Activity recognized as terrorist in the Piła Voivodship in the 1980s in the light of the object case code-named «Violence» (selected issues)

The object-related case, codenamed “Violence”, was conducted by the 3rd Department of the District Offi ce of Internal Aff airs in Piła during the years of 1984–1990. Its purpose was to identify, neutralize and eliminate acts bearing the hallmarks of terror, in particular; killings, beatings or deprivation of liberty for political reasons, explosions and arson of political objects and state institutions, collecting weapons and explosives in order to organize terrorist attacks, kidnapping people and planes, illegal political and nationalist organizations that use terror as a form of combat, as well as the operational control of channels to terrorist centres in capitalist countries.

Father Jerzy Popiełuszko in denouncing reports by secret collaborators of the Security Service

Despite the large number of publications about the figure and activities of Father Jerzy Popiełuszko, there is a shortage of reliable academic studies analysing the documentation concerning the priest produced by the communist apparatus of repression. The aim of the present text is to present the reports of secret collaborators focused on Father Popieluszko and an extensive historical analysis of their activities. For the purposes of this text, the work files and personal files of three secret collaborators with pseudonyms were analysed: „Jankowski”, „Kustosz”, „Tarcza/Miecz”. The personalities of these persons and the file references were previously known and mentioned, mainly by journalists, but no solid scholarly work, apart from the files of tw „Jankowski”, has been done so far. The records of tw „Janusz” and the steelworkers „Bogdan”, „Uczciwy” and „Fredek”, which have not been mentioned so far, were also discussed. The basic sources for investigating this issue are the materials produced by the Ministry of the Internal Affairs, above all personal files, work folders and records from card files.

The Toruń Security Service tried with extraordinary zeal to dismantle underground structures, especially secret printing houses and distribution structures. For this purpose, informers were used and the information obtained from them was carefully collected. All found copies of leaflets, underground leaflets, posters, etc. were also carefully collected. By January 11, 1982, the Security Service in Toruń had collected a collection of 172 leaflets, into which (as well as subsequent leaflets), the prosecutor’s office initiated an official investigation. They continued until the fall of 1983. The article discusses the methods of operation of the Security Service in Toruń in order to crack down on the Solidarity underground. Searches, interrogations (sometimes brutal), informers and technical means (e.g. wiretapping) were used.