sluzba bezpieczenstwa

Służba Bezpieczeństwa (SB, until 1956 Urząd Bezpieczeństwa, UB) was the name of the intelligence agency and secret police in the People's Republic of Poland. It was a plainclothes section of the Ministry of Internal Affairs with a remit to investigate those regarded by the government as subversive both internally and abroad. It was established in 1944 as the Urząd Bezpieczenstwa (UB), from which the slang name for secret policemen in Poland - "Ubeks" - is derived. Throughout the late 1940s and 1950s, the UB was heavily under the influence of the Soviet Union, and responsible for, amongst other task, the investigation and prosecution of Armia Krajowa (AK, or Home Army) Polish resistance fighters, and those believed to be sympathetic to the Western Allies during and after the Second World War. It was renamed as the SB in 1956, and entered a period of relative inaction during the era of reform insituted by Władysław Gomułka. After 1968 it was revived as a stronger body, responsible for the implementation of political suppression, most notably in the case of the Solidarity movement, the leader of which, Lech Wałęsa, was under constant SB surveillance, until its replacement by the Urząd Ochrony Państwa in 1990 after the fall of communism. Amongst those executed by the SB were AK founder Witold Pilecki and Catholic priest Jerzy Popieluszko. Since 1990, many SB operatives have been tried for their crimes.

Sluzba Bezpieczenstwa

See also