The Soviet organizational and legal system of deporting Polish citizens from the occupied eastern territories of the Second Polish Republic. A historical and legal study based on the example of the first deportation on February 10, 1940
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15633/tes.11105Keywords:
organization, law, repression, propaganda, deportations, Soviet Union, World War II, the Second Polish Republic, eastern territoriesAbstract
With the crossing of the Polish-Soviet border by the Red Army on September 17, 1939, the Soviet authorities had prepared a number of directives to regulate political and social issues. The deportation of military settlers and foresters organized in February 1940 was also subject to these processes. In the Soviet state, bureaucratic reality was more important than the actual observance of written principles in their implementation. This gave the impression of compliance with all legal norms and whenever such a need arose, shortcomings could be argued as a human factor error. The system created in this way operated at all levels of the Soviet state, and the apparatus of repression also applied these principles. The legal legalization of taken actions was a key element of the legal reality of the Soviet state. It gave a full sense of operating within a legally and universally binding legal system for people executing orders.
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