Party, Ideology and Political Intelligence. A Functional Study of the Communist Party Organization in the Intelligence Service of the Polish Ministry of Public Security
Remembrance and Justice, Vol. 23 No. 1 (2014), pages: 217-246
Publication date: 2014-06-30
Abstract
Since 1944, after coming to power in Poland, the Communist Party interfered in
all spheres of political, social and cultural life. Party units operating in institutions
and workplaces constituted one of the tools of that interference, subordinated to
the communist ideology. The paradox was that similar units of “ideological
surveillance” were also formed in the civilian intelligence structures of the Ministry
of Public Security. It was one of the ideological surveillance mechanisms used to
exert pressure which affected the nature of information collected and transferred
to the authorities. It often had more to do with propaganda than with reliable,
objectified knowledge. Materials of the Seventh Department, i.e. the MBP civilian
intelligence, contain minutes of meetings of these party units which shed much
new light on the functioning of the intelligence, as well as its relations with the
central structures of the party. Intelligence became part of the repressive
apparatus, and it was repression that became a priority, not the informational activities.
Right political attitude became more important than the credibility of intelligence
information. Intelligence, like the entire state apparatus, was to search for and
eliminate the “enemies of the people,” provide information in accordance with the
doctrine, and what is more, it was also supposed to take care of the ideological
purity of its own staff. Contrary to democratic states, control mechanisms were
subordinated to the ideology. Insufficient ideological control and wrong personnel
policy was one of the reasons for the reorganisation of the intelligence structures
carried out in the early 50s.
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