Department I of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (civilian intelligence of the Polish People's Republic)

Origins

According to the table of contents of Witold Bagieński's monograph (IPN), Department VII of the Ministry of Public Security was created in 1947; in 1950–1951 civilian and military intelligence were separated. After the Ministry of Public Security was abolished, civilian intelligence became Department I of the Committee for Public Security, and once the Committee was merged into the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Department I of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.^1,2

The IPN Archive describes civilian intelligence as an integral part of the security apparatus of the Polish People's Republic: its task was to counter foreign enemies, while the UB and the SB fought opponents at home.¹

Tasks as set out in documents

A document from December 1956 defined the department's work as intelligence activity serving to protect the political system of the Polish People's Republic, its foreign policy, and to assist economic and scientific institutions; it identified the capitalist states as the threat, including West Germany, the USA, the United Kingdom, France and the Vatican.¹

Instruction No. 0041/72, attached to an order of the Minister of the Interior of 6 May 1972, described intelligence as a tool for tasks beyond the reach of traditional political instruments. The IPN Archive published this and 163 other documents in the volume “Instrukcje i przepisy wywiadu cywilnego PRL z lat 1953–1990” (Instructions and Regulations of the Civilian Intelligence of the Polish People's Republic, 1953–1990; ed. W. Bagieński).¹

Collaborators and records

According to the glossary of the IPN Archival Inventory, intelligence had its own categories of collaboration – the agent, the operational contact and the information contact – distinct from the secret collaborators of the SB's domestic branches, and it kept its records according to instructions from 1972 and 1980. Its foreign units were rezidenturas.^3,4

Examples from IPN research

According to Bagieński, in the mid-1950s the main civilian rezidentura in the USA operated in New York (codename “Imperium”); a rezidentura in Washington (“Atlantik”) was split off from it, and in 1962 a rezidentura was set up in Chicago (“Jezioro” [Lake]). The officers worked under diplomatic cover. The author regards the cases of Marian Zacharski and William Bell as the greatest successes of economic intelligence in the USA.⁵

Marian Zacharski, a Ministry of Internal Affairs intelligence officer convicted in the USA in 1981, was released on 11 June 1985 in an exchange on the Glienicke Bridge (see spy swap).⁶

Those who served in Department I include authors described in the lexicon: Aleksander Makowski, Piotr Wroński and Vincent V. Severski (according to the IPN catalogue of officers and IPN publications).^7,8,9

The end

Department I of the Ministry of Internal Affairs operated until 31 July 1990. The Foreign Intelligence Agency traces its origins to the intelligence branch of the Office of State Protection, which operated from 1990; in 2002 the UOP Intelligence Directorate was transformed into the separate AW.^1,10