„Człowiek zagubiony dla życia społecznego”, czyli o nieudanych działaniach służby bezpieczeństwa wobec Jerzego Starnawskiego w celu pozyskania go do współpracy

• Authors: Anna Łosowska

Title variants

EN

“The Man Lost to Social Life” or the failed attempts of the security service in the communist Poland to recruit Jerzy Starnawski for collaboration

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

Professor Jerzy Starnawski (1922-2012): historian of Polish literature, philologist and editor, bibliographer, retired full professor, member of The Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences and The Learned Society of Catholic University of Lublin, honorary member of The Learned Society of Łódź, corresponding member of The Learned Society of Lublin, Polish Philological Association and The Society of the Friends of Learning in Przemyśl. He was born in the Zamość region but in 1931 his family moved to Lublin, where Jerzy finished primary school and then the Stefan Batory Gimnazjum. When the Second World War broke out, he took part in the 1939 Defensive War. He was detained in Lithuania and deported to work in the German Reich. When he returned to Lublin he worked in the H. Łopaciński Library, at the same time studying at the Catholic University of Lublin, where he obtained his Master’s degree and then his PhD. In the academic year 1950/51 he became a university teacher at the Catholic University of Lublin. His social background, clear political views and deep belief in God soon caught the attention of the secret services which decided to recruit him for collaboration. Their first step was trying to find any “compromising material” that would enable blackmail, the favourite method of the secret services. The Professor was therefore surrounded by a network of observers and sources of information, both at the University and in the house where he lived. The observation included his mother and brother. Their telephone conversations were controlled and the Professor’s students were interrogated. In view of unsatisfactory results of the observatioand worthless reports, it was decided to recruit him directly. Despite the extensive operation, attempts to recruit the Professor failed; that is why after 1954 the interest in him slightly decreased, though observation was continued, especially when he decided to move to Łódź. Eventually the case was closed in 1958 and the files were deposited in the archives of the “C” Department at the MO (Citizens’ Militia) headquarters in Lublin. The preserved documents prove that despite the intricately crafted plan, the secret services failed to recruit Jerzy Starnawski either as a secret agent or even as a so-called “source of information”.

Keywords

EN

Starnawski; Lublin; Communist secret service surveillance

• Publisher: Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Nauk w Przemyślu
• Journal: Rocznik Przemyski
• Year: 2014
• Volume: 50
• Issue: 2: Literatura i Język
• Pages: 147-166

Contributors

author

Anna Łosowska

Notes

PL

zawiera materiały źródłowe

Identifiers

ISSN

0137-4168