The article describes the main points of political thinking of writers focused around “Bunt Młodych” (Rebel of the Young) – from 1937 called “Polityka” (Politics) magazine. In the 30s, when many of radical ideas were very popular, such authors as Adolf Bocheński, Aleksander Bocheński, Kazimierz Studentowicz or Ksawery Pruszyński tried to reform traditional conservative doctrine. Like many German or French conservative authors of that time, they were going to express traditional ideas in modern, in some way revolutionary, language. They constructed Polish version of imperial theory which connected geopolitical ideas of partition of Soviet Union (in cooperation with Third Reich) and modernization of Polish society and state. „The Rebel of the Young” Circle combined the intellectual achievement polish conservative thinkers as Michał Bobrzyński or Stanisław Koźmian with Stanisław Brzozowski’s thought who was one of the most important socialist thinker. In this way Jerzy Giedroyc (editor of the magazines) and his cooperators made an unique political doctrine that we could classify as form of conservative revolution.

In the history of the Second Republic of Poland, the issue of attitude toward the activities of communist groups was one of the most important matters affecting its internal and external security. The state apparatus as well as Polish political and social organisations, guarding independence, sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Poland as well as in the name of their own particular political objectives, were undertaking cross-sectoral activities for the mitigation or elimination of the communist threat. The continuous and extremely real threat of the communist factors caused a natural reaction from the Polish state. Communism created anti-Communism. The latter was not a propaganda invention, whim or hysteria of the Polish political groups, but it was in line with the Polish national interest. One of the social agendas conducting anti-communist activities was the Central Agreement of the Organisations Co-operating in the Fight Against Communism. In its publications, it analysed the programme-related and propaganda activities of the Communists including the Communist Party in Poland, with special reference to the issue of revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat. The aim of the publication is to present the state of knowledge possessed and used in its political and journalistic activities by the Agreement.

During the period of 1941–1944, “Walka” the head body of the National Party in the period of occupation published the series entitled “O co walczymy?” (What do we fight for?). It was comprised of 32 detailed drafts. They presented political, social and economic programme. At the same time, they comprise evidence of how the method of the programme invented by the NP was created during the four years of war. This article includes the analysis of the whole series entitled “O co walczymy?”, it depicts the political group where it was created and outlines the ideological and historic contexts. The analysis allows us to draw the conclusion that, at the beginning, the attention of the “O co walczymy” series’ authors was drawn to geopolitics and the issue of future borders. Since 1942 it was dominated by social and economic subjects. The “O co walczymy?” series proves that during the period of occupation, the National Party developed a comprehensive programme which included such issues as agricultural reform, education, higher education, the middle class, right for ownership, the judiciary, and work ethics. The local government and social organisations were to be the foundation of the “national political system”. Capitalism was to be the focal point of the system – as the source of moral standards and the safety catch protecting the national idea against distortion. The “O co walczymy?” series allows to imagine what the post-war Poland would be, if the power was not taken over by Communists.

The subject of the article is the political thought of the circles from the Eastern Borderland that functioned among the Polish wartime exiles and then the post-War pro-independence emigrants. In the introduction, the author defines such notions as Kresy (Polish Borderlands) or kresowianie, characterises those circles, and then discusses their opinions on such issues as the eastern border, attitude towards the Lithuanians, Belarussians and Ukrainians, or federalism. The author points to the diversity of the circles and the evolution of their political thought indicating the mid-1950s as an important point in their development. The final part of the article includes a reflection of its realism.

In the period of 1945–1989, in Communist Poland, after the subjection of the Labour Party by the Communists in 1945, and their assimilation in 1950 by the Democratic Party, there was no independent Christian Democratic party; despite this, Poland was a country of the Soviet Block, in which the Catholic Church had relatively large freedom, while Christian democratic parties officially existed in GDR and the Czechoslovakian Republic. This issue is strictly related with several other matters: with Christian Democratic and non-Christian democratic efforts of the Catholics aimed at the establishment of the Catholic Party inside the PRL political system (among others, on the basis of Bolesław Piasecki’s PAX Association); with the activities of the groups relating to the Christian democracy outside the party structures (here it necessary to mention Janusz Zabłocki, the ODiSS group and Polish Catholic Social Association); with activities of all other groups of “lawful” Catholics functioning within Communism; finally with the issue of intellectual research aimed at the rationalisation of the existence of Christian democracy outside the democratic system, in the necessary cooperation with an atheistic totalitarian regime (here a special role was played by inspiration with Christian socialism of Emmanuel Mounier). To provide the final statement concerning the scale of the Christian democratic inspiration in both social and political life it is necessary to deepen the present research concerning almost every political groups of Catholics in PRL – both legal and illegal – maybe aside from the well-known group of “Znak”. It is necessary to verify the findings of the present historiography, which mainly belonged to the identity stream, that is the stream giving priority for the justification of the political attitudes of Catholics during PRL over comprehensive and reliable information analysis. The matters crucial for understanding the existence context of the Christian democratic inspirations in the period of PRL include the issues of various forms of political Catholic realisms in PRL (including specific differentiation of the realism of resistance, collaboration and capitulation – using terms applied by Rafał Matyja), as well as an explanation as to why Catholic groups in PRL – in contrast to the Christian Democrats during the inter-war period – tried to build their identity on the critique of the largest Catholic political formation in Poland – namely the national movement, and often even broader – on the critique of the entire relation between Catholicism and Polish national identity.

The article describes the programme and initiatives of the “Wolność i Pokój” (WiP) Movement concerning international policy. The WiP maintained a wide international contacts supporting the disarmament and unification of Europe and demanding the withdrawal of the Soviet army from Poland and the termination of the Warsaw Pact. The above programme was reflected in common documents of the opposition groups in both Central and Eastern European countries and western peace movements. As a consequence, the western peace movements ceased to be a tool in the hands of Communists and became the allies of the democratic opposition in the Central and Eastern European countries. The article presents the programme discussions conducted with the western peace activists, in particular the role of the WiP in initiating the Memorandum entitled “Tchnąć prawdziwe życie w porozumienia helsińskie” (Breath true life into the Helsinki agreements), the main initiative of Central and Eastern European opposition activists and peace movements in the mid-80s. The discussions were continued at the international seminar entitled “International peace and Helsinki agreements” held in Warsaw in May 1987, which initiated similar meetings in Budapest, Moscow, Prague and Krakow. The international programme of the “Wolność i Pokój” Movement was recreated on the basis of this statement and the articles of the Movement activists. An important role was played by the concept of political disarmament, considering freedom, democracy, human rights and cooperation between societies of the East and West as the conditions for permanent peace. Political disarmament is something more that technical disarmament, concerning the amount of weapon, dates of its decommission, etc., however without the control exercised by the societies. One of the features of the “Wolność i Pokój” Movement programme was the acknowledgement that changes within the Soviet Union should be used for improvement of the geopolitical situation of Poland. The activities of the WiP were also reflected in the superficial look of the Jaruzelski’s plan, presented in the forum of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe and supported by the states-parties to the Warsaw Pact. The WiP postulates, concerning the withdrawal of alien armies from their territories, the termination of the Warsaw Pact and the integration of a divided Europe seemed unreal to the majority of the opposition activists, however were implemented soon after. The cited opinions of the head activists of “Solidarity” and foreign journalists prove that they perceived the crucial role played by the “Wolność i Pokój” Movement in the end of the Communist regime.

The article is an attempt at showing the reconstruction process of the Polish Christian Democratic movement and the decline of the Polish People’s Republic (1988–1989). The issue in question has not been previously studied by many researchers. They have usually focused on the history of the Stronnictwo Pracy, social Catholicism, the activity of various lay Catholic circles (usually licensed ones), and the structure of the Labour Party (Stronnictwo Pracy) among the emigrants. What is more, it should be stressed that most of such analyses dealt with the period between 1944/45 and 1956, and in rarer cases, the decades of Władysław Gomułka’s and Edward Gierek’s rule. The 1980s (particularly the late portion of the decade) still require detailed research. In a way, the present article consists of two parts. The former one synthetically presents attempts at reactivation of the Christian Democratic circles after October 1956 and initiatives aiming at the reconstruction of Christian Democratic circles. This led to the establishment of the Polish Catholic Social Union (PZKS), which the initiators (mainly Janusz Zabłocki) intended to provide as a foundation for the reconstruction of the Polish Christian Democratic movement. The author has presented the main directions of PZKS activity, internal disputes (in the fields of ideology, politics and tactics) and the achievement of the party with regard to broadly understood political thought. The latter part of the article, which should be regarded as the main (fundamental) one, analyses the reconstruction process of the Polish Christian Democratic circles itself. The activities of the Christian Democratic Club of Political Thought, which was supposed to provide infrastructure for the future Christian Democratic movement (with regard to programme, politics and organisation). The focus is also on the political thought of the Club, its achievements in the field of programme and strategy related to the political changes in the country (e.g. the Round Table talks, June elections of 1989). What was equally important was the relationship between the Club and other opposition circles and licensed groups of lay Catholics (e.g. PZKS, PAX Association, Christian Social Association). The article has been based primarily on source materials of various provenance. The role of academic studies has only been auxiliary.

The article presents the outline of the activities undertaken by the Soviet state security services in Ukraine between June and December 1941. The author analyses different aspects of the operation of Soviet security services in the initial period of the German-Soviet war, in particular: the first organizational initiatives taken by the KGB USSR, the control of correspondence and public moods, the observation of refugees and establishment of evacuation points, the struggle against the enemy’s parachute operations and establishment of deadly battalions, the deportation of prisoners to the east of the country and executions in prisons in the western oblasts of the USSR, the fight against desertion and spreading panic at the rear, repression against the so-called anti-soviet and suspicious element, the mass deportations of citizens on ethnic grounds, the creation of subversive and reconnaissance groups as well as merging underground and guerrilla movements in the occupied territories. Several characteristic documents from the archives of the Soviet state security services are annexed to this article.

The issue of women’s work in Polish government institutions in London during World War II has not been a subject of historical research. Additionally, we have not seen the publication of the memoirs written by these women. Current research allows us to state that among about a thousand employees of Polish ministries in London there were about 300 women. Most of them worked in the Ministry of Information and Documentation (116), the Ministry of Internal Affairs (63) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (60). On the other hand, the percentage of women was the highest in the Presidium of the Council of Ministers (41.38%), the Ministry of Information and Documentation (38.54%) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (28.98%). In the Ministry of Internal Affairs, women were employed in all organisational units, including the ones that carried out secret activities: Department of Social (National) Affairs or the Department of Continental Action. Apart from being secretaries and typists, women performed the very important tasks of radiotelegraph operators, cryptographers, couriers and emissaries during the war. It would be no exaggeration to state that they played a very important role in the tedious everyday functioning of Polish government institutions in London in that difficult time. Another important fact is that a significant portion of these women remain unknown. Their names and surnames are written down in documents, but we know virtually nothing more about their lives during the war. Let us hope that further research will allow us to fill these important gaps in our knowledge.

The subject of the article is the analysis of the process of creation of the remembrance of the battles and soldiers of the scout battalion “Zośka” of Armia Krajowa in the social space and the People’s Republic of Poland historiography. This process was commenced during the war, when a group of “Zośka” soldiers undertook actions aimed at preserving the documentation of the battalion. After the intrusion of the Red Army, the soldiers of the battalion mainly conspired against the Communist government and managed to create a headquarters for the battalion on the Powązki military cometary, which along with other headquarters became a place of remembrance for the Uprising and the insurgents. Simultaneously, the first publications were released concerning the “Zośka” battles, including the issue of the book entitled “Kamienie na szaniec” by Aleksander Kamiński, published during the underground movement. The ongoing Stalinisation of Poland interrupted the possibility to commemorate the “Zośka” battalion, the soldiers of which were subjected to repression and persecution. After 1959, fundamental works were published concerning the A. Kamiński’s battalion “Zośka” and “Parasol” and the “Pamiętniki żołnierzy baonu ’Zośka’”, which created a basis for the cultivation of remembrance of the battalion in the public space, as well as outside Warsaw. Despite limitation created by the government, in particular considering the commemoration tablets, historical publications, the remembrance of “Zośka” was cultivated especially among some scout groups. An important moment here was naming the Scouting Organisation of Warsaw Mokotów after the Grey Ranks (Szare Szeregi) and organisation by it the “Arsenał” Treck since 1972. In 1966 a group of the battalion soldiers was created within the Union of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy (ZBoWiD), it gradually became possible to commemorate the military actions of the battalion, although in a wider range it only became possible in the 70s and especially in the 80s. However, the People’s Republic of Poland government tried to limit commemorating the battalion in the public space. The role of remembrance of the “Zośka” battalion in shaping the historical awareness of the Communist Poland is extremely important due to the its range and the moral values it conveyed. Today it is rather underestimated.

In the twenty years of the post-war period two nomenclature periods can be identified – late Stalinism and Khrushchev. They differed by socio-political situation, personnel policies and management styles. Stalin period can be called a tradition, as nomenclature system formed and approved in 1920–1930’s operated on the same principles after the war. Khrushchev period acted as modernization attempts to improve management and prevent ossification of officials. Dynamics of quality characteristics considered at the level of local (first secretaries of district and city Communist party Committee and chairman of district and city executive committee) and regional (first secretaries of regional Communist party Committee and chairman of an oblast executive committee) leaders. National, gender, age characteristics, as well as indicators of party seniority and level of education were taken as themain markers of conservatism/modernization. The author uses statistic data from the Central State Archive of Public Organizations of Ukraine. From the aspect of social characteristic the big changes affected the local leaders. Style of governance and political association of people coming from the same region (zemliachestvo) are investigated. Under Khrushchev proved to political fraternities-informal groups of leaders, as a rule, people from the same area. Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov, Donetsk fraternities were formed in Ukraine. Stalin’s style of management required complete dedication with a strong political responsibility. Fear for one’s life was the main motivation of work. Khrushchev’s speech at the Twentieth Party Congress meant renunciation of terror as a means of government, but he offered no other effective motivators of diligent activity, so discipline decreased.

The backward treatment during the Stalinist period in 1956 was set against the need to stop uncontrolled abortions. The liberalization of the abortion law was supposed to solve the swollen social problems with the hands of doctors who had been assigned the duty to perform abortions without limitation. Doctors, who are attached to the ethical standards of the profession, sabotaged the law, demanding to keep in this matter the freedom of decision and the principle of “primum non nocere”. Communist authorities applied repression against the resistance, especially after exacerbation of abortion procedures in 1959. They removed the gynecologists, who were protesting against the dictatorship of administrative decisions, or demanded a change of specialization. The protector of the repressed was the Church, who opposed the secularization of the health service and during the Great Novena, he organized for medics the professional pastoral care integrating their (pilgrimages to Jasna Góra, training of natural methods of conception regulation, lectures on ethical principles). Despite the efforts made by the medical community, the communist authorities have introduced medicalisation of obstetrics and have limited the Church’s influence on hospital care. They removed the nuns from the healthcare system and imposed doctors instead of the medical code on the set of mandatory administrative procedures. The result of the actions taken was the complete subordination of the health service to the ideological goals.

The article is a case study on the origin, course and consequences of the actions on 12th August 1974, which pacified the resistance of the residents of Szklary, a village in the Kraków Archdiocese, who opposed the demolition of a room added to a catechetical building. The estate was owned by Fr Józef Pochopień, the vicar at the home parish of Racławice Olkuskie, who also commissioned the modification of the building. According to the wishes of the Catholic residents of Szklary, he planned to established an independent ministry in the village. The party and state leadership of the Olkusz Poviat and the Kraków Voivodeship recognised the construction as illegal. Before the administrative decision to block the construction came into force, representatives of the Party, officers competent for religious denominations and officers of the security apparatus had prepared a plan to demolish the unauthorised construction and decided to conduct the operation by force. The intervention involved security and police forces, who beat over thirty people, mainly women, who defended the estate on the behalf of their absent prefect. The course of the brutal action was documented in the operational materials of the Security Service. The incident proved discrimination of Catholics under the Polish People’s Republic when the construction permits concerning religious buildings were strictly regulated. The result of the conflict was positive for the residents of Szklary, who had a parish established in their village a few years later and built a church. This project became positive due to the personal effort and support by the Metropolitan Archbishop of Kraków, Cardinal Karol Wojtyła. A person strongly involved in provision of legal protection for the victims was Advocate Andrzej Rozmarynowicz. Despite the persecution, Fr Józef Pochopień, who was sentenced to suspended imprisonment, underwent financial persecution, was spied on and experienced attempted recruitment for cooperation with the Security Service, did not give up. The case of Szklary was used by the authorities of the Polish People’s Republic to create a model of combating social initiatives related to construction of sacred buildings.

Until recently, researchers have believed that in the eighties Poland was strongly infiltrated by the East German intelligence – the Ministry for State Security (MfS) of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), commonly known as the Stasi. However, latest scientific publications seem to suggest that the East German grip was not quite as strong. The Stasi did in fact make efforts to direct more agents to the People’s Republic of Poland after August 1980. An operational group was established in Warsaw. The central office of the MfS and its local units developed their networks of secret informers in Poland, primarily made up of citizens of the GDR with ties to Poland and the Poles. Along with the standard recruitment of human agents, efforts were made to establish and maintain both official and unofficial contacts with representatives of the Polish government and other state institutions. Officers and secret informers of the MfS would often acquire valuable information directly from the Polish United Workers’ Party, the Polish Army, the Catholic Church or the Independent and Self-Governing Trade Union “Solidarity” (NSZZ “Solidarność”). Still, these efforts weren’t accompanied by adequate analytical studies of the situation in Poland – those available were often repetitive and overly ideological.