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The part of Poland incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1939 comprised 201,000 m², which represented 52% of Poland’s overall territory.96 _{Poles were the largest single ethnic group in}

this area but the region was also inhabited by Ukrainians (33%), Jews (8, 3%), Byelorussians (7, 6%), and small percentage of Russians (0, 6%), and Germans (0, 6%).97 _{Stalin used forged}

plebiscites and elections as a springboard for the incorporation of West Ukraine and West Byelorussia into the Soviet Union; the Polish city Wilno previously part of Poland, was given first to Lithuania and then in 1940 the whole country was annexed to the USSR (see chapter 3). Consequently, Poles living east of the Curzon line became Soviet citizens. As Kochanski points out, there were three categories of people under the Soviet occupation: ‘those who were in prison, those who are in prison, and those who will be in prison’.98 _{Poles were subject to mass}

deportations, executions and terror. As in other Soviet republics, communist ideological and economic policies were applied. History, religion and geography were removed from the school curriculum and instead Marxist-Leninist doctrine was taught. Further sovietisation was to be achieved by collectivisation and suppression of Polish identity, history and culture. In particular, the intelligentsia, Polish Army officers, government officials, political leaders and clergy were

92 _Ibid.

93 _{PISM, Kol. 434/ 50, Korespondencja: BBC,} Baliński to St oński, De e e . 94 _Ibid.

95 _{Wyrwa, T., Audycje Radiowe nadawane z Londynu, Zeszyty Historyczne , nr. 116, Paris, 1996, p. 201.} 96 _{Jasiewicz,K., Polskojezyczne radiostacje sovieckie w okresie II wojny swiatowej, in: Polskie Radio w}

czasie II Wojny Swiatowej, op. cit., p. 245.

97 _{Wnuk, R., Za pierwszego Sowieta. Polska konspiracja na Kresach Wschodnich II Rzeczypospolitej,}

rzesień 9 9 – czerwiec 1941 (Warszawa: I st tut Pa ię i Na odo ej , 2007), s. 13

seen as ‘the enemy of people’ and subsequently exterminated or deported to gulags.99 _Moreover,

Stalin used the national aspirations of Ukrainians and Byelorussians to purge the Polish population in the area. Although diplomatic relations were restored between Poland and the USSR in 1941, Soviet policies towards the Poles did not change, and in fact worsened (see chapter 3 & 6).

Listening to or possession of wireless sets was not forbidden under the Soviet occupation. However, in this largely rural area, radio density was never significant.100 _{Among other items,}

radio transmitters were also regarded as valuable, and were looted by the Red Army.101 _The

Soviet authorities also took a great interest in Polish broadcasting stations and firms manufacturing transmitters. According to a witness who left Poland in March 1943, all the personnel and all the plant of the Polish Electrit factory producing wireless sets in Wilno was taken to Leningrad in 1939.102 _{Moreover, while some stations were stripped and taken away to}

the Soviet Union, others remained in place for propaganda reasons. Already on the first day after entering Polish territory, the Russians occupied Polish stations in Barnowice, Wilno and Lwów. 103 _{Broadcasts in Polish, Ukrainian, Byelorussian, Lithuanian, Russian and Jadish were}

used purely for communist propaganda and used extensively to increase agitation prior to plebiscites. Therefore, not only were Poles allowed to listen to the radio, but, as Jasiewicz points out, they were encouraged to do so.104 _{In addition, as Germans had done in the west of Poland,}

Soviet authorities distributed radio sets to those regarded as future collaborators and supporters of the regime. But in contrast with the Germans, the Soviet regime considered indoctrination as their main objective. Consequently, shops selling and repairing radio sets were opened.105

Although there was no law in place forbidding listening to foreign stations, those caught were usually arrested and detained.106 _{Poles were also required to register their sets but they}

disregarded the order.107 _{The same measures were applied to those who spread information.}

Given communist indoctrination and the fact that Stalin claimed that the Polish State had ceased to exist, spreading news about the Polish Army and the Polish government-in-exile were seen as criminal and ‘counter-revolutionary activity’.108 _{Nonetheless, the evidence demonstrates that}

listening to the BBC Polish Service broadcasts was popular in big cities, especially in Wilno

99 _{Wnuk, op. cit.}

100 _{Jasiewicz, op. cit., pp. 245-60.} 101 _{BBC WAC, E1/1150/1.}

102 _{BBC WAC, E2/201/2, report from February 1944.} 103 _{Jasiewicz, op. cit., p. 254.}

104 _{Ibid. p. 263.}

105 _{Jasiewicz. op. cit., pp. 262-5.}

106 _{Żurawski, J.A., Polskie Radio w slużbie konspiracji 1939-1944, in: Polskie Radio w czasie II Wojny}

Światowej, op. cit., p. 136.

107 _Ibid.

108 _{Herling-Grudziński, G., A World Apart: Imprisonment in a Soviet Labour Camp during World War II}

and Lwów where the density of Poles was over 50%.109 _{The reception of BBC Polish}

broadcasts, however, was much worse than in the western part of Poland, to a large extent because of jamming by Germans. Nonetheless, the Polish Underground managed to set up monitoring posts in the region and, as under the German occupation, the news was distributed via the clandestine press. Radio bulletins based on BBC broadcasts were produced in Brześć and Łomza and further colportaged.110 _{Students in Wilno produced wireless sets which were}

later sent to territory occupied by the Germans.111 _{In addition, the Polish Service was receiving}

letters from eastern parts of the country and there was even a case of a letter being sent by a Polish officer from a labour camp in the Caucasus, who stated that Polish broadcasts were very popular in the camp.112

However, the situation changed after Germany launched the Barbarossa offensive in June 1941, as the Nazis also introduced the death penalty for listening or possession of a radio in the territory east of the Curzon line also. Nonetheless, according to two Poles (names not given) who managed to escape from Poland in November 1943, the confiscation of sets was carried out rather negligently.113 _{Thus many Poles were able to save their sets while crystal sets were not}

confiscated at all. According to witnesses, this was due to staff shortages.114 _{In addition,}

between 1941 and 1943, the Germans distributed previously confiscated sets to the administration in areas taken over from the Soviets.

Stalin also recognised the propaganda value of broadcasting in Polish and from 22 June 1941 Radio Moscow inaugurated programmes in Polish.115 _{A month later, on the initiative of the}

Polish communists in the Soviet Union, Radio Kosciuszko started broadcasting from Moscow in Polish, disguised as a Polish station transmitting from Poland. From 1943 it became a platform for the propaganda of the Union of the Polish Patriots (UPP), an embryonic version of the Polish puppet government in-waiting, created by Stalin (see chapter 7). Yet, neither the UPP political programme nor their broadcasts included communist propaganda; instead they

appealed to patriotism and nationalism.116 _{After the Red Army liberated the Polish city of}

Lublin in 1944, the Polish communists also inaugurated broadcasts in Polish from this city. Yet, after the collapse of the Warsaw rising, the Lublin Committee, a joint body of Polish

communists in Poland and the USSR, introduced the death penalty for listening to foreign stations (see chapter 9).117 _{According to Underground reports, people caught listening or in}

109 _{Kępiński, A., Ukraina – po obu stronach Dniestru (Poznań: Zysk i S-ka, 2013), p. 111.} 110 _{Mazur, op. cit., p. 239 & 242.}

111 _{BBC WAC, E2/192/2, file 1b, August-November 1941, monthly survey, November 1941.} 112 _{BBC WAC, E2/186/1, file 1a, February-May 1940, report from April 1940.}

113 _{BBC WAC, E2/201/2, file 2, January-July 1944. Report from 29 February 1944.} 114 _{Ibid, witness report from November 1943.}

115 _{Jasiewicz, op. cit., p. 250.} 116 _{Ibid, pp. 252-3.}

possession of a private radio were ‘shot in the head on the spot’ but, listening to official announcements in public or work places was allowed and encouraged.118