Polish operation of the NKVD refers to the coordinated actions of NKVD in 1937-1938 according to the NKVD Order no. 00485 "О мерах, ограждающих СССР от проникновения шпионских, террористических и диверсионных элементов" ("On measures to protect the USSR from penetration of spying, terrorist and diversion elements"), approved on August 9, 1937 by the VKP(b) Central Committee Politburo and signed by Nikolai Yezhov on August 11, 1937, which was distributed to local subdivisions of NKVD simultaneously with Yezhov's secret letter "О фашистско-повстанческой, шпионской, диверсионной, пораженческой и террористической деятельности польской разведки в СССР" ("On fascist-resurrectionist, spying, diversional, defeationist, and terrorist activity of Polish intelligence in the USSR").

The term "Polish operation" is suggested by the researchers of the Memorial Society, N. Petrov and A. Roginsky (Н.В.Петров, А.Б.Рогинский).

The operation was the second in the series of national operations of the NKVD, justified by the fear of the fifth column in the expectation of war with "the most probable adversary", i.e., Germany, as well as according to the notion of the "hostile capitalist surrounding", which wants to destabilize the country.

An approximate time frame of the operation was from August 25, 1937 to November 15, 1938. According to NKVD archives, 111,091 of Poles were sentenced to death and 28,744 were sentenced to labor camps, nearly 140,000 in total. This number constitutes 10% of the total number of officially convicted (i.e., with confirming NKVD documents) during the Yezhovshchina period.

External link

• Polish operation of NKVD, by Petrov and Roginski, in Russian (http://www.memo.ru/history/POLAcy/00485ART.htm)