Military Courts as a Tool in the Polish Workers’ Party’s Fight for Power (1944–1948)

The paper is an attempt to answer the following questions: How did the tasks of pro tecting the political system and elimination of political enemies determine the structure and organisation of the military courts? How did the party pursue its personal policy in court? How were the attitudes of and rulings issued by the military judges influenced? As early as 1944, the pre-war legal regulations governing the military court structure and the army criminal law ceased to apply. The argument to support the changes was that they served to improve the operation of the military justice system and to ensure the most effective fight against crime. However, the Soviet solutions were adopted, such as separation of the prosecution from courts, assigning to prosecutors some rights which so far accrued to judges, or introduction of lay judges. The changes were intended to eliminate the independence of the judiciary as a separate power and to enhance the role of prosecutors. Military courts were assigned the task to adjudicate in cases involving civilians accused of political crimes. The communists intended to destroy the armed communist resistance as well as pacify the social resistance. Concerning the personal policy in military courts, the guidelines issued by Władysław Gomułka in November 1944 applied. In the law on the military court system of 1944, the provision which required a judge to be a Polish citizen was deliberately repealed. With this criterion no longer applicable, the communists could nominate the Red Army officers to hold the positions of heads of military courts. As a consequence of the changes, the rights of the accused persons and human rights were degraded, which contributed to turning Poland into a totalitarian state subjected to the communist party.