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Articles and studies 
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Cooperation between the intelligence services of the Polish People’s Republic and the Soviet Union as an element of bilateral relations between the KGB and the Ministry of the Interior (1956–1990)
Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989, No. 21 (2023), pages: 15-38
Throughout the communist period, the security authorities in Poland were under the influence and supervision of the Soviet Union. At the beginning of 1957, it was agreed to set up a KGB Liaison Group in Warsaw, which, from the early 1970s, was called the KGB Representation to the Interior Ministry of the Polish People’s Republic. Its task was to coordinate cooperation between the security authorities of the two countries. The course of interaction between the Ministry of the Interior and the KGB was established during bilateral meetings, which took place alternately in Warsaw and Moscow. Periodic conferences of the intelligence services of the bloc socialist countries were also convened on the initiative of the Soviet side. After 1956, despite the change in the political situation, the Soviet services continued to exert influence on the direction of the activities taken by the Ministry of the Interior. One of the most important areas of cooperation was in intelligence activities. The Department I of the Ministry of the Interior cooperated with the First Main Directorate of the KGB in many fields. The basis of cooperation was the exchange of operational data, information and certain obtained documents. These mainly concerned political and economic subjects. Scientific and technical intelligence as well as so-called active operations were also important areas of cooperation. The security authorities of the Polish People’s Republic were not treated as an equal partner by the KGB. Very often they were forced to give more than they received in return. Cooperation with Soviet intelligence ceased in the first quarter of 1990 as a result of the change in the state’s foreign policy directions.
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Cooperation between the Interior Ministries of Poland and Hungary in the Edward Gierek era (1970–1980) – selected aspects in light of documents from the Archives of the Institute of National Remembrance
Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989, No. 21 (2023), pages: 39-68
The article is devoted to selected aspects of cooperation between the Ministry of the Interior of the Polish People’s Republic and the Interior Ministry of the Hungarian People’s Republic in the years 1970–1980. This decade was a special period in the history of both countries, characterised above all by their opening to the West. On the one hand, this provided access to foreign loans and technology, sorely needed by the Polish and Hungarian economies, while on the other hand, it posed the risk of infiltration by spies from the enemy camp and, with them, of “counter-revolutionary” views. The situation of the oppressive communist regimes was made more difficult by the signing of the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe in Helsinki in 1975, which imposed certain obligations on the signatories and gave a pretext for Western interference in the internal situation of the “people’s democracy” countries. Greater freedom to cross borders and other changes in the 1970s posed entirely new challenges for the security services and civilian counterintelligence. A consequence of the relative liberalisation of life in Poland and Hungary was the increased surveillance of their citizens.
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Cooperation between Bureau “B” of the Ministry of the Interior with its counterparts in the security services of the Soviet bloc (namely, those of: the USSR, the GDR, Czechoslovakia and Hungary). Working methods and “exchange of operational experience”
Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989, No. 21 (2023), pages: 69-110
The article deals with the relations between the surveillance departments of the security ministries of the People’s Republic of Poland and its main partners: the Soviet Union, the GDR, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. This topic has not been a separate subject of study so far – neither in the context of bilateral relations between individual services, nor within the framework of research on the surveillance service of the People’s Republic of Poland. The article discusses contacts with individual countries and the most relevant aspects of these relationships. Due to the preserved documentation, special attention was paid to the 1980s. The source base for the text are materials from Bureau “B” of the Ministry of the Interior, namely: reports by Bureau “B”, reports by the management of Bureau “B” to the Minister of the Interior on visits of representatives of related services to the Ministry of the Interior, and reports of delegations of the bureau’s management to other countries of the Eastern bloc. In the late 1980s, Bureau “B” of the Ministry of the Interior succeeded in transforming mutual contacts into cooperation. It focused on two issues: training and equipment. In terms of training, the KGB had the most to offer. In terms of equipment, Western-made equipment was most in demand, followed by equipment from the USSR and East Germany. At this stage of research, it can be concluded that Bureau “B” of the Ministry of the Interior was keen to draw on the experience of the Soviet and East German services, while it itself was a role model for the Czechoslovak and Hungarian services.
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Relations of the Government Protection Bureau with the Security Service between 1975 and 1990. Outline of the issue
Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989, No. 21 (2023), pages: 111-138
This article deals with relations between the various organisational units of the Ministry of the Interior in the field of the personal and political protection of party and state authorities between 1975 and 1990. Each department of the Ministry of the Interior was obliged to cooperate with the Government Protection Bureau (BOR) and, at the same time, made use of the operational capabilities at the disposal of BOR during the protection of state delegations.
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The Bureau “C” of the Ministry of the Interior and the Supreme Directorate of State Archives 1976-1990. Interactions and dependencies
Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989, No. 21 (2023), pages: 139-179
The aim of this article is to discuss the most important problems in relations at the central level between the archival division of the Ministry of the Interior and the Supreme Directorate of the State Archives between 1976 and 1990, primarily the transfer of archival materials and the regulation of controversial issues. The transfers of documentation are presented against the background of analogous processes taking place in archives outside the Ministry of the Interior, such as: the Archives of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party; the Central Military Archives; the archives of the Central Commission for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes in Poland – the Institute of National Remembrance; and the Archives of the Border Guard. An important section of the article provides a detailed description of the procedure of the law of 14 July 1983 on national archival resources and archives, together with discussions on this topic that took place inside the Ministry of the Interior. An attempt was made to analyse the contacts of Colonel Kazimierz Piotrowski, director of the Bureau “C” of the Ministry of the Interior, with Professor Marian Wojciechowski, chief director of the state archives, especially the hidden dimension of these relations, and to analyse the activities of the Security Service in the archival field at the time of the 1989–1990 transition. In discussing the latter issue, the hypothesis of concealing the unregulated removal of documentation within the Ministry by means of archival transfers outside the Ministry of the Interior was raised and submitted for consideration.
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Relations of the public prosecutor’s offices with security bodies in Silesian Province 1945–1947
Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989, No. 21 (2023), pages: 180-202
The article presents the mutual relations between the public prosecutor’s offices and the security bodies (Citizens’ Militia and offices of the Ministry of Public Security) in Silesian Province in the first years of “people’s” Poland (1945–1947). In particular, it discusses issues concerning relations arising from pre-trial investigations (investigations and prosecutions), the supervision of the execution of sentences of imprisonment, the problem of the low professional level of MO (Citizens’ Militia) and UB (Security Office) officers in terms of legal knowledge and the resulting involvement of prosecutors in teaching activities. Among other things, the issue of competence disputes between prosecutors and MO and UB officers was addressed. The source base for the text are primarily reports from the prosecutors of the Katowice District Courts of Appeal addressed to the prosecutor of the Court of Appeal in Katowice and to the Silesian provincial governor.
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The relations of the Security Service with the Provincial Committee of the PZPR (Polish United Workers’ Party) in Katowice in connection with emigration to the Federal Republic of Germany in the 1970s
Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989, No. 21 (2023), pages: 203-224
One of the elements of the policy of détente in relations between the East and the West was the rapprochement between the Polish People’s Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany, which followed the signing of an agreement on the so-called normalisation of mutual relations between the two countries in December 1970. This agreement, and the Polish-West German Agreement concluded in the summer of 1975 in Helsinki, provided a legal basis for emigration from the Polish People’s Republic to West Germany of those persons who declared German nationality or who had relatives in West Germany. The supervision of the organisation and course of migration was taken over by the Polish United Workers’ Party, and individual decisions were made by committees set up specifically for this purpose, which resulted in a reduced role for the Security Service in the implementation of the said migration policy. However, this restriction did not mean total exclusion and this article is an attempt to describe the cooperation in this field between the secret political police and the communist party in Katowice Province, which was then one of the main areas of emigration from Poland to West Germany. The source basis constitutes documents produced by the party and the Security Service stored in the Archives of the Institute of National Remembrance in Katowice and published in a selection of sources prepared by the author in 2022.
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Coexistence – surveillance – competition. The security apparatus versus company management personnel in the first three decades of the Polish People’s Republic
Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989, No. 21 (2023), pages: 225-254
The subject of the article is the relationship between civilian secret service officers and personnel managing economic entities in the first three decades of the Polish People’s Republic. By discussing the tasks of the security apparatus carried out in enterprises and various institutions providing services to the economy, the author shows the context of this relationship which took place amidst Poland’s systemic transformations in Poland after World War II, namely: the formation of a totalitarian system and the fiasco of this project, followed by the construction of the foundations of an authoritarian system with all its consequences for the functioning of the people involved in both the economy and the special services.
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An attempt to strengthen cooperation between the counterintelligence of the Armed Forces of the Polish People’s Republic and the Third Directorate of the KGB during the period when Poland’s Internal Military Service was headed by Brig. Gen. Aleksander Kokoszyn
Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989, No. 21 (2023), pages: 255-282
When the “reborn” Polish Army was formed in 1943, counterintelligence security for the armed forces also had to be organised. In the early years, the ranks of the counterintelligence organs were filled by SMERSH officers. Later, the Soviets held leading positions in the bodies of the Main Directorate of Information and familiarised the Polish communists with counterintelligence work. The years 1953–1956 saw the return of Soviet officers to the USSR, and, consequently, cooperation between the newly formed Internal Military Service and the Third Directorate of the KGB was disrupted. It was not until 1960 that changes were made. The head of the Internal Military Service General Aleksander Kokoszyn, had the ambition to create a real counterintelligence service, but lacked experience and knowledge. The international situation led Moscow to agree to start working closely with its “brother nations”. This source edition deals with the beginnings of the formal cooperation between the organs of the WSW (Internal Military Service) and the KGB.
Articles and comparative studies
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Outline of the organisational history of intelligence agencies in the structure of the security apparatus of Hungary 1945–1990
Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989, No. 21 (2023), pages: 285-352
The article presents the organisational transformation of the Hungarian intelligence structure. Immediately after World War II, there was no independent intelligence unit within the country’s security organs; it was not until 1947 that offensive counterintelligence and work abroad was initiated within Section II of the State Security Division of the Hungarian State Police. Subsequently, within the framework of the State Protection Authority (Államvédelmi Hatóság – ÁVH), which was established in 1948 and which was directly subordinated to the Ministry of the Interior (Belügyminisztérium – BM), Section V of Division B became responsible for conducting intelligence. After the ÁVH became independent, this task was continued by Division I/5, operating within Department I. In September 1950, this cell was separated and functioned henceforth as an independent organisational unit under the name of Division X/3 of the ÁVH. Another change took place in September 1951, at which time Department VIII of the ÁVH was created on the basis of this unit. When the ÁVH was merged with the Ministry of the Interior in the summer of 1953, the former Department VIII became Division II of the Ministry of the Interior. The intelligence entity functioned under this name until October 1955, when it was renamed Department II. At the time, it was subordinated to Directorate I of the Ministry of the Interior. During the reorganisation of the Ministry in 1957, intelligence was initially the responsibility of Division III of Department (II) of Political Investigations of the Ministry of the Interior, which was renamed Division II/3 as early as the beginning of 1958. The last major change took place in August 1962, when there was a major reform of the security organs. From then on, there existed Main Department III/I of the Ministry of the Interior (Belügyminisztérium III/I. Csoportfőnökség – BM III/I). This unit was in charge of conducting intelligence activities until 1990, after which it was replaced by the newly established Information Office.
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Researching the Yugoslav secret police in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina: sources, historiography, publicist writing
Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989, No. 21 (2023), pages: 353-385
The article provides an overview of the historiography in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina on the Yugoslav secret services and shows the limitations that have prevented free historical research both in the past and today. Such research were mostly limited by the unavailability of archival sources, as well as the politicisation associated with the topic of the former communist secret services. The author shows that in Croatia, the availability of archives has significantly improved in the last few years, thus increasing scientific and journalistic production on the subject of secret services. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, there are still restrictions on the access to sources, which is why that region´s historiography shows much more modest results. In the article, the author also provides an overview of the development, organisation and activities of the Yugoslav secret services.
Articles and studies: Varia
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“...guarding the honour of Poland”. Conspiracy in the Noteć Forest as an example of resistance to totalitarian systems
Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989, No. 21 (2023), pages: 389-451
Located on the north-western outskirts of Wielkopolska (Greater Poland region), these vast forest areas became a base for underground activity against both the German occupation and post-war communist rule. During the Second World War, the local underground structures became part of the Czarnków District of the Home Army, subordinated to the Western District Inspectorate based in Sieraków. A courier network was organised in the Noteć Forest, numerous hiding places were built for conspirators, and requisitioning operations were carried out. After liberation from German occupation, factors such as the fear of death in the last weeks of the war and repression by regime forces, political confusion, and opposition to the communist system led many former partisans and deserters from the militia and army to form armed survival groups. These did not survive for long. In the summer of 1945 they were either broken up by the NKVD Internal Troops or they surrendered to the Operational Group of the Provincial Headquarters of the Citizens’ Militia in Poznań, which used less brutal methods to “cleanse” the forests and eliminate partisan units. Some of the former Noteć Forest conspirators spent several years in prison and were later subjected to “preventive” operational control until the early 1960s.
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The “Trial of the Seventeen” in Radomsko (7 May 1946) – the most tragic episode of the activities of the summary courts of the Internal Security Corps
Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989, No. 21 (2023), pages: 452-477
The subject of this article is the trial of seventeen soldiers of the Underground Polish Army (KWP) captured by the communists after a spectacular operation to free prisoners from the Radomsko municipal jail, carried out by the KWP on the night of 19–20 April 1946. The trial, which took place on 7 May 1946 in the hall of the “Wolność” cinema in Radomsko, was one of more than three hundred trials conducted by the summary courts of the Internal Security Corps (KBW), acting under the banner of district courts, during their five-month activity. As a result, twelve defendants were sentenced to death, as if in an act of revenge, while only five defendants received prison sentences. Great emotion is aroused by the way the sentence was carried out, as it was not an execution but a brutal murder.
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Pacifications of villages in the Rzeszów Province carried out by the Communist repressive apparatus in the first half of 1946
Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989, No. 21 (2023), pages: 478-503
In the first months of 1946, in the area of Rzeszów Province, as in the whole country, the activities of security organs were intensified on the initiative of the PPR (Polish Workers’ Party) leadership. One of the reasons for the mass repression was the desire to eradicate political opposition and to break down public resistance to communist rule. In early 1946, a combined force of the UBP (Public Security Bureau), Citizens’ Militia (MO) and the KBW (Internal Security Corps) was sent to the north-eastern part of Rzeszów Province. Pacification operations took place, including in Sieniawa (11 February), Radymno (14 April) and Leżajsk (28 April). More than 100 people were arrested on the basis of pre-prepared proscription lists. Among the detainees were members of the National Military Union (NZW).
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“Whom they want to elect they will elect, whether we will vote or not ” – the 1952 Sejm elections in Nowa Huta in the light of party documents and Security Office materials
Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989, No. 21 (2023), pages: 504-536
The article deals with the elections to the Sejm of the Polish People’s Republic, which took place on 26 October 1952 and which began a series of elections in the Polish People’s Republic that contradicted concepts such as freedom and democracy. An attempt is made to analyse the activities the PZPR Works Committee of the Nowa Huta metallurgical plant and the officers of the local Public Security Office carried out in the preparation and protection of the elections in District No. 58, which included the city of Cracow and Nowa Huta. With regard to the activities of the party organisation at the metallurgical plant, the establishment of the Company Election Committee of the National Front and its structures in the various departments of this industrial combine were discussed. The sphere of propaganda and the reaction of the workers of the steelworks and the society of Nowa Huta to the work of election agitators is analysed. The attitudes of residents in the context of the upcoming elections and during the election campaign were also in the area of interest of the communist secret police. For this reason, the article analyses the activities of the Nowa Huta security apparatus in the search for the so-called enemy. The work of the UBP (Public Security Office) was characterised, which involved, among other things, the monitoring of reports related to public order disturbances or the officers’ contacts with subordinate agents. The last part of the article presents an assessment of the elections by Nowa Huta party functionaries and the local security authorities.
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Case Study of a “Secret Agent in Prison” Based on the Example of the Invigilation Process Conducted by a Former Counterintelligence Officer of the Home Army against Captain Jerzy Lewszecki (Part II)
Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989, No. 21 (2023), pages: 537-560
The article presented concerns the operational activities of secret agent in prison Juliusz Wilczur-Garztecki (alias “Natan”), a former Home Army counterintelligence officer, in an investigation. Garztecki’s biography, the rich history of his collaboration with the communist state authorities and his recruitment in the Mokotów detention centre were discussed. The agent used his past in the independence resistance movement to gain credibility in the eyes of his fellow prisoners. The basis for the discussion on the “Natan” case is the investigation presented in the article into the complicated and hitherto undescribed case of a pre-war Polish Army officer, Captain Jerzy Lewszecki, who was sent on an intelligence mission to Poland from the American military centre Camp King in Oberursel, West Germany. The case study of the secret agent in prison was conducted by way of a comparative analysis of the material prepared by “Natan” with the investigation documentation, including the minutes of Lewszecki’s interrogations and interrogations of people directly involved in his case.
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Priest Colonel Antoni Łopaciński – a local anti-communist in the service of the secret police
Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989, No. 21 (2023), pages: 561-586
The article presents the fate of Father Antoni Łopaciński, chaplain of the Polish Army and dean of the Bystrzyca district after the end of World War II. The priest is portrayed in early literature as an anti-communist activist in the Kłodzko area. The author, however, reveals the priest’s long-standing collaboration, first with the UB (Security Office) and then with its successor, the SB (Security Service), and describes the recruitment of the clergyman and the nature of the activities of the “informer in a cassock” , including the scale of his denunciation activities over a period of nearly 20 years of collaboration. The denunciations of this secret collaborator, who used the pseudonym “Jakub Wasilewski”/“Jacek”, encompassed such well-known clergy of the Archdiocese of Wrocław as Karol Milik, Kazimierz Lagosz and Bolesław Kominek. The article is an interesting case study that allows the tracing of methods used by the UB to recruit clergy during the Stalinist period. It is also an interesting example of a man who, in the face of danger and blackmail from officers of the repressive apparatus, agrees to long-term cooperation, seeing in it numerous comforts and an opportunity to improve his fate.
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The “race” for an agent. Contacts of the special services of the Polish People’s Republic in the case of the recruitment of Zdzisław Rurarz (1953–1962)
Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989, No. 21 (2023), pages: 587-606
Zdzislaw Rurarz went down in history, first and foremost, as the diplomat who, on 23 December 1981, in response to the imposition of martial law, requested political asylum in the United States. At the time, he was head of the Polish People’s Republic’s embassy in Tokyo. The analysis proposed in this article focuses on a different thread – that of a certain competition between the secret services of the Polish People’s Republic to recruit Rurarz, considered a potentially valuable agent early in his career as a trader and diplomat. His potential was recognised by the Ministry of Public Security and later by the Ministry of the Interior, both in intelligence and counterintelligence. The most determined, however, was the Second Directorate of the General Staff of the (People’s) Polish Army, i.e. military intelligence. Of course, the terms “rivalry” or “race” are a certain simplification and deliberate exaggeration of the narrative – for although Rurarz was of interest to the various services, they were ultimately able to agree on the matter.
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Jan Kozłowski in front of the court of the Polish People’s Republic. The criminal proceeding as a tool of political repression in the 70’s (contribution to the research)
Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989, No. 21 (2023), pages: 607-625
In the 1970s, the burden of fighting the openly organised opposition fell on the security apparatus, though in special circumstances the authorities also resorted to criminal law and sanctions in attacking this opposition. The trials of Jan Kozłowski, an activist in the independent peasant movement, are a good illustration of the fact that it was possible to harass a political opponent at any stage of criminal proceedings.
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Organisational and Staff Capacity and the Major Directions of Security Service Activity in the Opole Province during 1975–1990 (Part II)
Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989, No. 21 (2023), pages: 626-656
In mid-1975, at the same time as a change in the administrative division of the country, a general reorganisation of the structures of the Security Service took place. This was due to a fairly significant reduction in the organisational and staff capacity of the service. However, over the next dozen years or so, this process was reversed and the Security Service in Opole Province once again expanded its forces. Before the mid-1980s, the size of its staff in the region had even reached a level much higher than before the reorganisation carried out in 1975. This was due to the constant emergence of new challenges posed to the security apparatus by the period of the Solidarity revolution, which began in the summer of 1980. The Security Service tried to cope with the successive tasks set before it but ultimately found that, despite the effort put in, it failed to ensure that the communists maintained control of social reality.
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The story of Andrzej Markiewicz, the best-paid agent of the Studies Bureau of the Security Service
Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989, No. 21 (2023), pages: 657-687
The article describes the course of the collaboration with the Security Service of the journalist and teacher Andrzej Markiewicz, sentenced to three years’ imprisonment in 1961 for sending materials to the dissident Paris-based Kultura. In prison, he was interviewed by officers of the “Zagubiony” Operational and Investigative Group and, after his release, by Department III of the Ministry of the Interior, but due to Markiewicz’s limited capabilities, his file was archived in 1966. The renewal of agent contacts took place in the mid-1970s through officers of the Ministry of the Interior’s Independent Operational Group. After the introduction of martial law, work with this secret collaborator known by the pseudonym “Emil” was taken over by the Studies Bureau of the SB. “Emil” participated in operational activity aimed at the invigilation and disintegration of émigré circles; he established personal contacts with, among others, Jerzy Giedroyc and Mirosław Chojecki, and acted as an intermediary in the transfer of financial aid for underground creative groups operating in Poland. A measure of his effectiveness was that he was given power of attorney in publishing matters by the authors of the book Konspira, as well as acting as an intermediary in sending Lech Wałęsa’s correspondence to the West. The Security Service maintained a protective umbrella over Markiewicz, preventing him from being held accountable for maintaining numerous sexual relationships with underage boys – until the agent’s death following a robbery attack in 1986.
Articles and studies: Biographies
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Julian Wilf (1903–?), judge at the Military District Court in Gdańsk and head of the Military District Court in Katowice/Stalinogród
Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989, No. 21 (2023), pages: 691-710
The text is an attempt to present the silhouette of Julian Wilf and his activities as a judge of the Military District Court (WSR) in Gdańsk and as head of the WSR in Katowice. Wilf, as head of one of the military district courts, co-created the repression apparatus in Poland after the Second World War. These courts were a tool of the communist authorities, used to liquidate the anti-communist independence underground and “enemies of the people” in the first decade of the Polish People’s Republic. They dealt mainly with cases of civilians charged in political matters, and, as such, they were not headed by random lawyers.
Materials and documents
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“Between us, SB men”. Relations among functionaries of the Security Service in Tarnów on the sidelines of the Czesław Gucik case of 1971
Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989, No. 21 (2023), pages: 713-773
Published documents related to the case of Capt. Czesław Gucik, an officer of the Security Department of the Municipal and District Headquarters of the Citizens’ Militia in Tarnów, shed some light on everyday problems in the functioning of the local Security Service (SB) unit in the late 1960s and early 1970s: on relations between officers, personal conflicts, animosities and mutual divisions. The protocol from the meeting of the Branch Party Organisation at the Security Department of the Municipal and District Headquarters of the Citizens’ Militia in Tarnów of 20 March 1971 is a record of accusations directed at Captain Gucik of various types of official misconduct and immoral behaviour. Accusations were also made against the service’s directors, such as the failure to react to Gucik’s “sins”, known to the majority of officers, not only in the SB, and also about the disregard of other problems. A second document includes Gucik’s explanations, which are a testimony to his use of defence-by-attack tactics, which resulted in the denigration of those Security Service officers who took the most unfavourable positions toward him.
Research and review articles
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Martin Previšić, Povijest Golog Otoka, Fraktura, Zagreb 2019, 634 pp.
Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989, No. 21 (2023), pages: 777-786
Martin Previšić’s book is the first historical publication to address the functioning of the Goli Otok [Naked Island] camp in Yugoslavia and the repression against supporters of Stalinism in this country during the era of conflict with the Soviet Union in the late 1940s and the first half of the 1950s. The author used security service materials, party documentation, and also interviewed those imprisoned in “Tito’s Gulag”. Previšić has successfully portrayed the activities of the repressive apparatus and party leadership circles, and has also attempted to present a collective portrait of the opponents of Tito’s policies in Yugoslavia. On the plus side, there is also a rich description of the daily life of those imprisoned as well as a meticulously drawn up calculation of the number of victims of repression.
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Cezary Łazarewicz, Na Szewskiej. Sprawa Stanisława Pyjasa [On Szewska Street. The Case of Stanisław Pyjas], Czytelnik: Warsaw 2023, 416 pp.
Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989, No. 21 (2023), pages: 787-804
The article reviews Cezary Łazarewicz’s book Na Szewskiej. Sprawa Stanisława Pyjasa. It recalls who Stanisław Pyjas was, his role in the anti-communist opposition, and why he found himself in the spotlight of the communist repression apparatus. Errors and shortcomings appearing in the publication are pointed out, and reference is made to earlier discussions of the publication. It is also pointed out that discrepancies in the interpretation of the results of the Pyjas investigation result from the fact that the research methods of the historian and the lawyer differ. After available archival materials, publications and the results of the investigation conducted by the Institute of National Remembrance into the case of Stanisław Pyjas had been analysed, it was concluded that historians have grounds to claim that his death was at the instigation of the Security Service.
50 Ministry of Education and Science evaluation points:
40 (2024)
Research areas: humanities
Disciplines: history, security studies, political science and public administration
Editor-in-chief: Dr. habil. Filip Musiał
- Institute of National Remembrance
Commission for the Prosecution
of Crimes against the Polish Nation
1 Janusza Kurtyki Str.
02-676 Warsaw (Poland)
NIP: 525-21-80-487
- tel.: +48 22 581-87-78/77/76
e-mail: wydawnictwo@ipn.gov.pl
