In the article we can find two cases from 1945 from the Silesia Voivodeship in which the officers of Citizens’ Militia committed crimes on the civilian population. In the following year, the verdicts of the Military District Court in Katowice were ordered against the perpetrators resulting in four death sentences, three of which were executed.

The article presents a case of a mysterious death of Eng. Julian Czermak, accused of collaborating with the German occupation authorities and indicted the circumstances of the arrest, inconsistent with the procedure of preparatory proceedings and abuse by MO officers during the investigation. The article is showing tries to cover the crime, maturation in the investigation as well as impunity of officers of the repression apparatus committing violence against the accused of treason, emphasising on the contribution of the communistic propaganda in promoting retaliation against the German population and volksdeutsches and traumatic war experiences as the source of the general increase in the tendency to violence and cruelty of the society.

Article is trying to explain the mysterious crime of October 1945, when the corpse of the second lieutenant from the Headquarters of the Citizens’ Militia of Wiktor Jezierski was fished out from the Warta River in Gorzów Wielkopolski. For years, this crime was seen as a manifestation of political struggle and banditry closer to unidentified communities opposing the introduction of communism in Poland. After examining the case, it turned out that Lieutenant at the time of his death did not work for the Citizens’ Militia, because he has deserted from it in the summer of 1945. This resulted in sending an arrest warrants for him. The murderers of Jezierski turns out to be two officers of the Poviat Public Security Office in Gorzów. Their motive was Jezierski’s financial mistreatment of one of the officers mistresses.

This elaboration is about the unknown operational aspects of the repression apparatus in the province of Wieluń in the 1940’s. The main victims of the officers were soldiers of the underground independent movement. The victims were arrested, imprisoned in the PUBP building at Kiliński Street in Wieluń, on charges of belonging to the Polish Underground Army or by helping this anti-communist organization. During the interrogations they were beaten with fists, rubber and wooden sticks. The torture used was, among others, tying the interrogated and hanging upside down, after gagging the mouth with nasal flooding with water or vinegar, which caused strangling, loss of consciousness or death. Some soldiers were murdered during the interrogation and secretly buried in an unknown place. In the presented synthesis all of the investigation after 1990 against the officers of Security Office who used abused the interrogators were used. Despite the fact that former UB officers did not admit to the accused acts, the prosecutor’s office presented them with accusations and after court proceedings they were sentenced by valid sentences. Article is based on the results of the current investigation, mainly in found in the polish archives, including the Provincial Court in Wieluń, 4th Penal Department, documentation created by The Internal Security Corps, Provincial Office of Public Security and District Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation in Łódź – Institute of National Remembrance. The analysed subject was not discussed in the subject literature.

In the first years of the formation of the so-called People’s democracy came to numerous crimes committed by officers of public security offices. People – for whom the communistic propaganda was portraying them as guardians of social order – they were largely an absolute criminal group, which tortured and often murdered political opponents of the new authorities. The sense of impunity meant that officers often exceeded their official powers and in an in-depth manner settled their personal fines. It is impossible to accurately and precisely estimated the scale of the crimes committed by Security Office, because of careful covering up the internal disciplinary proceedings and criminals were very rarely responsible for their actions against the judicial system. If there was a conviction, the judgments that were made were scandalously low compare to the act committed.

The activity of the Provincial Office of Public Security in Przasnysz between 1945 and 1956 was marked by strong terror directed to the soldiers of the independence armed underground as well as civilians. Quite often, the ranks of Security Office were powered by irresponsible people who do not have key competences to work in such service. Often the basic advantage of the future officers was their physical strength and beyond the legal skills of operational work. This resulted in the violation of elementary rights and freedoms of citizens. Terror, the use of unlawful means of direct coercion during investigations and assassination of murders caused fear and open disapproval among the residents of the Przasnysz Poviat in relation to the “guardians of the system”. The irony was that the PUBP structures were organized in the building in which the German Gestapo operated during World War II. Throughout the life of witnesses of the first decade of communist rule in Przasnysz, the building at 4 Berka Joselewicza Street was associated with great fear and terror.

In the article, author is trying to discover the reasons behind this rather untypical, especially for the Polish People’s Republic, judicial verdict. On one hand there was a strong evidence coming from the victim and determination of his representative – lawyer Jerzy Pomina but from the other a probable desire to symbolically authenticate the communist justice system. The only demonstrative nature of the verdict was evidenced not only by the very low sentence, but also the failure to detect the other perpetrators of the crime, disregarding the threat of Heller’s dismissal from work and incarnating him into the army for mock exercises of reservists, as well as the fact that the convicted officer remained in service until 1990.

In the years between 1944–1955 the Citizens’ Militias officers were responsible to military courts for crimes committed. On 1st May 1955, the law requiring the transfer of all criminal cases against MO officers to common courts came into force. Such a legal status lasted until the Civil Militia was dissolved, until 1990. The exception was the period of martial law (1981–1983), when the militiamen were again subject to the jurisdiction of military courts. The special divisions of Ministry of Public Security and Citizens’ Militia has dealt with the crime prevention among MO officers. The last of them was the Management of the Protection of Officers, appointed in 1985 by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which operated until 1990.

During the whole period of the People’s Poland, officers of the security apparatus and Citizens’ Militia enjoyed informal “immunity”, mostly protecting them from responsibility for criminal acts committed to the detriment of citizens who are not members of the communist power apparatus. Cases of prosecuting them in such situations were rare. More or less criminal or disciplinary liability were for the actions done against the power apparatus and for neglecting of the duties. This approach was meant to empower the communistic monopoly of the authorities. In realities this also led to other social side effects. Glaring manifestations of impunity and privileged treatment of officers were a source of social frustration, rapidly growing at the crucial stages of the political history of Peoples’ Poland.

One of the tasks that were put before the military regional courts (WSR) at the time when they were brought to life was the case law in criminal cases, which concerned officers of the socalled repression apparatus of Peoples’ Poland. In the presented article author was trying to present in the descriptive and statistical form the case law in criminal cases. Out of 1648 defendants of MO, UBP and Prison Service (SW), whose cases were sent to WSR in Gdańsk, only 934 were convicted. The allegations against them most often concerned cases of abuse of power for personal gain, official and sentry crime, robbery and various acts that “stained” the honour of an officer of the state security apparatus(often crimes were committed under the influence of alcohol). Only few of the UBP, MO and SW officers faced the military court for torturing, beating or mistreating suspects or convicts. This was because the goal of “popular authority” was not generally to fight crime among the employees of the repression apparatus, but to search for the “element of reaction” in the structures of Ministry of Public Security and its elimination. Also many cases related to the abuse done by officers did not even reach the military regional courts.

Article talks about the discipline and its forming in the Border Protection Army between 1945–1966. It was a serious problem, which got the attention from the beginning of the functioning of this formation. The text describes the crimes, accidents and offenses that happened in the Border Protection Army, also the actions taken by the management of this formation, which were to lead to the improvement of this state. Also author is trying to answer the question of which factors influenced the level of discipline in the Border Protection Armies in 1945–1965.

The article shows the examples of the crimes committed by the army personnel while serving in the units securing the national border of PRL between 1960 and 1991. It also takes in account soldiers of the basic military service and professional soldiers serving in the Maritime Brigade of Border Warships (Part of Ministry of National Defense). Author was trying to show influence of soldiers committing the crimes on the general level of military discipline in these units.

The power installed in Poland after the Second World War was determined to use all means of repression to break the resistance of social group unwilling to work. The pre-war intelligentsia including teachers was found to be at a particularly vulnerable position. The aim of the presented article is to show the situation of the teaching staff based on the documents of the Ministry of Education from 1945–1947, containing numerous complaints and requests for interventions mainly in cases of persons detained by the Security Offices. Methods of proceedings used against teacher did not differ from those used against the rest of polish society. The base for the numerous arrests, detentions and searches belonged during the war to the Home Army or political organizations before the war, expressing a negative opinion on Poland’s relations with the USSR, hostile attitude towards the new political system. It is also worth to note the scale of the unlawful actions presented in the documents like: not informing about the reasons behind the arrest, groundless, often many months of detention without specific charges, mental and physical abuse, appropriation of property.

Author in the presented article is analysing cases of people against whom in the Stalinist period has started the independence activities, ending up in jail and starting the cooperation with the Security Office. On the basis of the operational material and registration materials of the Security Office and the personal files and passport files a description was made, explaining the independence activity of the heroine of the article on the land of Kłodzko, her stay in various jails in the region of Lower Silesia and her later situation after being released. The case of Maria Kącka gives us a certain image, which motives were behind actions of people who collaborated with Security Office and the tragic situation they have ended with. Author with great care and without tries to assess the informant’s attitude is drawing conclusions from the analysed materials, remaining unequivocally critical of the fact of cooperating with the repressive authorities of the PRL.

From the start of the seventies Kazimierz Świtoń was one of the most watched democratic oppositionists in the Upper Silesia. The author of the article analysis the inconspicuous folder found in the evacuation bag with a handwritten title »PZ [punkt zakryty] krypt. „Szmer”«, which shows the procedures for establishing by Division “B” of SB, Provincial command of Citizens Militia (KW MO)/Provincial Office of the Interior Affairs (WUSW) in Katowice, 11 covered points, from which observation of Świtoń’s under the nickname “Szmer” and in one case his son Jan, were carried. Between 1977–1987 the covered points were placed in the private apartments and in the rooms owned by the government institutions and were used by the intelligence agents with varying frequency. The used source material also allowed to trace the attitudes of people to whom Security Service turned to with a question to provide rooms and the relations between them and agents during the long term work.

Between 1989–1990 there has been a process of mass destruction of materials produced by the Security Service, especially regarding the Catholic Church and the political opposition in the People’s Republic of Poland. The size of the ravages made in the security archives is difficult to estimate to this day, but there is no doubt that they were the result of a nationwide action carried out on the orders of people from the top management of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In 1990 at the request of the deputy head of the Office of State Protection Andrzej Milczanowski, the Invastigative Office of the Ministry of the Interior Affairs initiated proceeding aimed at clarifying the circumstances of the practice of blurring the traces of Security Services’ activities in the province of Piotrków. The collected material and prosecutors’ activities led to the accusation against Deputy Minister of the Third Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, General Krzysztof Majchrowski and Director of the IV Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, General Tadeusz Szczygieł. The trail that took place between 1993 and 1996 before the District Court and the Provincial Court in Piotrków Trybunalski did not lead to punishing the accused and the proceedings against them were discontinued. The specific weakness of the institution of justice makes the right to formulate the thesis that there is no interest in punishing the persons responsible for organizing, supervising and conducting the described procedure.

The presented biography shows the course of the service of Hipolit Sławiński, who was associated with the special services of the communist apparatus of repression. In September 1944 he reported to the RKU in Nisko, from where he was directed to the Special Polish Independent Battalion (Assault Battalion). By the end of 1945, he was transferred to the information bodies of the Polish Army, where he quickly advanced and served in various positions of this formation until 1953. In October of 1953 he was sent to the Border Protection Army (WOP), where his professional and business experience in working with agents was used in the work of the recon team. In 1966 he was entrusted with the position of the head of WOP Reconnaissance Board. In 1972, as a soldier of the unit No. 2000 subordinated to the Second Directorate of the Polish Army, he was delegated to the International Control and Supervision Commission in Vietnam. Upon his return, until the end of his service in 1986, he was seconded to the Ministry of Labor, Wages and Social Affairs, where he carried out tasks related to defence.