Ministerstwo Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego

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The Ministerstwo Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego ( Ministry of Public Security , MBP) was the intelligence and counter-espionage body of the Polish secret police from 1945 to 1954. It was also known as Urząd Bezpieczeństwa or UB .

history

The PKWN Manifesto of July 22, 1944

In July 1944, a Polish shadow government under the name Polski Komitet Wyzwolenia Narodowego (" Polish Committee for National Liberation ", PKWN) was set up in Moscow . In the structure of the PKWN there were thirteen departments ( Resorty ). One of them was the Public Security Department ( Resort Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego , RBP), headed for a long time by the Polish communist Stanisław Radkiewicz . On December 31, 1944, several members of the Polish government in exile , including Stanisław Mikołajczyk , joined the PKWN, which then transformed into the "Interim Government of the Republic of Poland" ( Rząd Tymczasowy Republiki Polskiej , RTRP). All departments were renamed ministries. The Public Security Department became the Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego (Ministry of Public Security, MBP).

Tasks and numbers of the MBP

From the late 1940s to 1954, the MBP was, alongside the Ministry of Defense, one of the largest and most powerful authorities in post-war communist Poland. The MBP was responsible for domestic and foreign intelligence , counter-espionage, counter-state activities at home and abroad, government protection and secret communications, civil communications, surveillance of local governments, the police ( Milicja Obywatelska ), the judiciary, fire brigade, borders and internal security.

In July 1947, the MBP took control of the Military Intelligence Service, the second division of the General Staff of the Polish People's Army , which was merged with the civilian intelligence service to form Section VII of the Ministry of Public Security. In June 1950, the Ministry of Defense regained control.

In the 1950s, the MBP included 32,000 members and also controlled 41,000 soldiers and officers of the Internal Security Corps ( body Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego , KBW), 57,000 officers from the militia ( Milicja Obywatelska , MO), 32,000 officers and soldiers of the Border Guard ( Wojska Ochrony Pogranicza , WOP ), 10,000 prison guards ( Straż Więzienna , SW) and 125,000 members of the Voluntary Reserve of the Citizens' Militia ( Ochotnicza Rezerwa Milicji Obywatelskiej , ORMO).

organization

Organization of the MBP in 1953
Regional organizational structure MBP

Since January 1945 the organizational structure of the MBP has been constantly changed in view of the expansion. It was divided into departments, which in turn consisted of sections and were entrusted with various tasks.

In January 1945, shortly after it was founded, Department I was the largest and most important of the MBP, under the leadership of Roman Romkowski (* 1907, real name: Natan Grinszpan-Kikiel ), responsible for counter-espionage and counter-state activities. The individual sections had the following tasks:

  1. Combating German espionage and Nazi underground activities in Poland
  2. Combating reactionary underground organizations
  3. Fighting political banditry
  4. Protection of the national economy
  5. Protecting legal political parties from underground infiltration
  6. Prisons
  7. Observation
  8. Research

From the existing structure of Department II, the new Departments IV, V and VI emerged on September 6, 1945 under the leadership of Aleksander Wolski-Dyszko , Julia Brystygier and Teodor Duda . In July 1946 there were the next changes. The MBP was divided into eight departments, five of which were engaged in operational tasks.

  1. Counter espionage
  2. Technical operations and technology
  3. Combating underground resistance
  4. Protection of the economy
  5. Countermeasures in the event of hostile provocations and influencing the churches

In July 1947, the military intelligence service under MBP control became Division VII. In June of the following year, the special secret office for counter-espionage was established. This was followed by the special office that controlled the employees and the staff of the MBP. In 1951, the special office became Department X, the task of which was to investigate senior members of the Polish Communist Party and the government and their friends.

In 1951 the MBP was organized as follows:

  • Minister of Public Security: Stanisław Radkiewicz
  • first vice minister: Roman Romkowski
  • Second Vice Minister: Mieczysław Mietkowski
  • third vice minister: Konrad Świetlik
  • fourth Vice Minister: Wacław Lewikowski
  • Department I ( counter-espionage ): Stefan Antosiewicz
  • Department II (Operational Technology and Records): Leon Rubinstein
  • Section III (Combating Bandits): Józef Czaplicki
  • Department IV (Protection of the Economy): Józef Kratko
  • Department V (Religious, Political and Social Organizations): Julia Brystiger
  • Section VI (prisons): Władysław Pisło
  • Department VII (Intelligence Service): Witold Sieniewicz
  • Research Department: Józef Różański
  • Training Department: Zdzisław Szymaczak
  • Staff department: Mikołaj Orechwa
  • Government Protection Department: Faustyn Grzybowski
  • Transport Department: Czesław Radzicki
  • Communication department: Feliks Suczek
  • Special office: Anatol Fejgin
  • Control office
  • Foreign passport office
  • Budget and Finance Office
  • Office A (Observing Suspicious Items)
  • Office B (Central Archive)

Regional organizational structure

The MBP had offices all over Poland. There was at least one office in each voivodeship known as Vojewódzki Urząd Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego ("Voivodeship Public Security Office", WUBP). Each WUBP had 308 civil servants and employees. There was also the Miejski Urząd Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego (“City Office for Public Security”, MUBP) with 148 employees and the Powiatowy Urząd Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego (“District Office for Public Security”, PUBP) with 51 people and the Gminny Urząd Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego ( public security ”, GUBP) in the local district of Milicja (MO) with three security guards.

In 1953 there were 17 WUBP and two city offices under the WUBP law, 268 PUBP and two city offices under their law. All together employed 33,200 permanent officers, 7,500 of them at the Warsaw headquarters. According to Professor Andrzej Paczkowski, there was one MBP officer for every 800 citizens. In the 45-year history of the People's Republic of Poland, there have never been so many civilian special forces.

Soviet control and political repression

The political and military dependence of the People's Republic of Poland on the Soviet Union , which was evident in all areas of life after the war, had a significant impact on the command and administrative structure of the army and the organs of the special units for intelligence, counter-espionage and internal security, both civil (MBP) and military ( Główny Zarząd Informacji , Head Office for Information of the Polish Army).

The control of these special forces, along with the army, was the most important guarantee for the stability of the new communist system of the post-war period in Poland and other countries, such as Czechoslovakia , which were given by the allied USA and Great Britain under Soviet influence at the end of the Second World War . Moscow acted through so-called advisors. There were experienced Soviet intelligence and counter-espionage officers from services such as NKGB , NKVD , GRU and SMERSCH and, in later years, MGB , MWD and KGB . The first Soviet adviser to the MBP was Major General Ivan Serov , an experienced officer in the Soviet security services. In 1939 he took over the position of (deputy) commander of the Soviet Militsiya in the structure of the NKVD. Next he was appointed head of the Secret Political Department (SPO) of the GUGB / NKVD before becoming People's Commissar for Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR . From 1941 to 1945 he was the first deputy people's commissar of the state security and later deputy people's commissar for internal affairs of the Soviet Union. When he became the main advisor to the MBP in March 1945, as General Ivanov he had carried out the arrest of 16 leaders of the Polish underground state .

Main advisor to the MBP 1945–1954

The MBP was and is very famous for the role it played in suppressing its own people. It was instrumental in the Process of Sixteen . For the young Polish security apparatus, which was set up and monitored by the Soviet advisers, the most important task was to penetrate the structures of the Polish Home Army and destroy them. Its structure was uncovered during the German occupation of Poland by Soviet NKGB and NKVD agents with the help of communist members of the Polish People's Guard ( Gwardia Ludowa , later Armia Ludowa ). After the Red Army marched into Polish territory, the Soviet special forces already knew the members of the Polish underground and only had to arrest them, which then happened with the help of Polish special forces such as the MBP or the military Główny Zarząd Informacji (Headquarters for Information).

MBP Lieutenant Colonel Józef Światło escapes

In November 1953, the Polish president ordered Boleslaw Bierut over the communist politicians Jakub Berman (Member of PZPR- Politburo ) the MBP Lieutenant Colonel Józef Światło (Deputy Chairman of the Department X), together with the department head Anatol Fejgin to East Berlin to drive to there with the later Stasi boss Erich Mielke on assistance in the murder of Wanda Brońska to speak. The next day, December 5, 1953, Światło fled to West Berlin and went to the US military base. A day later, American soldiers brought him to the Rhein-Main Air Base near Frankfurt am Main . On December 23, a special plane with Światło on board flew to Washington, DC , where he began a new life.

Since the CIA and Radio Free Europe reported extensively about Światło's escape in the USA and Europe , they triggered a crisis in the Polish government. Światło shared extensive information. In the months that followed, the press covered a lot of mass arrests, torture of prisoners during interrogation and executions in Poland. On the orders of the PZPR, Światło had forged evidence against Władysław Gomułka and personally arrested him. He also brought the future Minister of Defense, Marian Spychalski , then a highly decorated military and commander of Gwardia Ludowa in World War II , to trial.

Reorganization in 1954

Światło's flight and the population's hatred of the MBP forced the Polish government under President Bolesław Bierut to make changes to the internal security organs. On December 10, 1954, the MBP was dissolved by an act of the Polish State Council and the Council of Ministers and replaced by two separate bodies: the Committee for Public Security ( Komitet do Spraw Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego , KdSBP) under the leadership of Władysław Dworakowski and the Ministry of Internal Affairs Affairs ( Ministerstwo Spraw Wewnętrznych , MSW) with Minister Władysław Wicha . The committee was responsible for intelligence, counter-espionage, government protection and the secret police . From September 3, 1955 to November 28, 1956, the Główny Zarząd Informacji Wojska Polskiego was also under the control of the committee. The ministry was responsible for monitoring the local administration, the milicja, prisons and fire brigade as well as borders and internal guards.

From the restructuring of the MBP in 1956 the secret service and secret police Służba Bezpieczeństwa (Polish for security service ) emerged. a. became known through the murder of the Roman Catholic priest Jerzy Popiełuszko in 1984.

Well-known MBP employees

  • Julia Brystygier (alias: Bloody Luna , born November 25, 1902, Colonel of the MBP and Head of Department V)
  • Jakub Berman
  • Jozef Czaplicki
  • Anatol Fejgin
  • Adam Humer
  • Julian Konar
  • Grzegorz Korczyński (born June 17, 1915, Polish communist army general, later MBP official (1956), head of the military intelligence service, was involved in the political unrest in Poland in 1968 and commanded the troops of the Polish People's Army during the workers' uprising in 1970 , the ended with the death of many workers)
  • Mieczysław Mietkowski (Polish general and member of the PZPR, fought in the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939, later became an agent of the NKVD and, after the war, deputy minister of the MBP)
  • Salomon Morel
  • Henryk Palka
  • Lola Potok
  • Marcel Reich-Ranicki
  • Józef Różański
  • Roman Romkowski (real name: Natan Grinszpan-Kikiel)
  • Stanislaw Radkiewicz
  • Henryk Sokolak
  • Józef Światło

literature

  • John Sack: An eye for an eye. Ernst Kabel Verlag, Hamburg 1995, ISBN 3822503398 .
  • Leszek Pawlikowicz: Tajny front zimnej wojny: Uciekinierzy z polskich służb specjalnych 1956–1964. Oficyna Wydawnicza RYTM 2004 [wydanie 1].
  • Nigel West: Trzecia Tajemnica: Kulisy zamachu na Papieża. wyd. Sensacje XX Wieku , [Nigel West - The Third Secret].
  • Metody Pracy Operacyjnej Aparatu Bezpieczństwa wobec kościołów i związków zawodowych 1945–1989. Instytut Pamięci Narodowej , Warsaw 2004 (Methods of operative work of Security organs against churches and trade unions 1945-1989).
  • Normam Polmar, Thomas Allen: Księga Szpiegów. Wydawnictwo Magnum Warsaw 2000.
  • Zbigniew Błażyński: Mówi Józef Światło: Za kulisami bezpieki i partii 1940–1955. Warsaw 2003.

Web links