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Jakub Berman. Portret politycznego emeryta w materiałach SB (1966–1971)

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Spałek R.

Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość

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2010

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issue 2(16)

353-388

EN

The PRL leaderships’ private life was one of their best-kept secrets. Hardly had they retired (voluntarily or compulsorily) form being politicians, when deep silence fell over them. Jakub Berman, who between 1948–1956 was the closest aide, collaborator and adviser of the PZPR leader Bolesław Bierut was eventually treated in a way as mentioned above. After being dismissed from the party in 1957, he officially stopped existing in political circles. He simply vanished and in consequence, he never faced trial for crimes committed either with his agreement or on his own initiative. In the 1960s, Jakub Berman was under Security Service’s surveillance therefore, he was carefully watched and eavesdropped. He attracted this interest as a potential – which sounds bizarrely – party follower of the Revisionist Zionism. Berman used to “politicise” at his home so he was constantly visited by particular interlocutors. They altogether were provided with various subjects for those discussions. They were derived from newspapers, radio programmes (especially Radio Free Europe which was very often listened to in the Bergmans’ home), television and the latest editions of the journal “Le Monde” which the most interesting articles Berman used to read aloud. Regardless of the fact that almost nobody among his guests still kept political influence, their discussions – of the retired communist politician like Berman and of his friends – proved a long-lasting existence of an intellectual vitality and activity of their brains. Constant surveillance Berman was put under, was rather fruitless, however, between 1966–1971, the Security Service intensified its efforts. The operational files that the SB managed to gather, provided their readers with basic information on Berman’s and his guests’ personal opinions on many problems, such as: future of the World and Europe, perspectives on the development and transformation of the communist ideology and practice, political and social crisis in 1968 and 1970, assassination of Jan Gerhard, the Arab-Israeli conflict, personality of Władysław Gomułka and Edward Gierek. It was highly probable, that being aware of living in wired house, Jakub Berman practised a self-censorship. As a political retiree, Berman modernized his hitherto point of view – remaining communist, he stopped being a pragmatist. What is more and very interesting, all his family members along with himself, they used to talk about party leaders by using words “they” or “those”, thereby showing that it was no longer their party; yet, they – as communists – toed its line.

2

Z dziejów komunistycznego wywiadu. Casus Bogusława Hrynkiewicza i Mariana Spychalskiego (1940–1944)

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Spałek R.

Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość

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2008

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issue 1(12)

199-228

EN

The main hero of the article is Bogusław Hrynkiewicz, a would-be lawyer actively operating in the communist movement in Poland from 1929. In the middle of 1940, escaping from German army, he arrived to Białystok. The NKVD officer contacted him there. Hrynkiewicz started co-operation with the Soviet intelligence – he collected information on Polish underground organizations. In the summer of 1942 he became a member of one of them – a right wing organization ‘Sword and Plough’ (“Miecz i Pług”). Within a couple of months he became a member of its managing organs. He acquired the access to the intelligence materials of the organization on the German army and power apparatus. At the same time he operated to liquidate the organization. Finally, he contributed to sentencing the leaders of the ‘Sword and Plough’ to death and executing them. In the summer of 1943 he started the co-operation with Marian Spychalski – the head of the intelligence of the People’s Guard (Gwardia Ludowa, later People’s Army – Armia Ludowa, AL). At the same time he contacted a Gestapo officer, Wolfgang Birkner, and the collaborator of Abwehra, Włodzimierz Bondorowski. Simultaneously, he started working for Wacław Kupecki – the employee of the Security Department of the District Delegation of the Government of the Republic of Poland at Home (Wydział Bezpieczeństwa Okręgowej Delegatury Rządu RP na Kraj) for the city of Warsaw which kept the archives on the anti-communist intelligence (at ul. Poznańska 37). On 14 February 1944 Hrynkiewicz, having acquired the consent of Spychalski, supervised the attack on the archives carried out by two rank and fi le members of the AL, three collaborates of Bondorowski and the Gestapo offi cer being in command of the whole operation. Materials on communists were passed to Spychalski, who in the spring of 1944 took them to Moscow. Spychalski and Hrynkiewicz also organized operations of denouncing the members of the Polish independence underground before Gestapo. On this occasion Spychalski contributed to a slip-up, which turned out to be disastrous for him. Via Hryniewicz he passed to Gestapo the address of the conspirational printing house of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa, AK). When the Germans entered the printing house, the AK members started fl eeing to the next building. And it happened that there was a communist printing house located in there. Germans arrested their employees. After the War Spychalski and Hrynkiewicz landed in prison among others accused of collaborating with Gestapo and the AK. Hrynkiewicz was also in the NKVD prison, later he landed in the psychiatric hospital. After the political changes, which took place in 1956, the actions of both communists were again considered ’patriotic’.

3

„Gracze” – Komitet Obrony Robotników w propagandzie PRL, stereotypach oraz dokumentach Ministerstwa Spraw Wewnętrznych

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Spałek R.

Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość

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2003

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issue 2(4)

79-112

4

Pierwszy po triumwirach, pierwszy po „Wiesławie” – Roman Zambrowski

100%

Spałek R.

Kwartalnik Historyczny

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2016

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vol. 123

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issue 2

EN

In 1948–1963 Roman Zambrowski was one of the most important communist politicians and cabinet activists of the Polish United Workers’ Party. As a member of the Party authorities he survived two personal-ideological crises (in 1948 and 1956). Mirosław Szumiło has outlined Zambrowski’s life against the backdrop of the changing history of Poland and the communist movement (from its very onset to the 1970s).M. Szumiło has based the biography on an extremely meticulous, well devised, and successfully conducted survey of Polish and Russian archives, private collections, and accounts. The book’s chronological order is frequently interrupted by extensive descriptions of the history of the communist milieu, just as essential as the biographical motif. The publication is divided into seven chapters preceded by a methodological introduction and completed with a conclusion. From the factual point of view (facts, dates, statistical and percentage calculations, names, organisation structures) it reaches a very high level. In places, however, the narration falters due to the absence of a specialist who would explain and comment on the contents, compare new findings with existing ones, decipher the Party newspeak, and, consequently, draw the reader into the depicted world and, first and foremost, facilitate the absorption of the effects of the scientific research. The arrangement of the publication is also not entirely convincing: the book contains numerous interpretations in which Zambrowski vanishes in a crowd of other protagonists, facts, and data. We are thus dealing with a combination of two books written by applying different methods and dealing with unlike motifs: a life story and the development of an organisation. All these features do not reduce the cognitive value of the publication, which has already become one of the most relevant and indispensable studies for learning about the structures and mechanisms of the authorities of People’s Poland as well as the biographies of the communists who ruled the country.

PL

Roman Zambrowski był w latach 1948–1963 jednym z najważniejszych polityków komunistycznych i działaczy gabinetowych PPR/PZPR, a więc zarazem postacią wartą opisu. Biografia pióra Mirosława Szumiły jest oparta na bardzo sumiennej, przemyślanej i z sukcesem przeprowadzonej kwerendzie archiwów polskich, rosyjskich, zbiorów prywatnych i relacji. Książka została napisana w układzie chronologicznym, który jest wielokrotnie przerywany obszernymi opisami historii środowisk komunistycznych. Opisy te są równie istotne, co wątek biograficzny. Od strony formalnej biografia jest podzielona na siedem rozdziałów, które poprzedzone są metodologicznym wstępem, a zwieńczone zakończeniem. Od strony rzeczowej (fakty, daty, obliczenia statystyczne i procentowe, nazwiska, struktury organizacji) praca prezentuje bardzo wysoki poziom. Miejscami jednak niedomaga narracja. Brakuje wykładu specjalisty, który tłumaczy i komentuje, co napisał, porównuje nowe ustalenia z dotychczasowymi i odkodowuje nowomowę partyjną, a dzięki temu wciąga czytelnika w świat przedstawiony i – przede wszystkim – pozwala w maksymalnym stopniu przyswoić efekty swojej pracy naukowej. Nie do końca przekonująca jest też konstrukcja pracy. Znajdziemy dużo ujęć, w których Zambrowski niknie w tłumie innych bohaterów, faktów, danych. Mamy do czynienia z połączeniem dwóch książek pisanych inną metodą i co innego mających za meritum: życie człowieka – rozwój organizacji. Wszystko to nie umniejsza wartości poznawczej książki, która stanowi już teraz jedną z najważniejszych prac niezbędnych do poznania struktur i mechanizmów władzy Polski Ludowej, a także do poznania biografii rządzących nią komunistów.

5

[Recenzja] W odpowiedzi na recenzję Włodzimierza Domagalskiego

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Spałek R.

Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość

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2010

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issue 1(15)

572-580

6

[Recenzja] W odpowiedzi Krzysztofowi Wyszkowskiemu

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Spałek R.

Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość

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2004

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issue 2(6)

407-409

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6 Spałek R.

Jakub Berman. Portret politycznego emeryta w materiałach SB (1966–1971)

Z dziejów komunistycznego wywiadu. Casus Bogusława Hrynkiewicza i Mariana Spychalskiego (1940–1944)

„Gracze” – Komitet Obrony Robotników w propagandzie PRL, stereotypach oraz dokumentach Ministerstwa Spraw Wewnętrznych

Pierwszy po triumwirach, pierwszy po „Wiesławie” – Roman Zambrowski

[Recenzja] W odpowiedzi na recenzję Włodzimierza Domagalskiego

[Recenzja] W odpowiedzi Krzysztofowi Wyszkowskiemu