from a December 1918 merger of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SDKPiL) and the ...

. He joined the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania in 1903. After the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

he headed a department in the Polish Commissariat of the People's Commissariat for Nationalities in Russia and was a member of the Polish Section of the

Bolshevik Party The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...

. From 1921 to 1924 he represented the Communist Party of Poland (KPP) Central Committee on the executive of the

Communist International The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internationa ...

, and was a member of the

Comintern The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internatio ...

executive 1922–37, and of its Presidium in 1925–30. As a member of the politburo of the KPP in 1936–37, Próchniak was summoned from Paris to Moscow in July 1937 and arrested on 8 July 1937 by the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

. He was imprisoned initially in the Lubyanka prison, and then interrogated in Butyrek, where he had been a prisoner in Czarist times. Despite severe torture, he allegedly denied accusations of being an agent of the

Polish Military Organization The Polish Military Organisation, PMO (, POW) was a secret military organization that was formed during World War I (1914–1918). Józef Piłsudski founded the group in August 1914. It adopted the name ''POW'' in November 1914 and aimed to gathe ...

(POW). Próchniak was sentenced to death on 21 August 1937 and shot the same day. He was posthumously rehabilitated on 7 May 1955.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prochniak, Edward 1888 births 1937 deaths People from Puławy People from Lublin Governorate Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania politicians Communist Party of Poland politicians Soviet people of Polish descent Great Purge victims from Poland Executed people from Lublin Voivodeship Soviet rehabilitations