Proces Zarządu Okręgu Państwowych Nieruchomości Ziemskich w Koszalinie w 1948 roku

At the beginning of 1946 the enterprise referred to as the State-owned Landed Estates (PNZ) was set up. In West Pomerania two such districts were established: in Szczecin and in Koszalin. The latter was one of the biggest in Poland;Władysław Czarnecki was appointed director in September 1946. Many landowners whose landed estates had been taken away and divided into smaller parts worked for the PZN in the years 1944 –1945. The management board of the enterprise was known for its negative attitude towards the so called “people’s authority” and for its support of the Polish People’s Party (PSL) headed by Stanisław Mikołajczyk. After the general parliamentary election to the sejm in January 1947 and Mikołajczyk’s escape from Poland in October 1947, the communists intensified their attacks on the management board of the PNZ. In April 1948, thirteen people were arrested following a fictitious accusation of sabotage; seven of them, including Czarnecki the director, were prosecuted at the Military District Court in Szczecin. The show trial took place in August 1948. The accused were sentenced to long terms in prison, while Władysław Czarnecki was sentenced to death. After appeal, the Supreme Military Court changed the death sentence into fifteen years’ imprisonment and alleviated the sentences of the remaining convicted people. One of them died in jail in February 1950, while the remaining were gradually released in the years 1950–1955. In January 1957, the Supreme Court acquitted all of them.