Ministry of Public Security (Poland)

, issued on 22 July 1944 In July 1944, behind the Soviet front line, a brand new Polish provisional government was formed, called the Polish Committee of National Liberation (Polski Komitet Wyzwolenia Narodowego, PKWN). It was established in Chełm on the initiative of Polish communists, in order to assume control over Polish territories liberated from Nazi Germany by the advancing Red Army. PKWN was proclaimed "the only legitimate Polish government" by Stalin, with full political control and Soviet sponsorship. Within the PKWN's internal structure, there were thirteen departments called Resorty. One of these was the Department of Public Security (Resort Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego) or RBP, headed by Stanisław Radkiewicz. It was a precursor of the Polish communist secret police. On 31 December 1944, the PKWN was joined by several members of the London-based Polish government in exile, among them Stanisław Mikołajczyk (later chased out of the country). PKWN was then transformed into Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland (). All departments were renamed: the Department of Public Security became the Ministry of Public Security (Ministerstwo Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego) or MBP and UB. In 1950s Ministry of Public Security employed around 32,000 people. Also, UB had control over 41,000 soldiers, including 29,053 privates and 2,356 officers of the Internal Security Corps (Korpus Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego, KBW), 57,000 officers in the Citizens' Militia (Milicja Obywatelska), 32,000 officers and soldiers in the Border guard (Wojska Ochrony Pogranicza), 10,000 prison officers (Straż Więzienna), and 125,000 members of Volunteer Reserves of the Citizens Militia (Ochotnicza Rezerwa Milicji Obywatelskiej, ORMO), a paramilitary police used for special operations. The Stalinist reign of terror Infiltrated by NKGB and NKVD agents – the Ministry of Public Security was well known for its criminal nature. From January 1945 (or, July 22), the surviving members of the Home Army laid down their arms, granted an official amnesty (lasting till October 15). Most were arrested by UB on the spot, tortured and tried for treason. According to depositions by Józef Światło and other communist sources, in 1945 alone the number of members of the Polish Underground State deported to Siberia and various labor camps in the Soviet Union reached 50,000. Overall, in the years 1944–1956 around 300,000 Polish citizens had been arrested, of whom many thousands were sentenced to long-term imprisonment. There were 6,000 death sentences pronounced, the majority of them carried out "in the majesty of the law". A special disciplinary legislation had been introduced, which allowed for the sentencing of civil persons before military tribunals including young people and children. The courts were concerned with the alleged crimes, not the age and the maturity of its victims. For many years, the public prosecutors and judges as well as functionaries of the Ministry of Public Security, Security Service of the Ministry of Interior (SB) and Main Directorate of Information of the Polish Army (GZI WP) engaged in acts recognized by international law as crimes against humanity and crimes against peace. The so-called "Cursed soldiers" of the anti-communist resistance, who opposed the new occupiers and attacked the Stalinist strongholds, were eventually hunted down by UB security services and assassination squads. The underground structures had been destroyed, and most members of the Armia Krajowa and WiN who remained opposed to communism, were executed after kangaroo trials (staged by Wolińska-Brus and Zarakowski among others), or deported to the Soviet GULAG system. Defection , defected to the West and spoke publicly of UB's brutal actions In November 1953, First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party, Bolesław Bierut, asked Politburo member Jakub Berman to send MBP Lieutenant Colonel Józef Światło on an important mission to East Berlin. Światło, deputy head of UB Department 10, together with Colonel Anatol Fejgin, were asked to consult with the East German Ministry for State Security's chief Erich Mielke about eliminating Wanda Brońska. The two officials traveled to Berlin and spoke with Mielke. On December 5, 1953, the day after meeting Mielke, Światło defected to the United States through their military mission in West Berlin. The next day, American military authorities transported Światło to Frankfurt and by December, Światło had been flown to Washington D.C, where he underwent an extensive debriefing. Światło's defection was widely publicized in the United States and Europe by the American authorities, as well as in Poland via Radio Free Europe, embarrassing the authorities in Warsaw. Światło had intimate knowledge of the internal politics of the Polish government, especially the activities of the various secret services. Over the course of the following months, American newspapers and Radio Free Europe reported extensively on political repression in Poland based on Światło revelations, including the torture of prisoners under interrogation and politically motivated executions. Światło also detailed struggles inside the Polish United Workers' Party. Among other activities, Światło had been ordered to falsify evidence that was used to incriminate Władysław Gomułka, whom he personally arrested. He had also arrested and falsified evidence against Marian Spychalski, the future Minister of National Defence, who was at the time a leading politician and high-ranking military officer. ==Organization==

) , Poland The political and administrative matters of the Ministry came under the authority of Jakub Berman, a Stalinist from the Polish United Workers' Party. The Ministry of Public Security structure was being changed constantly from January 1945 on, as the Ministry expanded. It was divided into departments and each department was subdivided into sections entrusted with different tasks. In January 1945, the largest and the most important department in UB was Department One, responsible for counter-espionage and anti-state activities. It was headed by General Roman Romkowski. Department I was divided into Sections, each responsible for a different but specific function self-described in the following way: • Fighting German espionage and Nazi underground remaining in Poland. • Fighting reactionary underground. • Fighting political banditry. • Protection of the national economy. • Protection of legal political parties from outside (underground) penetration. • Prisons. • Observation. • Investigations. Two new departments were formed in addition to departments and sections created for the Resort Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego (RBP) forming the core of MBP or UB in January 1945. On September 6, 1945, from the existing structure of Department I emerged three additional departments: Department IV commanded by Aleksander Wolski-Dyszko, Department V commanded by Julia Brystygier, and Department VI headed by Teodor Duda (pl). In July 1946, further changes were enacted. UB was divided into eight (8) departments, five of which dealt with operational cases, including Counter-espionage (Dep 1), Technical operations and technology (Dep 2), Fighting underground resistance (Dep 3), Protection of economy (Dep 4), and Counteraction of hostile penetration and church influences (Dep 5). 1954 reorganization and formation of SB The highly publicized defection of Colonel Światło, not to mention the general hatred of the Ministry of Public Security among the Polish public led to changes in late 1954. In December of that year, the Polish Council of State and the Council of Ministers decided to replace the ministry with two separate administrations: the Committee for Public Security (Komitet do Spraw Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego or KDSBP), headed by Władysław Dworakowski, and the Ministry of Interior (Ministerstwo Spraw Wewnętrznych or MSW), headed by Władysław Wicha. The number of employees of the Committee for Public Security was cut by 30% in central headquarters and by 40–50% in local structures. The huge network of secret informers was also substantially reduced and the most implicated functionaries of the Ministry of Public Security were arrested. Surveillance and repressive activities were reduced; in the majority of factories, special cells of public security, set up to spy on workers, were secretly closed. The Committee for Public Security took responsibility for intelligence and counter-espionage, government security and the secret police. From September 3, 1955 to November 28, 1956 it also controlled the Polish Army's Main Directorate of Information (Główny Zarząd Informacji Wojska), which ran the Military Police and counter espionage service. The Ministry of Interior was responsible for the supervision of local governments, the Milicja Obywatelska (Citizens' Militia, MO) police force, Prison Service, fire and rescue forces, and the Border Protection Forces. In 1956 the Committee was dissolved, most of its functions merged into Ministry of Interior; the secret police was reformed into the Security Service (Służba Bezpieczeństwa or SB) on 28 November 1956. The order was made by Władysław Wicha, who was the incumbent Minister of Interior until 1964. == Notable MBP and UB personnel ==

• Antoni Alster (b. Nachum Alster) • Jakub Berman • Józef Bik (vel Jozef Bukar, vel Jozef Gawerski) • Julia Brystiger (née Prajs) • Józef Czaplicki (b. Izydor Kurc) • Anatol Fejgin • Adam Humer (b. Adam Umer) • Julian Kole • Julian Konar (b. Jakub Kohn) • Grzegorz Korczyński • Mieczysław Mietkowski (b. Mojżesz Bobrowicki) • Salomon Morel, commander of Zgoda labour camp • Henryk Pałka • Julian Polan-Haraschin • Józef Różański (b. Józef Goldberg) • Roman Romkowski (b. Natan Grunspan – Kikiel) • Stanisław Radkiewicz • Leon Rubinstein • Józef Światło (born Izak Fleischfarb) • Helena Wolińska-Brus (b. Fajga Mindla Danielak) • Piotr Smietanski • Stanisław Zarakowski == Notable people killed by the MBP and UB ==

In Warsaw, most of the killings were carried out at the Mokotów Prison. The victims' bodies – often placed naked in cement bags – were wheeled out at night and buried in unmarked graves in the vicinity of various Warsaw cemeteries and in open fields. • 1951 Mokotów Prison execution :*Major Łukasz Ciepliński :*Colonel Karol Chmiel :*Major Adam Lazarowicz :*Captain Józef Rzepka :*Captain Józef Batory :*Comdr. Mieczysław Kawalec :*Captain Franciszek Błażej • Comdt. Hieronim Dekutowski • Brigadier General Emil August Fieldorf • Bolesław Kontrym (Cichociemni) • Cavalry Captain Witold Pilecki • 1st Lieutenant Jan Rodowicz (Szare Szeregi) • Danuta Siedzikówna • • Commander Zygmunt Szendzielarz • Capt. Stanisław Sojczyński • Corporal Józef Franczak shot dead by ZOMO in 1963 == See also ==