The article presents the summary of research from the years 2000–2013 into the history of the general communist apparatus of repression, with its division into source materials, memoirs and studies. The paper gathers general publications connected with the activities of the apparatus of repression, as well as those concerning the cooperation between the Polish and the Soviet apparatus of repression; Security Office (UB) activities against the independence underground, political opposition and signs of social resistance in the years 1944–1956; Security Service (SB) actions against political opposition and signs of social resistance in the years 1956–1989/1990; UB-SB joint actions against Churches and other religious associations; US-SB actions against emigration; UB-SB actions against national and ethnic minorities; UB-SB human resources and structures; methods, forms and measures used by the US-SB; judicial and judiciary offences of the „People’s Poland”; the prison system of the „People’s Poland”; military structures of the  apparatus of repression; as well as issues related to source studies and research methodologies applied to the repression apparatus.

The Civic Militia (MO) was a formation established by the Polish Committee of National Liberation in 1944 to protect the order and safety of all citizens. Since Radom and the district of Radom still remained under German occupation in 1944, no MO units were formed in this territory at this time. The foundations for the Radom militia were laid at the Sandomierz bridgehead, constituting a small piece of the Kielce province seized by the Red Army at the turn of July and August 1944. As part of the winter offensive of 1945 the city of Radom and the territories of the Radom district were liberated. This enabled the formation of the Civic Militia in these areas, along with the establishment of the MO Municipal Command and MO District Command. The foundation of these structures involved numerous problems, as did the selection of competent personnel. The article focuses on presenting the first four years of the existence of the Civic Militia in this territory, with particular consideration of the managerial staff of these units. The paper is enriched with registers of the commanding officers and heads of particular militia cells as well as short biographic notes on the commanders of the organs of the Radom MO.

The subject matter of the article encompasses the organising and functioning of the Mazovian units of the Internal Security Corps (KBW) in the years 1945–1948. The organisational issues are presented in chronological order, from unit establishment until the last transformations in 1948. The paper describes the transitions to which it was subject, as well as issues concerning its facilities and staff that occurred at the time of its formation. It presents the structure of the highest command of the unit, both in terms of nationality and military affiliation (Polish Army, Red Army). Moreover, it touches upon a topic related to the activities and tasks of the political education apparatus, both internal and external. The aspects of the unit’s operation are depicted in a thematic format. The study concerns the issues of recruitment, training, equipment, boarding, discipline and living conditions of soldiers.

The article presents the District Public Security Office (PUBP) [(from 1955 the District Office of Public Security (PUdsBP)] in Krosno, in the Rzeszów province. The first part presents the most important changes in the organisational-personnel structure of the Krosno PUBP and PUdsBP in the years 1945–1956. This part also encompasses tables listing names of officers along with their ranks and positions. The second part presents nine consecutive chiefs and heads of the Krosno UB unit. The third part demonstrates the main directions of operational and investigative actions implemented in the first decade of the existence of the People’s Republic of Poland (PRL). The author describes the operational work of the local UB, the scope of its surveillance, types of conducted operational matters, and the courses of some investigations. The collected statistical data depict changes in the number of units in the spy-intelligence ring, the dynamics of arrests and the categories of the pursued offences.

The topic regarding the personnel of security offices in small and medium-sized localities is rarely discussed by historians investigating the period of the People’s Republic of Poland (PRL). On the one hand the personnel of the security apparatus was selected by using suitable verification, while on the other in an atmosphere of „revolutionary transitions” it was impossible to avoid the inflow of people who should not be appointed to any kind of position in any type of political system. Besides officers who were not entirely familiar with the nature of the tasks of the Public Security Office and delegated there by an order of the Polish Labour Party and their Soviet comrades, it included quite a large group of careerists, semi-illiterates, deviants or common offenders. In the twenty-year post-war period the city of Inowrocław was a classic example of this kind of pathology.

The article presents the activity of a secret collaborator of the 4th Department of the 5th Ministry of Public Security, Donat  Czerewacz („Zaręba”), who played a significant role in the exposure of the veteran community of the „Radosław” Home Army Concentration. The materials obtained by him proved particularly useful for the officers of the security apparatus because in the late 1940s they commenced a widespread repression against the veterans of the Warsaw Uprising, known as the „Zośka” case. The author’s intention was to present a detailed fragment of Zaręba’s activity for the security apparatus in the years 1947–1949 on the basis of documents, thus far unused in a broader context, from the archives of the IPN (Institute of National Remembrance). In order to facilitate understanding of the role of Czerewacz it was required to evoke basic information from his biography, including his activity within the anti-German conspiracy, which enabled „Zaręba’s” credibility to be maintained in the circle of the people he kept under his surveillance once he became a secret collaborator of the Ministry of Public Security (MBP). It was thanks to his merits from the period of World War Two that he managed to avoid being exposed as an informant despite arising suspicions regarding his objectives and intentions.

In the years 1944–1956 more than 50 thousand people died as a result of communist acts of terror. A very large number of the victims were members of the anti-communist armed underground, of whom more than ten thousand were killed in combat or during anti-insurgency operations. Their bodies were usually buried in secret places, which to a large extent still remain  undiscovered. The article attempts to reconstitute, on a microscale, the manner of handling the corpses of those killed from the moment of their transfer from the place of combat until burial. The authors reconstruct the events of February 1952 in the district of Krasnystaw and in the headquarters of the Krasnystaw security office. The raid organised by Internal Security Corps (KBW) resulted in the death of two members of the Aleksandra Sobonia „Wichra” division: Mieczysław Bodek („Lew”) and N.N. („Stach”). The bodies were transferred to the Security Office (PUBP) headquarters in Krasnystaw, where they remained for several days. There they were subjected to the „standard” procedure (medical examination, identification, and photographing). In the meantime they were robbed of clothing, and in the case one body several gold teeth were pulled or knocked out for profit. Next, the bodies were moved at night away from Krasnystaw and secretly buried. The matter ended in an unexpected way: upon the lapse of several weeks the officers involved in the burial were denounced by a colleague and subsequently charged with theft and the profanation of corpses. The investigation covered six of them, with final charges laid against two officers – both convicted by the decision of the Regional Military Court in Lublin.

The regional military prosecution service in the People’s Republic of Poland in the period between 1946 and 1955, whose fields of competence included conducting criminal proceedings in matters involving the soldiers and officers of the Internal Security Corps (KBW) and the Border Protection/Border Protection Corps, as well as supervision over maintaining discipline, economic matters and preventive measures in both mentioned formations. Due to the fact that this issue has not yet been generally discussed in the literature, the author presents it based on the example of the Regional Military Prosecution Service in Gdańsk and the subordinated units (in a defined scope) of the 13th regiment of the Internal Security Corps (KBW), the 4th Brigade of the Border Protection (OP) and the 16th division of the Border Protection Corps (WOP). The investigations against KBW and OP/WOP soldiers and officers were conducted by investigating officers of the suspects’ units under the supervision of the prosecutors of the Regional Military Prosecution Service (WPR) in Gdańsk. The duties of the military prosecutors, besides the conduct and supervision of criminal matters concerning crimes committed by KBW and OP/WOP soldiers and officers, included preventive activities with the use of various types of measures, i.e. meeting and talks with soldiers regarding the legal consequences of criminal offences. Moreover, the prosecutors conducted political-educational training in KBW and OP/WOP units, as well as inspected the condition of uniforms, board and lodging of soldiers on duty and any kind of economic, accounting and secretarial activities performed there. The above issues were a part of the so-called general prosecution supervision, a function absent in pre-war Polish legislation, which was adopted from Soviet legislation. Its implementation enabled communists to extend control over broader areas of public life in the People’s Republic, hence discussing this topic is extremely important for becoming more familiar with its post-war history.

The article describes the attitudes and behaviours of inhabitants of the Koszalin province towards the state authorities and its representatives on the eve of establishment of the NSZZ „Solidarność” trade union. The text draws attention to the fact that in this territory during the years 1975–1980 there were no organised structures of political opposition, mass exits or protests. This, however, did not mean that the inhabitants of the province remained completely passive and indifferent towards the imposed political order. Individuals and groups of people expressed their spontaneous objection by distributing leaflets, reading and distributing underground publications, organising „oases”, working within the priesthood or giving theatrical performances containing messages disguised from the censorship. The activities among the priests of the KoszalinKołobrzeg diocese were generally described, as they contested the regime, built chapels, erected crosses or participated in the oasis movement. This spontaneous initiative of the inhabitants of the Koszalin province towards the authorities in the period between 1 June 1975 and the summer of 1980 is referred to by the author as social resistance.

In 1947 seven officers of Security Office (UB) and Civic Militia (MO) were tried before the Regional Military Court of Szczecin for the murder of German nationals arrested in Świnoujście in the winter of 1945/1946. The precise number of victims is not known, although the initial findings suggest that as many as forty people may have died under these tragic circumstances. These numbers are based on estimates calculated by the Department for the Officers of the Provincial Public Security Office and the Regional Military Prosecution Service in Szczecin in 1946. Only nine corpses were exhumed from two provisional burial sites within the property of PUBP in Świnoujście. The bodies of the remaining victims have never been recovered. The matter was concluded at the Regional Military Court in Szczecin. This means that the said events were not even ascribed in the broad spectrum of the unlawful activity of the communist repression apparatus tolerated by the authorities. The discrimination that affected those kept in custody in Świnoujście bore the traits of an individual retaliation for the injustices suffered during the period of the German occupation, which is confirmed by biographies and questionnaires prepared by PUBP and MO officers, as well as stenographic records from interrogations.

During their visits to the prison facilities located in Upper Silesia, the inspectors of the Faculty of Political Education of the Department of Prisons and Camps at the Ministry of Public Security noted conflicts among prison officers of Silesian and migrant origins. As a result they issued a request to carry out a campaign aimed at eliminating this antagonism. For this purpose, in April 1946 a ‘political report’ was prepared, entitled „Our relationship with the people of Silesia” and addressed to former prison and camp governors in the Silesian province and the ‘Recovered Territories’. The document was to serve as a compendium of knowledge on the national relationships in Upper Silesia, including issues related to the German People’s List (the ‘Volkslist’). It abounded in pathos and propaganda rhetoric, and it drew attention, among other things, to the mistakes made in the time of the Polish gentry and Sanation in the policy regarding the people of Silesia (negligence, treating them as „half-Poles”), referring to them as brothers „groaning under the yoke of German rule”. The report was to result in a greater awareness of the „Silesian soul” and diminish the enmity towards the people of Silesia. At the same time it was shown that the management of prisons and camps under the Office of Security condemned anti-Silesian phobias or the programmed retaliation on Volksdeutsches.

The article addresses the issue of the reorganisation of the territorial structures of the political police following the shift in party and state authorities in December 1970. The new minister of Internal Affairs, General Franciszek Szlachcic, initiated on March 1971 the foundation of the Commission for the Facilitation of Work Organisation in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. One of its tasks comprised an analysis of the work structure and organisation of the units of the Security Service (SB), in particular on the district level, treated as the basic organisational-executive cell of the security apparatus with regard to tasks resulting from protection of the system of the People’s Republic of Poland (PRL). The article discusses the stages of the analytical and research works and consultations connected with the preparation of action scopes, regulations and organisational structure and personnel of district and provincial SB units. One of the discussed topics concerned consultations regarding the proposed names for reorganised SB units. Moreover, it describes the analytical works conducted in SB units of the Kraków province. The result of the programme, completed in May 1973, was the „Report regarding streamlining of the organisational structure of the units of the ministry of internal affairs”. Nonetheless, the proposed solutions were not implemented, with one of the reasons resting in the decision of the top-level party-state management concerned with the administrative reform of the state. The appendices to the article include, among other things, proposals regarding the organisational and personnel structure of SB KP MO (Security Office, Provincial Civic Militia Headquarters), organisational regulations of SB KW MO, and the register of full-time job positions within the district and provincial Security Service.

The set of memoirs by Stefan Paluszkiewicz constitute an interesting historical source for several reasons, written as they were in the late 1970s for agitation and popularisation purposes for the needs of the Historical Bureau of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Paluszkiewicz begins with a presentation of his youth and mature life first in interwar Poland and then during the period of German occupation, which by the author’s assumption was to provide an explicit justification of his attitude towards the post-war reality. The events of 1945–1950 (and mainly of 1945) were described by someone who performed managerial functions in the public security apparatus at the district (Włocławek) and provincial (Bydgoszcz, Wrocław) levels. The document enables us to understand the motives, circumstances and conditions accompanying the decisions concerning the operational actions of the political police, which are otherwise impossible to reconstruct on the basis of the preserved reports and operational-investigative documentation of the UB (Security Office) units ran by Paluszkiewicz. The presented relation allows an understanding of the mechanisms and criteria behind staff recruitment for the UB operating in Poland in the first years after the war (the significance of mutual connections and acquaintances, the pre-war communist activity), the role of Soviet counsellors in educating the first UB employees, the process of PPR cell formation (Polish Labour Party), cooperation with the MO (Civic Militia) and the already visible influence of the UB on the militia. The author of the memoirs also brought up issues connected with the implementation of rural reform and amnesty as well as the relationship with Catholic clergy, PSL (Polish People’s Party) representatives and the civilian population. An important advantage of the presented text consists of the fact that it enables the readers to evaluate the author’s mentality, his political beliefs, opinions and attitudes.