Historical Calendar: September 9, 1951 – assassination of Stefan Martyka

Anniversary of the successful underground armed assassination of communist propagandaist Stefan Martyka.

Today in our calendar we will look at the anti-communist organization “Country”, operating in the late 1940s and 1950s.

Stefan Martyka was a communist propaganda activist. He was celebrated for his broadcast on Polish Radio. Wave 49. The broadcast was purely political. Martyka, among others, justified political processes which were carried out by erstwhile members of the anti-Hitler underground. He besides marked the “imperialism” of the United States and another Western countries.

In 1949 he became manager of the Polish Theatre. He besides held advanced functions at the Ministry of Culture and Art. He was first Deputy manager and then manager of the Department of Theatres in the Ministry of Culture and Art. He was liable for the Sovietization of Polish culture after planet War II. For many Poles it was a symbol of propaganda of the communist regime, a model collaborator of Stalinian power.

One of the underground, independent youth organizations was the National Center of the country. It was most likely created at the end of 1948 in Warsaw, and covered the full of Poland. He developed rapidly, especially branch in Gdynia. The founder of the organization and the main commander was erstwhile Kedyw AK soldier, Zenon Sobota aka Tomaszewski, nicknamed “Wyka”.

On Sunday, September 9, 1951, 4 members of the “Country” organization: Ryszard Cieślak, Lech Śliwiński, Tadeusz Kowalczuk and Bogusław Pietrkiewicz arrived by train to Warsaw. Around 6 o'clock, they received from their informant, Krystyna Metzger the address of Martyka's apartment, to which they arrived on ft 2 hours later. She opened up his housekeeper. The assassins entered, claiming to be members of the alleged ZMK organization. They beat Martha's wife, Sophia Lindorfówna and housekeeper.

His own Ryszard Cieślak first stunned him with the handle of the weapon and then shot him in the head. Martyka died after a twelve minutes. The bombers fled the flat and divided up.

An investigation into the assassination was conducted by the celebrated Colonel Joseph (Goldberg) Różański – head of the investigative department of MBP. Many innocent people were arrested – victims of neighbouring reports or erstwhile arks connected in any way with the theatre. However, the perpetrators were not detected. Until then.

In June 1952, 3 members of the “Country” organization attempted to assassinate Communist MP Hieronim Dobrowolski. 1 of his neighbors noticed that there were armed men standing in the hallway and screaming. The bombers have escaped. However, random passersby captured Krystyna Metzger. This 1 broke down after 3 days of interrogation, coupled with brutal torture. She gave herself the full well-known structure of the organization “Country” and its boss – Zenon Saturday.

Soon all the assassins were arrested. There was besides another wave of arrests resulting in the organization no longer existing. A full of 111 members were detained – mostly students and students. Leader of “Kraju” – Zenon Saturday died during the UB raid on July 2, 1952.

The assassins of the assassination of Martyk gave extended explanations and confessed to his performance. The trial lasted from 18 to 22 September 1952 before the Military territory Court in Warsaw. By judgement of September 22, 1952, Metzger, Cieślak, Śliwiński, Kowalczuk and Pietrkiewicz were sentenced to death penalty, punishment for life imprisonment, while Ickovich and Hryvniak for 15 years imprisonment. The death punishment for Metzger was replaced with a life conviction due to the fact that she was pregnant.

In the view picture: Stefan Martyka.

Previous entry from our calendar is available Here.