This article discusses the contribution of the Archive of the Institute of National Remembrance in the preparation of an archival collection called “SK-Skrzynie” (“Chests”) of the Polish Underground Movement Study Trust in London in the years 2013–2015. The method of processing thisarchival material was shortly presented, as well as the content of the collection, comprising of files from the Bureau for Homeland Matters/Division VI/Special Division of the Staff of the Commander in Chief/Special Liquidation Committee, files from subordinated bases and postsfor military foreign communication of the Union of Armed Struggle-Home Army, and financial records. The article also refers to the digitization process of the collection and the manner in which the contents of the scanned documents were made available.

This article discusses the activities of the Vetting Division of the Institute of National Remembrance with an example from the Branch Vetting Office, which has been in operation in Poznań since 2007. The author has made an attempt to present the most important official and archiving matters which are related to the ongoing flow of documents within the Vetting Division, the internal structure of the Branch Vetting Office and the cooperation between the Branch Vetting Office and the Central Vetting Office of the Institute. The article addresses the most important electronic applications to support lustration procedures and matters related to thematic catalogues. The analysis performed by the author focused on the flow and the significance of a lustration statement, as well as the consequences of its submission within the process of lustration. Polish lustration procedures were presented against the history of settlements with the communist past in other European countries.

On 1st February 2008, an archive from the Security Service of the Czech Republic was created under the same statute as the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes. Its collection contains approx. 17 km of archival material kept in special deposits in three locations in Prague and the village of Kanice (in the vicinity of Brno). The majority of archival material was taken from the former institution – the Archive of the Ministry of the Interior. The Archive now stores documents produced by the Czechoslovak Security Service, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and organizations of the so-called National Front from 4th April 1945 until 15th February 1990. The archives also comprise interesting audio-visual material produced by the Communist Security Service (StB). They were dispersed in different archives and often served as annexes under the proceedings conducted by the Security Service. For instance, the Operational Technique Division left behind 221 reels of various recordings. On the other hand, the collection of the Branch Office of the Intelligence Service of the General Staff of the Armed Forces comprises a series of 26 films on military equipment used by NATO. Similar issues are raised in 10 films gathered in the collection of the Military Counterintelligence Service. The majority of files have now been included in an archival collection called “Collection of films of the Security Service Archives”.

The Ministry for State Security of the German Democratic Republic (the Stasi) left behind a huge archival collection. Although files are its core resource, they are stored with millions of photographs, thousands of films and audio recordings in the current archive of the Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the German Democratic Republic (BStU). Scientists dealing with the history of the German Democratic Republic acknowledge the significance of the audio-visual collections from the former Stasi. Photographs, films and sound material may be an important source to study the dictatorship of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), the activities of the democratic opposition and the operations of the East German Security Service. However, their use in scientific studies in Germany is still relatively new, if compared with the use of the files. Therefore, this article presents the status, preparation and securing methods, as well as the historic value of the audio-visual collection which is currently stored in the archives of the State Security Service.

The Slovak Nation’s Memory Institute was founded in 2003. Its statutory tasks comprise of: evidencing, collecting, administrating and making available documents of the repression apparatus of the Third Reich, the USSR and state security authorities, which were produced and collected from 18th April 1939 until 31st December 1989, and referred to crimes committed on Slovak nationals or Slovak citizens of other nationalities. The Institute collects, inter alia, audio-visual material produced by the Security Service of the Communist regime. It was taken over from various institutions, inter alia, the Slovak Information Service, the Police Academy, state archives, and individuals. Above all, the film collections comprise of operational material (different types of evidence, recorded interviews, or monitoring), instructional and educational films for agents and officers, propaganda material, as well as many films confiscated by the Security Service from individuals. The article defines the most interesting examples of such material, currently stored in the collection of the Slovak Nation’s Memory Institute.

In the second half of the 1980s, there were nearly one million VHS video recorders owned by Polish households; the technology turned out to be a significant break in the media monopoly of the state. However, the Security Service was not willing to accept that the Poles could watch whatever they wished. Its officers spared multiple efforts and resources in order to curb the “video revolution”. Repression was experienced by those who used to watch films which had not been admitted by censorship to distribution in Poland, owners of video rental shops, organizers of public shows, “pirate” distributors, as well as independent film makers for which the VHS technology was the only chance to approach recipients with their works. The “Security Force” was equally determined to prevent the Poles from accessing Western, purely light entertainment films (“Rambo”), political films (“Interview” by Ryszard Bugajski), as well as records of the satirical works by Jacek Fedorowicz. However, the effect of these attempts was the same – once confronted by the mass enthusiasm of the citizens for video films in the late People’s Republic of Poland, the Security Service turned out to be helpless.

In November 1931, Brig. Gen. Czesław Jarnuszkiewicz, commander of the District Corps no. I in Warsaw issued an order on the operational prevention of the Communist Party’s influencing the Army. It was addressed to information officers reporting to the Independent Information Office of the District Command of Corps no. I in Warsaw. The document was prepared in a period of intensified campaigning by branches of the Communist Party of Poland among troops of the Polish Army, in particular by the Party’s regional and district military divisions (the so-called militaries). Members of this strictly clandestine structure within the Communist Party of Poland were communist activists, trained in the USSR and cooperating with the Soviet Military Intelligence Service or NKVD. Any collected information related to the Polish Army were transferred via the domestic structures of the Communist regime to the Soviet Intelligence Service. Key passages of the documents refer to methods, forms and means of operational work. It is worth pointing out the classification of communist organizations operating in Poland in the introductory part. The published instruction is an important source to learn the forms, methods and means of operational work of the Military Counterintelligence Service of the Second Polish Republic during the 1930s.

Stanisław Orłowski, nick-named “Thunderbolt”, started his clandestine activity during the Second World War, first within the structure of the Peasants’ Guard, and from 1943 under the Home Army. He did not give up fighting for a free Poland after the Soviets’ entry to the district of Augustów in 1944. In spring 1946, he established his own unit; one, however, to be left outside of the structure of the Citizens’ Home Army. The Poviat Office of the Public Security in Augustów made multiple attempts to crack down on the group led by the “Thunderbolt”. During autumn 1949, it managed to set up an ambush which nobody but Stanisław Orłowski managed to survive. At that time, “Thunderbold” started cooperating with the unit of Edmund Krysiuk and Eugeniusz Gołębiewski, and afterwards with Edward Topczewski, nick-named the “Hatchet”. He was killed on 30th August 1952 during a manhunt launched by officers of the Security Office and the Internal Security Corps.

The process of the thorough reforms of the Ministry of the Public Security, carried out in Poland in the years 1954–1956, and the introduction of the Decree of the State Council of 7th December 1954 concerning the central organs of the state administration for the interior and public security led to an institutional change in the reporting line of the Border Guard Army. The establishment of the Ministry of the Interior, and the inclusion of the Border Guard Army in its structure, resulted in the Ministry taking over the responsibility from the dissolved Ministry of the Public Security for the security of the border and counterintelligence protection of the borderland. The cooperation with the Reconnaissance Board VII of the Border Guard Army (after following reorganizations of the Border Guard Army: the Reconnaissance Board II) was continued by operational divisions of the Public Security Committee in the years 1954–1956. Information was mutually exchanged between these units both on the central and regional level. This source edition is aimed at outlining basic information concerning the dimension and scale of the cooperation. The cooperation resulted, inter alia, in the arrest of persons suspected of passing the border illegally and acting “for a foreign intelligence service”. One of them was Adam Boryczka – a member of the Freedom and Independence Association.