Politics, law and justice in people's Poland : the Fieldorf file

Fijalkowski, Agata (2014) Politics, law and justice in people's Poland : the Fieldorf file. Slavic Review, 73 (1). pp. 85-107. ISSN 0037-6779

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Abstract

This article examines the case against the Polish resistance fighter August Emil Fieldorf and his subsequent trial. Judicial officials within, or working intimately with, the Soviet secret police made decisions affecting many lives in Poland in 1944–1956. A consideration of the trial proceedings and the backgrounds of selected judicial officials provide a better understanding of the nature of Stalinist justice. Key issues underpinning the trial, related to political contexts, legal maneuverings, and broader considerations surrounding the defendant through the eyes of his persecutors, shed light on the hidden mechanism of Stalinist justice in operation and what constitutes a judicial crime. While its focus is Fieldorf, this article argues that the Polish case study can be instructive in analyzing the ways in which the law was used as a political weapon in other states and regions with similar experiences of totalitarian rule.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Slavic Review
Additional Information:
© 2014 Copyright the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies and appears here with the permission of the publisher.
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/core/keywords/law/internationalandeuropeanlaw
Subjects:
?? stalinist justicepolandfieldorfmisadministration of justicejudicial crimeinternational and european lawcultural studiesk law (general) ??
ID Code:
67437
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
06 Nov 2013 13:08
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
07 Jan 2024 00:12