candidate for secret collaborator (KTW)

A person selected by the SB for recruitment and investigated beforehand; material on them was collected in a candidate file.

According to the glossary of the IPN Archival Inventory, a KTW was subjected to so-called vetting (opracowanie): the SB gathered personal data and operational material, including extracts from SB records, reports from collaborators and extracts from operational cases. The IPN notes that such vetting was essentially no different from surveillance. It was meant to establish the candidate's usefulness, their attitude to the SB, their contacts and motivations, and to obtain any compromising or incriminating material.¹

Once the person had been recruited, the candidate file was converted into a TW personal file. If the candidate refused or the SB gave up, the file was deposited in the archive (Bureau “C” of the Ministry of Internal Affairs or a “C” department) and registered with the letter “k” added to the reference number, e.g. 1234/I-k. Candidate status alone therefore did not mean collaboration.²