Name and place in the structure
Historians use the name “Oddział II Sztabu Generalnego (Głównego) Wojska Polskiego” (Second Department of the General (Main) Staff of the Polish Army): until 1928 the staff was called the Sztab Generalny (General Staff), and afterwards the Sztab Główny (Main Staff). For the years of the Polish–Bolshevik War the sources refer to the Second Department of the Supreme Command of the Polish Army. Colloquially, the department was known as the “dwójka” (“the Two”).1,4,5
In his foreword to a 2020 conference volume, the head of the ABW recalls that victory in the Battle of Warsaw was also a success for the young state's services, with radio intelligence playing an exceptional role.5
Structure
The Warsaw headquarters housed, among others, Division I (organisation and administration), the Intelligence Division, regional desks (e.g. “Zachód” [West], dealing with Germany, and “Wschód” [East]) and the Cipher Bureau. In the field, intelligence was run by regional branches (ekspozytury) – including No. 3 in Bydgoszcz and No. 4 in Katowice – with a network of officer outposts.1,2,4
Branch No. 3 was formally established in 1921, but its origins go back to 1919, when intelligence was organised by the Main Command of the Polish Armed Forces in the former Prussian partition. From 1930 to 1939 it was headed by Major Jan Żychoń; by mid-1939 it had nine outposts.1
Counterintelligence in the corps districts was carried out by independent information sections; the section at Corps District Command No. VIII was created in 1924 by transforming a Second Department unit.1
Own ciphers and radio intelligence were handled by sections that were merged in mid-1931 into the Cipher Bureau; its section BS-4 broke the military Enigma.3
Intelligence and consular posts
Wojciech Skóra describes how the Second Department worked with the consular service: intelligence posts operated at consulates under codenames (e.g. “Adrian” in Breslau/Wrocław, “Bombaj” in Stettin/Szczecin, “Mary Tudor” in New York). After 1923 the branches in Poland were forbidden to contact consulates directly.4
According to the same author, the head of the Second Department in 1926–1928 was Tadeusz Schätzel, while Stefan Mayer was head of Polish intelligence and counterintelligence from 1930 to 1939.4
Resources and 1939
According to Piotr Kołakowski, in 1938 the Second Department had a budget of 8 million złoty, which did not allow it to organise intelligence ventures freely. From March 1939 it gradually moved to a wartime organisation, and in April the Chief of the Main Staff, General Wacław Stachiewicz, authorised unlimited spending on intelligence against the Third Reich.6,7
Władysław Bułhak has described the fate of the archive: current records were kept in the Saxon Palace, older ones in the Legions' Fort. Around 5 September 1939 the department was ordered to evacuate, and its second echelon left Warsaw on 6 September; the archive in the fort was not destroyed as planned and was seized by the Germans.2
The records today
The Second Department's records are scattered. In the Central Military Archives, fonds I.303.4 (“Oddział II Sztabu Głównego (Generalnego) z lat 1921–1939” – Second Department of the Main (General) Staff, 1921–1939) comprises 7,838 units; the core collection of documents from 1918–1939 is held in the Russian State Military Archive in Moscow. The records seized by the Germans were kept in Gdańsk-Oliwa, where the Soviets found them in 1945.8
Sources
- Wojciech Skóra, ‘Dwójka’ and the city. Branches of Polish military intelligence and counterintelligence in interwar Bydgoszcz (1920–1939), ‘Przegląd Historyczno-Wojskowy’ 2021, no. 2, pp. 153–177 (in Polish)
- Władysław Bułhak, Archives do not burn, unfortunately. The case of the archival section of the Second Department of the General Staff of the Polish Army at Fort Legionów in Warsaw in September 1939, ‘Dzieje Najnowsze’ LVII, 2025, no. 2, pp. 80–103, DOI 10.12775/DN.2025.2.04 (in Polish)
- Grzegorz Łukomski, The Poznań beginnings of ‘Enigma’, ‘Mars. Problematyka i Historia Wojskowości’ vol. 10, Warsaw–London 2001 (reprint: Adam Mickiewicz University) (in Polish)
- Wojciech Skóra, Cooperation between the consular service of the Second Polish Republic and military intelligence, ‘Dzieje Najnowsze’ XXXVI, 2004, no. 1 (in Polish)
- Internal Security Agency, D. Gregorczyk (ed.), Intelligence and counterintelligence of the Second Polish Republic in the face of the threat of war in 1939, Emów–Katowice 2020, ISBN 978-83-8183-059-1 (in Polish)
- Piotr Kołakowski, On the activities of Soviet military intelligence against the Second Polish Republic, ‘Dzieje Najnowsze’ XXXII, 2000, no. 4, pp. 21–38 (in Polish)
- Piotr Kołakowski, On German preparations for war with Poland in 1939, ‘Słupskie Studia Historyczne’ no. 18, 2012, pp. 309–316 (in Polish)
- Konrad Paduszek, Documents of the Second Department of the General Staff in the Russian State Military Archive, ‘Przegląd Historyczno-Wojskowy’ 12 (63), 2011, no. 3 (236), pp. 207–209 (in Polish)
Checked: 4 November 2026