Institute of NationalRemembrancehttps://ipn.gov.pl/en/news/2574,The-opening-of-the-quotOrder-No-00485-Anti-Polish-Operation-of-the-NKVD-in-Sovie.html2021-07-28, 22:1319.11.2019

The opening of the "Order No. 00485. Anti-PolishOperation of the NKVD in Soviet Ukraine1937-1938" exhibition, Kiev – 20 November 2019

On 20 November the President of the Institute of NationalRemembrance, Dr Jarosław Szarek officially opened the "Order No.00485. Anti-Polish Operation of the NKVD in Soviet Ukraine 1937-1938"exhibition at the National Historic and Architectural Museum located atthe Kiev Fortress.

The opening of the exhibition took place with the participation ofBartosz Cichocki, the Polish Ambassador to Ukraine, BartoszMusiałowicz, the Director of the Polish Institute in Kiev and OksanaNowikowa-Wyhran, the Director of the Kiev Fortress Museum.Theopening was organized by the Institute of National Remembrance, thePolish Institute in Kiev, the Polish Embassy in Kiev and the "KievFortress" National Historical and Architectural Museum.

The exhibition is the result of previous successful cooperation between

the Institute of National Remembrance and the Ukrainian archives inKhmelnytsky, Vinnytsia and Odessa. It will be on display until 8December 2019.The exhibition has so far been presented in Ukraine: inVinnitsa, Khmelnytsky and Odessa as well as in Poland: in Warsaw,Elbląg and Gdańsk. It has also reached the U.S – on 17 November itwas shown in the church. St. Stanisław Bishop and Martyr inManhattan, New York and was presented at the Polish CulturalFoundation in Clark on 20 November 2019.

The grand opening of the exhibition was preceded by the laying offlowers at the Polish Army Soldiers' Quarter at the Baykovaya ulitsaCemetery, at the Polish War Cemetery in Kiev-Bykivnia, as well as atthe Wall of Executions in the Kiev Fortress. The President of the IPN lita candle on the grave of a Ukrainian dissident, poet Vasyl Stus, whowas tortured in the labour camp in 1985.

The poet was also recalled in the opening speech of the exhibition: -We will not forget the wishes of Vasyl Stus which were smuggled out ofthe labour camp after 13 December 1981, for the "Polish freedomfighters" and the belief that communists in Poland "will not succeed inputting out the holy fire of freedom."

The President of the IPN was accompanied by Mariusz Kwaśniak,Deputy Director of the IPN Archive and Dr Dorota Lewsza from theOffice of the President and Social Communication.

On 21 November 2019, the President of the Institute of NationalRemembrance Jarosław Szarek, the Polish Ambassador BartoszCichocki and the Deputy Director of the IPN Archive Mariusz Kwaśniak,honoured the memory of the victims of the Euromaidan wave ofdemonstrations which took place in Kiev at the turn of 2013 and 2014.

The exhibition "Order No. 00485. Anti-Polish Operation of the NKVD inSoviet Ukraine 1937-1938" consists of 16 boards presenting the fateof people repressed as part of the anti-Polish operation carried out bythe NKVD in the Soviet Union in the years 1937–1938. As part of theoperation, over 143,000 people were arrested, among whom at least111,000 were sentenced to death. Nearly 30,000 Poles were sent tolabour camps. In Ukraine, where the largest concentration of the Polishpopulation in the USSR was located, 55,928 Poles were tried, of whom47,327 were murdered.

The exhibition prepared by the Archive of the Institute of NationalRemembrance used documents passed on to the IPN by the UkrainianState Archives in Odessa, Khmelnytsky and Vinnitsa in connection withthe implementation of the agreement on archival cooperationconcluded on 26 March 2018. It provides Polish archivists with accessto thousands of documents regarding NKVD crimes committed againstPoles in the years 1937–38 in the Soviet Union.

As part of cooperation with the archives in Khmelnytsky, as many asover three and a half thousand archival units (3609 units) have beenacquired so far. This translates into 405,372 digital files in tiff format.Copies of 171 volumes of files were provided by the Archives of theOdessa Oblast, which constitutes 20,786 digital files and 46,458copies of documents from 406 units from the Archives in Vinnitsa.

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