The article discusses, in the source study aspect, the problem of using scientific archives garnered by the IPN (Institute of National  Remembrance). The comments were formulated after taking into account the main types of archives left by the communist repressive apparatus, including administrative records, personnel records, passport documentation, internal coverages, as well as operational and record documentation. Considering the extensive literature on the subject and, in reference to it, the nature of various types of sources and consequent issues with these sources were listed.

At the end of 1944 a camp was established concerning „work for political criminals and suspects in Krzesimów” for Germans, citizens of German descent („Volksdeutsche”) and Poles cooperating with German occupiers during the Second World War. It was  subordinate to the Ministry of Public Security. On 25 April 1945 it was announced that, apart from Warsaw, Potulice and Jaworzno, it would be a central work camp. In fact it remained a subsidiary of the castle prison in Lublin. The camp was officially abolished under Circular No. 57 of the Minister of Public Security of 12 June 1945, but, by December 1946, it was in use as an agricultural colony of the castle prison in Lublin. For several months at least 2,037 people were imprisoned there, mostly Poles  suspected of collaborating with German occupiers. Difficult conditions, hard work and beggarly meals caused the deaths of 420 people, whose names could be established.

The article is an attempt to organise and verify our knowledge about the action of the Home Army Resistance (HAR) at the Poviat Office of Public Safety (POPS) in Pabianice. Past publications dealing with this issue are based largely on eyewitness accounts and thus include discrepancies as to the details, not only concerning the course of the action but also of its preparation. Both the formation and activity of HAR were imposed by the need to respond to the changing geopolitical situation in the Polish lands from the beginning of 1945. When it became clear that liberation was tantamount to a new occupation, members of the Home Army, on the basis of the disbanded organisation, began forming new underground divisions to create what became known as the  „second conspiracy”. Activities taken by HAR and similar organisations were aimed at weakening and disorganising the newly installed power. The action of HAR members at the POPS in Pabianice formed part of this trend, and was one of the two most significant attacks conducted by members of the „new” underground after the war in the Łódź region. Although carefully planned and prepared, its success was thanks to the organisational weakness of the Communist security authorities. Its importance is even greater in that there was no use of weapons and no bloodshed. Memories of this event are rooted in the local community. Unfortunately, beyond the community and a narrow circle of historians, few people have heard about the action at the POPS in Pabianice.

The article is a review of the materials produced by the highest party authority of the Ministry of Public Security in the years 1949–1951, the Warszawa-Śródmieście Subdistrict Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR), and, from November 1951 to December 1954, the Warszawa-Ujazdów District Committee of the PZPR. The total of 25 saved archival units include documentation produced by the District Committee (DC) and the Audit Commission it appointed. In the case of the DC, these are the minutes of executive meetings held every week, and minutes of plenary meetings held irregularly every few months. For the Audit Commission there are the minutes of sixteen meetings (14 December 1949 – 31 August 1954). This body was set up to control the finances of the MPS party organisation, including membership fees or fund-raising for the construction of the PZPR Central House in Warsaw. The minutes from the meetings of the DC executive contain information about the operation of the party organisation in the department, as well as various organisational units of the MPS. Much attention (approx. 43% of the subjects discussed) was paid to the personal affairs of party members (acceptances, exclusions, reprimands, approving promotions to higher ranks). The PZPR, through the Warszawa-Ujazdów District Committee, controlled all the  professional and private lives of its members. The documents produced by the highest party authority form interesting  supplementary sources for the history of the repressive apparatus in the People’s Poland.

In May 1964 the Technical Supply Department of the Communications Board of the Ministry of the Interior was shocked by a scandal caused by the accidental disclosure of irregularities that had taken place in this unit over a number of years. They consisted, among other things, in accepting money, luxury goods, and a large number of low-value items by officers of the Technical Supply  Department of the Communications Board, while making agreements for the procurement of equipment from Western companies. This practice was possible because the Communications Board lacked relevant regulations, the general guidelines of the Ministry of Foreign Trade were not followed, and, above all, because high-ranking people participated. These included Major Piotr Flam as the Deputy Head of the Technical Supply Department, Lt Col Józef Grabarczyk as from 1 June 1960 to 31 July 1961 the Deputy Technical Head of the Organisation Department of the Communications Board, and, supervising them, Col Anatol Jegliński as the Director of the Communications Board. As a result, excessive amounts were paid for imported equipment that sometimes did not even meet the basic requirements of the Ministry of the Interior. This case of abuse has not yet been raised in publications known to the author, although it might be of interest as almost the complete documentation remains, as well as the fact that those involved were convicted and imprisoned.

The article deals with problems related to the organising and functioning of the structures of the anti-Communist opposition and spontaneously emerging focal points of social resistance in south-eastern Poland. The security authorities undertook surveillance operations to analyse the situation, and then broke and neutralised independent communities. The authors set themselves the goal of characterising the forms of resistance against the Communist authorities in rural areas and the two largest towns in the region: Rzeszów and Przemyśl. The activities of rural communities is illustrated by the conflict in Łowisko in Rzeszów province, where the Committee of the Farmers’ SelfDefence of Rzeszów Land was established, the dispute arising from  use of the socalled „Arłamów principality”, and also the matter of imprisonment and sentencing of a farmers’ opposition activist, Jan Kozłowski. During the described period, local dissidents established contacts with representatives of national opposition organisations, and then formed the first local structures. One example of this process is ROPCiO (Movement for Defence of Human and Civil Rights), with an information and consultation point being established in Przemyśl, while another example involves the activities of  dissentients from Rzeszów. Local dissidents had the strong support of the Roman Catholic Church, especially Bishop Ignacy Tokarczuk. The efforts by independent Catholic circles aimed at the construction of new churches are demonstrated using the example of the Przemyśl Believers’ Self-Defence Committee. In describing the various strands of the anti-Communist opposition, the authors sought, at the same time, to introduce the modus operandi of the security apparatus aimed at eliminating or reducing the range in which opposition groups could have an impact.

The social protests that took place in December 1970 and January 1971 in Szczecin resulted in this industrial centre becoming one of the most important places on the map of social resistance in Poland in the decade of rule by the First Secretary of the Polish Communist Party, Edward Gierek. Throughout the 1970s, there were signs appearing of organised resistance against the Communist system. This included various social groups: workers, intelligentsia, and students. Metropolitan Szczecin was one of the most important locations involved in the „before-August” opposition. The specificity of Szczecin relates largely to the dominant activity of ROPCiO (Movement for Defence of Human and Civil Rights). The „before-August” opposition in Szczecin consisted mainly of representatives of students and the intelligentsia; it had a very slight influence on the workers’ environment in spite of the functioning of the Founding Committee of Free Trade Unions in Western Pomerania. To some extent, such an opposition model executed scenarios set by the government, in which the opposition was to be limited to small, or even „armchair”, intellectual circles, having no major impact on the masses, which, in the case of the People’s Republic, consisted of employees of large workplaces. From the point of view of the Communist regime, the situation that existed in Szczecin in the 1970s allowed this location to be treated as a kind of testing ground for different methods of surveillance and the decomposition of opposition groups by the
Security Service. Certainly, the experience gained by the political police in the control of the workers’ and students’ environments was later used by the authorities of the Ministry of the Interior during the „Solidarność” („Solidarity”) revolution.

This article describes the actions of the local apparatus of power in the Nowy Sącz district towards one of the areas of activity of the Catholic Church – teaching religion. It involves the period of reign of the First Secretary of the Communist Party’s Central  Committee, Władysław Gomułka, and attempts to show implementation of society’s secularisation policy by the District Committee of the Communist Party and terrain administration in the context of changing the course of Communists’ relationship towards the Church in 1958, sanctioned by acts of different weights. One of the most important aspects of this struggle was attempts to impose the secular model of educating youth by the Communists. This was expressed in a law passed on 15 July 1961 by the Sejm of the People’s Poland, on the development of the system of education. As a consequence, teaching religion was removed from primary and secondary schools, and the framework for control of non-school teaching of this subject was set. Responsibility for enacting the law and overseeing the execution of the regulation issued on its basis concerning the teaching of the catechism by priests fell entirely to the local administration, especially education authorities, supported by the Security Service, which through its operational measures monitored the situation of the Nowy Sącz clergy and indicated practicable actions. The whole policy remained under the control and assessment of the Communist Party’s Central Committee in Nowy Sącz.

Relationships between the scientific communities and the Communist security apparatus are one of the most interesting and important topics in the socio-political history of the People’s Republic era. The nature of these relationships was extremely
complex and versatile; significantly more complicated than in the case of any other social environments. Scientific communities were supervised by Division III of the Security Service (SS), also involved in the fight against the political activities of the opposition. These environments were of interest to other operating divisions of the SS, in particular Division II, which dealt with issues like eradicating pro-German attitudes in the Opole province, and Division V, whose tasks included the fight against „Solidarity”. An important part in the surveillance of the scientific communities was played by the SS’s personal sources of information, derived both from scientists and auxiliary technical or administrative staff. Universities were not only an object of interest and operational activity for the SS. Over time, they began to play an increasingly important role as sources of highly qualified personnel for the security apparatus. Future Security Service officers employed the acquired knowledge and the capital of personal experience and contacts in later operations. A similar situation occurred in the case of officers in training at civilian universities or those trying to combine work in the SS with their own scientific careers. These issues are illustrated by the examples of the Silesian Institute, Higher School of Pedagogy and the Higher School of Engineering in Opole.

The article presents the course of the first partially free elections since the end of Second World War to the „Sejm kontraktowy” and the PRL Senate of 4 and 18 June 1989 in the „Brzozów” area, a part of electoral district no. 51, covering Krosno province as it existed in the years 1975–1998. The documents of the Communist Security Service demonstrate the secret actions of the Security Service against the activists of the „Solidarność” („Soldiarity”) Independent Self-Governing Trade Union, election civic committee members, opposition candidates to the Sejm and the Senate, as well as Catholic priests. The Security Service (SS) action related to the elections at the level of the Krosno province was conducted by Division III of the  Security Service of the Provincial Office of Internal Affairs in Krosno, while in the Brzozów region this was conducted by its subordinate, Group III of the Security Service of the Regional Office of Internal Affairs. From April to August 1989, under the group-oriented surveillance case codenamed „Election ‘89”, use was made of all the available Brzozów SS network, numbering 58 personal sources of information, the officers of the local SS Department and the Citizens’ Militia, as well as its auxiliary units. The publication includes fragments of secret SS documents, such as plans for operational projects, cryptography, reports and information from secret collaborators, as well as the results of the first and second round of elections in selected municipalities
of the Brzozów area.

A biographic entry for Col Teodor Duda (1914–1986) shows the model course of a career in the security apparatus of the Polish  People’s Republic. This prewar communist activist lived in the Soviet Union during the war years, where he teamed up with the local security apparatus. Then he joined the 2nd Infantry Division of the Polish Army, formed in the Soviet Union. In June of 1944,  transported by air to Poland, he became a commander of the „Grunwald II” Brigade of the People’s Army. Through acquaintances with leading figures in the Communist authorities, he climbed the ranks of the security apparatus by working as a Manager of the Provincial Public Security Bureau in Lublin, and ended up as the Deputy Chief of the Board of 2nd Border Troops. Despite numerous crimes, as well as complaints from subordinates, he wa s never punished.

The Main Directorate of Information (MDI) of the Polish Army, known also as Military Information, was created on 14 May 1943 along with the Tadeusz Kościuszko 1st Infantry Division of the Polish Army. It was created and controlled by the Soviet SMERSH military counterintelligence organisation. In spite of fragmentary information about the MDI, historians are able to present the history of this sinister organisation. However, little is known about the people who worked there. This article presents one of the most prominent officers of Military Information, Eugeniusz Niedzielin. He was born 21 August 1916 in Kolonia Izaaka in the Białystok province, to the family of a Communist apparatchik, Włodzimierz (in the years 1929–1938 a member of the Polish Communist Party, then of the All-Union Communist Party (of Bolsheviks) from 1945) and Waleria née Szymborska. Eugeniusz Niedzielin worked in various bodies of Military Information for eight years. During this time, he was promoted to Major (he ended his service at the rank of colonel), was given the nickname „Executioner of the Nation”, and gained a reputation as being one of the most brutal of investigators. He was one of a number of Military Information officers who never made responsible for their crimes.

The Main Directorate of Information of the Polish Army was created on 15 May 1943 under the strict supervision of the Soviet SMERSH military counterintelligence organisation. Despite proving the obviously criminal activities of this institution, no investigator or officer of Military Information has ever been convicted by the Polish judiciary. The article presents the life and work of one of the most dangerous investigators, who was for many years the Head of Regional Directorate of Information No. 8 of Naval Information. He took an active part in uncovering and questioning naval officers in relation to the famous „Commanders’ Conspiracy”. Jerzy Szerszeń was born on 1 November 1919 in Brody in the Lviv province, as a son of Łukasz, a Polish State Railways employee, and Katarzyna. He was an officer of the Red Army (1941–1943), and, while serving in the Tadeusz Kościuszko 1st Infantry Division of the Polish Army, he took part in the battles for Berlin. He served in Military Information from 1947 to 1956. As a long-time head of  several of its agencies, he oversaw investigations into the most important issues of the Communist terror apparatus, including the Tatar-Utnik-Nowicki case. After leaving the service, he was recognised by the Soviet Union. In 1964 he graduated from the Higher Academic Course of the Military Academy of Logistics and Transport in Leningrad. He never faced justice, including from Communist judges, although „Mazur’s report” of 1957 was crushing for him. He died in 1973, without being harassed by anyone.

The savage beating of a high school graduate, Grzegorz Przemyk, by officers of the Citizen’s Militia resulting in his death on 14 May 1983, shook public opinion in Poland. The murder particularly strongly reverberated in the academic-artistic-intellectual  communities, in which his mother, Barbara Sadowska, was involved. Some representatives of the Church also did not remain passive, and during a sermon on 29 May 1983, Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko described the death of Grzegorz as work inspired by Satan. The promulgation that accompanied the Przemyk issue was evidenced by the fact that in June, Sadowska was given an Audience with Pope John Paul II during his pilgrimage to Poland. The article includes two documents that were published which illustrate the Church’s activities relating to the tragic fate of Przemyk. The first one is a letter from the then Secretary of the Polish Episcopate, Archbishop Bronisław Dąbrowski, dated 24 May 1983, showing that the highest hierarchy of the Polish Church quickly became interested in the death of this high school graduate and that the Episcopate was very knowledgeable on the issue from the beginning. The information included in the letter of Archbishop Dąbrowski generally corresponds to the present state of knowledge and interpretation of the proceedings of the Prosecution Division of the Institute of National Remembrance on obstructing the 1983–1984 investigation into the circumstances of Przemyk’s death, which was completed in 2012. The second document, the response of Gen Czesław Kiszczak, dated 18 June 1983, is a model example of the cynical disinformation practised by the Security Service, Ministry of the Interior, the Citizen’s Militia Headquarters and some prosecutors with the consent of the Politburo. The aim of this propaganda was to protect the real murderers of Przemyk: officers of the Citizen’s Militia.