Zbigniew Stypułkowski (26 March 1904 – 30 March 1979) was a Polish lawyer and politician, Member of the

Council of National Unity Rada Jedności Narodowej (''Council of National Unity'', RJN) was the quasi-parliament of the Polish Underground State during World War II. It was created by the Government Delegate on 9 January 1944. History Originally the political arm of the ...

. He was sentenced by the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

s in the infamous

Trial of the Sixteen The Trial of the Sixteen ( pl, Proces szesnastu) was a staged trial of 16 leaders of the Polish Underground State held by the Soviet authorities in Moscow in 1945. All captives were kidnapped by the NKVD secret service and falsely accused of var ...

in 1945.

Biography

In 1944 he took part in the

Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occurred in the summer of 1944, and it was led ...

. In March 1945, he was arrested by the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

and brought to

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. After 3 months of interrogations, he was sentenced to 4 months in prison in a

staged trial A show trial is a public trial in which the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt or innocence of the defendant. The actual trial has as its only goal the presentation of both the accusation and the verdict to the public so ...

of 16 leaders of the

Polish Underground State The Polish Underground State ( pl, Polskie Państwo Podziemne, also known as the Polish Secret State) was a single political and military entity formed by the union of resistance organizations in occupied Poland that were loyal to the Gover ...

held by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

in Moscow. In August he came back to

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...

. Fearing arrest, he escaped from Poland in November 1945. The arrest, imprisonment, and trial of Polish leaders is described in his 1951 book ''Invitation to Moscow''. The book was soon translated into French (''Invitation à Moscou''), Italian (''Invito a Mosca''), Portuguese (''Convite de Moscobo''), Spanish (''Invitation a Moscou''), Burmese and Arabic. The Polish version of the book was published outside Poland in 1951 (''W zawierusze dziejowej''). In 1991 the book was re-published in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is official ...

Hugh Trevor-Roper Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper, Baron Dacre of Glanton (15 January 1914 – 26 January 2003) was an English historian. He was Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford. Trevor-Roper was a polemicist and essayist on a range of ...

, professor at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in contin ...

, wrote that the book was "of unique value" and that "there is no other evidence known to me from which we can learn, as here, the psychology and method behind these Communist trials". He died and was buried in London. In 1927 Stypułkowski married Aleksandra Rabska, a fellow lawyer and legal partner and later, a notable émigré political commentator and activist. They had a son, Andrzej, who also became an émigré activist in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Selected bibliography

Works available in English

* ''Invitation to Moscow'' (London 1951), with a preface by Hugh Trevor-Roper

Cultural Depictions

The film, ''I Am Not Alone'', depicts Stypułkowski's story during his incarceration at the

Lubyanka prison The Lubyanka ( rus, Лубянка, p=lʊˈbʲankə) is the popular name for the building which contains the headquarters of the FSB, and its affiliated prison, on Lubyanka Square in the Meshchansky District of Moscow, Russia. It is a large Ne ...

References

External links

at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stypułkowski, Zbigniew 1904 births 1979 deaths Lawyers from Warsaw People from Warsaw Governorate National Party (Poland) politicians Members of the Sejm of the Second Polish Republic (1930–1935) Polish male writers University of Warsaw alumni Polish people of the Polish–Soviet War Polish military personnel of World War II Polish exiles Polish emigrants to the United Kingdom Warsaw Uprising insurgents