View Vol. 18 (2025)

Vol. 18 (2025)

ISSN:
1899-1254

eISSN:
2957-1731
Section: Archive

Card Index Holdings of the Operational Records Office/Bureau “C” from 1957–1990 and Currently

Monika Komaniecka-Łyp

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1645-2939

Oddział Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej w Krakowie

Przegląd Archiwalny Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej, Vol. 18 (2025), pages: 57-104

Publication date: 2025-12-30

https://doi.org/10.48261/PAIPN251803

Abstract

The Bureau “C” index card files were of great importance for the efficient functioning of the Security Service’s personal and material records system. This article discusses the work of Divisions I and III of Bureau “C,” which were responsible for maintaining alphabetical, issue-based, statistical, and topical files. A comparison of the norms concerning the card indexes and reports of Bureau “C” allowed for a confrontation of theory with the practical functioning of the Security Service’s file holdings. This made it possible to formulate several research hypotheses, which were then tested. The issue of the computerisation of card index collections and the creation of the Integrated Operational Card Index System (Zintegrowany System Kartotek Operacyjnych, ZSKO) was also raised. The picture is supplemented by a presentation (in the form of a table) regarding the state of preservation of the SB’s card indexes held at the Institute of National Remembrance. The primary sources for this study are the regulations and documentation of Bureau “C”; these are mainly reports and information on the state of the card index records. The issue requires in-depth research into the functioning of the card indexes in the late 1980s and early 1990s. We still lack information on the circumstances surrounding the creation of the card indexes (including MSW’s general information reconstruction card index) and on their ten-year “stay” at the Office for State Protection.


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                            View Vol. 18 (2025)

Vol. 18 (2025)

ISSN:
1899-1254
eISSN:
2957-1731

Data publikacji:
2025-12-30

Dział: Archive