The attitude of Security Service towards the veterans of Lublin's Society of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy in the period of Polish Thaw in the years 1956-1958

• Authors: Łukasz Bednarski
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The AK (veteran) societies that were in operation in different organizations of People's Republic of Poland after 1944 were controlled by security organs. This process lasted until the period of political changes in government that took place in Poland after 1989. The main aim of the Secret Police that operated in PRL was to invigilate, neutralise and, what is more, to divide the veteran entourage. The one and only mass organisation that associated veterans was the Society of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy. The Home Army members constituted a very cohesive group in the Society so that is why, during the period of People's Republic of Poland, the security organs controlled former soldiers who had belonged to it. Up to 1956 previously mentioned tasks were carried out by the Communist Security Office as well as by the Military Information. These institutions invigilated and repressed the members of anticommunist underground movement.An ostensible adoption of a positive stance towards Home Army soldiers associated in ZBoWiD by the elite of The Polish United Workers' Party after the Polish Thaw (after 1956 Home Army soldiers started joining the Society in large numbers) did not change the attitude towards them. It only modified the methods of harassment and invigilation. After the dissolution of the Military Information its duties were passed to Internal Military Service and Security Service. Those institutions invigilated not only the former associates of the Society of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy but also the most prominent activists of underground who belonged to the opposition movement, such as Marian Gołębiewski.The main aim of this article is to introduce and analyse the operation of communist mechanisms of oppression towards the Society of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy as well as its invigilation of Lublin's unit and its members by the Security Service of the People's Republic of Poland. Moreover, I will try to show that the October 1956 did not change the negative attitude towards the former soldiers of anti-communist underground. Since they were included in the amnesty it only altered their situation. The so-called "people power" only intensified the monitoring of Home Army's entourage gathered in the Society of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy, especially after 1956.

PL

• Publisher: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej
• Journal: Annales Universitatis Mariae Curie-Skłodowska, sectio F – Historia
• Year: 2011
• Volume: 66
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 115-146

Dates

published

2011-01-01

online

2012-08-21

Contributors

author

Łukasz Bednarski

• Instytut Historii UMCS, Lublin

Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/v10068-012-0003-7