History of Polish Intelligence Services

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This article covers the history of Polish Intelligence Services dating back to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Early history

Although the first official service of the Polish government entrusted with espionage, intelligence and counter-intelligence was not formed until 1918, in the previous centuries the Polish state developed a net of informers in surrounding states. A number of envoys and ambassadors also gathered intelligence information, mostly by bribery. Among such spies was Jan Andrzej Morsztyn, a notable Polish poet of the 17th century. Polish kings and military commanders (hetmans) of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth such as Stanisław Koniecpolski had espionage networks. The hetmans were responsible for espionage in the Ottoman Empire, its vassals and disputed territories like Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania) and Muscovy, and also among the restless Cossacks.

[edit] 1918–1921

Immediately after becoming an independent nation in 1918, Poland formed its armed forces. Under the influence of the French Military Mission to Poland, the office of the Polish General Staff was divided into several departments, each entrusted with different tasks:

  1. Oddział I [Section I] – Organisation and mobilization;
  2. Oddział II – Intelligence and Counter-intelligence;
  3. Oddziału III – Training and Operations;
  4. Oddział IV – Quartermaster.

The Second Department, often called Dwójka (Polish for Number Two), was formed in October of 1918, even before Poland declared its independence. Initially called Information Department of the General Staff, it was divided into several offices, called "sections":

The network of informers, both in Poland and abroad, was developing very rapidly. Although Poland, after suffering more than a century under foreign occupation, was in a tragic economic situation, this proved to be a vital factor in the creation of an extensive intelligence network. In the 19th century and early 20th century, the economic and political situation forced hundreds of thousands of Poles to emigrate to almost every country in the world. With the advent of Polish liberty, many of them reported for duty in Polish intelligence agencies. Others, most notably Poles living in the former Russian Empire, were trying to return home through war-torn Russia, providing the Polish Army with priceless information on Russian logistics, order of battle and the situation of all involved parties of the Russian Civil War.

In Western Europe (most notably in Germany, France and Belgium), Polish diaspora often formed the backbone of heavy industry. Approximately one million people of Polish descent lived in the Ruhr Valley, many of whom could provide the Polish state with information on industrial production and the economic situation in surrounding countries.

After the outbreak of the Polish-Bolshevik War in early 1919, the intelligence in the East proved vital to Poland's survival in the war against a far superior enemy. A separate cell within Polish intelligence was formed, taking over most intelligence duties during the war. The organisation was named Biuro Wywiadowcze (Intelligence Bureau), and was composed of seven departments:

  1. – Organisation;
  2. – Offensive "A";
  3. – Offensive "B";
  4. – Offensive "C";
  5. – Defensive;
  6. – Internal propaganda;
  7. – Counter-intelligence.

The fourth department, Offensive intelligence "C", became the most developed as it carried out all duties connected to frontline reconnaissance and intelligence, as well as "long-distance" intelligence and surveillance in countries surrounding Bolshevist Russia, including Siberia (still in hands of the White Russians), Turkey, Persia, China, Mongolia and Japan. The third department, Offensive intelligence "B", controlled the intelligence network in the European part of Russia.

Additional information was obtained from Russian defectors and POWs, who crossed the Polish lines in their thousands, especially after the Battle of Warsaw of 1920.

[edit] 1921–1939

After the end of the Polish-Bolshevik War and the Treaty of Riga, the structure and tasks of the Polish intelligence agency had to be modified in order to cope with new goals. Although Poland had won most border conflicts with surrounding powers (most notably the war with Russia and the Greater Poland Uprising against Germany), the international situation of the country was far from perfect. By mid 1921 a new structure of the Dwójka was introduced. It was composed of three main departments, each commanding different offices:

  • Organisation Department:
  1. Organisation;
  2. Training;
  3. People;
  4. Finances;
  5. Own Ciphers and codes, communication and foreign press.
  • Records Department:
  1. East;
  2. West;
  3. North;
  4. South;
  5. Statistical Office;
  6. Nationalities and minorities;
  • Intelligence Department:
  1. Technology of intelligence;
  2. Central agents' bureau;
  3. Counter-intelligence;
  4. Foreign Ciphers (Biuro Szyfrów);
  5. Radio surveillance and wire-tapping techniques.

Until the late 1930s, the Soviet Union was seen as the most likely aggressor and main enemy of Poland. Because of that, the 2nd Department developed an extensive network of agents both within the borders of Poland's eastern neighbour and in other neighbouring countries. Apart from the so-called passive intelligence (radio surveillance, press reports and similar activities), in the early 1920s Polish intelligence started to develop a network of offensive intelligence. The Eastern Office (Referat "Wschód" in Polish) had several dozens of bureaux, mostly attached to Polish consulates in Moscow, Kiev, Leningrad, Kharkov and Tbilisi.

The short-range surveillance was carried out by the forces of the Border Defence Corps created in 1924. On several occasions the soldiers crossed the border disguised as smugglers, partisans, or ordinary bandits. They gathered information on the dislocation of Soviet troops and the morale of the Soviet people. At the same time the Soviet forces carried out similar missions on Polish territory. The situation finally became stable in 1925, however, missions such as these would still occur from time to time.

Overall, the efforts of Polish Intelligence in the interwar years created a useful gauge of the capabilities of the main potential adversaries of Poland: Germany and the USSR. However, this was largely irrelevant when war came in September, 1939. Good intelligence simply could not offset the overwhelming superiority of the German and Soviet armed forces. The conquest of Poland lasted only a few weeks, too short a time for intelligence services to make a significant contribution. With Poland conquered, Polish Intelligence Services had to remove its command to French and British Allied territories.

[edit] 1939–1945

Main article: Polish contribution to World War II

Until 1939 the Polish intelligence services generally did not collaborate with the intelligence services of other countries. The only partial exception was France, Poland's closest ally, and even in this case the cooperation was generally lukewarm, with neither side, as a rule, sharing its most precious secrets (an important exception was the long-term collaboration between France's Gustave Bertrand and Poland's Cipher Bureau, headed by Gwido Langer.) The situation only began to change in 1939, when war appeared certain and Britain and France entered into formal military alliance with Poland.

The most important result of the subsequent sharing of information was the transfer of Polish techniques for breaking German Enigma Machine ciphersto France and Britain. The initial break into these had been made in late 1932 by mathematician Marian Rejewski, working for the Polish General Staff's Cipher Bureau. His work had been substantially facilitated by intelligence provided by Bertrand. With the help of two fellow mathematicians, Henryk Zygalski and Jerzy Różycki, Rejewski developed techniques to decrypt German Enigma-enciphered messages on a regular and timely basis.

Over six-and-a-half years after the initial Polish decryption of the Enigma cipher, French and British intelligence representatives were briefed on Polish achievement at a trilateral conference held at Cipher Bureau facilities in the Kabaty Woods, just south of Warsaw, on July 25, 1939, barely five weeks before the outbreak of World War II. This formed the basis for early Enigma decryption by the British at Bletchley Park, northwest of London; without the head start provided by Poland, the British reading of Enigma encryptions might have been delayed several years, or the British effort might even have remained completely unsuccessful.

Key Polish Cipher Bureau personnel escaped from Poland on September 17, 1939, upon the Soviet Union's entry into eastern Poland, and eventually reached France. There, at "PC Bruno" outside Paris, they resumed cracking Enigma ciphers through the "Phony War" (October 1939—May 1940). Following the fall of northern France to the Germans, the Polish-French-Spanish cryptological organisation, sponsored by French Major Gustave Bertrand, continued its work at "Cadix" in the southern, Vichy "Free Zone" until that too was occupied by German forces in November 1942.

After the Invasion of Poland of 1939 practically the entire command apparatus of the Second Department managed to escape Poland through Romania and soon reached France and Britain. There it reactivated its agent networks all over Europe, and immediately began co-operation with British and French intelligence agencies. After the Fall of France the entire Second Department staff ended up in Britain, which at that time was in a difficult situation and badly in need of intelligence from occupied Europe, after rapid German advances disrupted its networks and put German forces in areas where Britain had few agents. After the personal intervention of Churchill and Sikorski in September 1940, the co-operation between British and Polish intelligence organisations entered a new era. The Polish Second Department and its network was put under partial British control and worked under direct orders and direction of the SIS (Secret Intelligence Service) for the rest of the war.

Already in the first half of 1941 Polish agents in France supplied Britain with intelligence on U-boat movements from French Atlantic ports. The network in France grew to 1500 members and supplied vital information about the German military in France before and during the course of Operation Overlord. Agents working in Poland in the spring of 1941 supplied extensive intelligence about German preparations for their invasion of the Soviet Union. Polish spies also supplied extensive information on Auschwitz atrocities (Report of Witold Pilecki) and the German extermination operations in Poland during the Holocaust. Polish Intelligence gave the British crucial information on the Germans' secret weapons projects, including the V-1 and V-2 rockets, which allowed Britain to set back the German campaign by bombing the main development facility at Peenemunde in 1943. Overall, Poland's European networks supplied the Allies with information on just about all aspects of the German war effort. Out of 45,770 reports received by British Intelligence during the war, nearly half (22,047) were supplied by Polish agents.

The Second Department was officially dissolved on March 15, 1946, its archives being taken over by the British. At the time of its dissolution it employed 170 officers and 3500 agents, not including headquarters staff. It is quite likely that at least some of these agents continued to work, now directly for Britain, in the years of the Cold War.

After the war, the contribution of Polish Intelligence to the British war effort was kept completely secret. Immediately after the war this was understandable, as the need for secrecy persisted due to the start of the Cold War. However, in later years, as the official British histories were released, the role of Polish Intelligence barely rated a mention. Only when the knowledge of the British decryption of the Enigma code was revealed to the general public in the late 1970s did the Polish contribution to that effort come to the fore. Even then, the first versions of the story, based on partial knowledge, claimed that Polish Intelligence was only able to steal a German Enigma machine. Only gradually was it revealed that the Polish effort was much more sophisticated, relying primarily on methods of mathematical analysis. However, the efforts of historians to gain access to documents describing the rest of the Polish Intelligence efforts were met with stonewalling and claims that all pertinent archives have been destroyed.

In recent years British and Polish governments have begun efforts to jointly produce an accurate and adequate account of the Polish Intelligence contribution to the British war effort. The key Anglo-Polish Historical Committee Report on the subject, written by leading historians and experts granted unprecedented access to British intelligence archives, was published in July 2005 (for additional information see: [1], [2], [3]).

See also: Home Army and V1 and V2

[edit] 1945–1989

Main articles: Główny Zarząd Informacji Wojska Polskiego, Służba Bezpieczeństwa, and Ministerstwo Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego

[edit] Civilian branches

Following the occupation of Poland by the Soviet Union and formation of the new puppet government, the Soviets formed new intelligence and internal security formations and agencies. But officer staff were trained by Soviet special services already from 1943 on. The same year a group of about 120 Poles began special training in an NKVD school in the town of Kuybyshev, now Samara. At the same time, in NKVD-NKGB schools all over the USSR, hundreds of German, Romanian, Czechoslovakian and Bulgarian people underwent the same training in order to prepare them for work in future special services in their respective countries.

In July 1944 in Moscow a temporary Polish puppet government was established by the name of Polish Committee of National Liberation (Polski Komitet Wyzwolenia Narodowego), or PKWN. The PKWN was organised as thirteen departments (resorty). One of them was the Department of Public Security (Resort Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego), or RBP, headed by long-time Polish communist Stanisław Radkiewicz. The largest and the most important department in the RBP, Department 1, was responsible for counter-espionage and headed by Roman Romkowski. By September 1945 Department 1 had become so large that three additional departments were created, as well as two separate Sections. By the close of 1944, the Department of Public Security totalled 3000 employees.

On December 31, 1944, the PKWN was joined by several members of the Polish government in exile, among them Stanisław Mikołajczyk. It was then transformed into the Provisional Government of Republic of Poland (Polish: Rząd Tymczasowy Republiki Polskiej, or RTRP), and the departments were renamed to ministries, the Department of Public Security becoming the Ministry of Public Security (Ministerstwo Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego), or MBP.

The Ministry of Public Security was responsible for both intelligence and counter-espionage as well as surveillance of citizens and suppression of dissent of any kind. They generally did not employ former officers of the "Dwojka" or follow the traditions of pre-war Polish intelligence services. Personnel were recruited for their "political reliability". New formations were trained by Soviet NKVD experts. Additionally, and especially in the early years (1945–49), Soviet officers in Polish uniforms overlooked their operations. After Stalin's death in 1953 and a couple of months later defection of Col. Józef Światło, a high-ranking MBP officer to the West, one year later Ministry of Public Security was cancelled and replaced by two separate administrations - Committee for Public Security (Komitet do Spraw Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego) or Kds.BP and Ministry of Internal Affairs (Ministerstwo Spraw Wewnętrznych) or MSW.

Kds.BP - was responsible for: Intelligence and Counter-espionage, government protection as well as political police. And from September 3, 1955 to 28 November 1956, Główny Zarząd Informacji Wojska Polskiego (Main Directorate of Information of the Polish Army) which was the Military Police and Counter-espionage Agency, when under control of Kds.BP.

MSW - was responsible for: supervision of the local governments, Militsiya, correctional facilities and fire rescue, as well as border and internal guards.

Next big changes come already in 1956. Committee for Public Security was cancelled and Ministry of Internal Affairs (MSW) took over his responsibilities. Departments responsible for political police in Kds.BP, when under control to MSW as Służba Bezpieczeństwa or.(SB) From 1956 to the fall of communism in Poland, besides the Ministry of Defense, MSW was one of biggest and strongest administrations in Poland, responsible for - Intelligence, Counter-espionage, anti-state activity in country (SB), government protection, confidential communications, supervision of the local governments, militsiya, correctional facilities, and fire rescue. Ministry of Internal Affairs was divided on departments the most important departments were: 1st - foreign operations and intelligence-gathering, 2nd - Organizing and conduct battles with spy activities measured against People's Republic of Poland by capitalistic states, penetrate foreign intelligence centers by using secret agents, 3rd (Służba Bezpieczeństwa) - anti-state activities in country and protection of state secrets. Except departments and sections, MSW had control over - Main Command of Militsiya (Komenda Główna Milicji Obywatelskiej) or KG/MO, Main Command of fire rescue (Komenda Główna Straży Pożarnych) or KG/SP, Main Command of command of Territorial Anti-aircraft Defense (Komenda Główna Terenowej Obrony Przeciwlotniczej) KG/TOP, Main Management of Geodesy and Cartography (Główny Zarząd Geodezji i Kartografii), Central Office of Health Services (Centralny Zarząd Służby Zdrowia. Ministry of Internal Affairs also had control over command of Internal Troops, which was - Command of Internal Security Corp. (Dowództwo Korpusu Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego) or KBW, Command of Border Guard (Dowództwo Wojsk Ochrony Pogranicza) or KOP, and Management of Information of Internal Troops (Zarząd Informacji Wojsk Wewnetrznych). Through 1980's MSW was in numbers - 24 390 in Security Service (Służba Bezpieczeństwa) or SB, 62 276 in Citizens Militsiya (Milicja Obywatelska) or MO, 12 566 in Motorized Reserves of the Citizens Militia (Zmotoryzowane Odwody Milicji Obywatelskiej) or ZOMO, 20 673 Administratively-Economic Units (Jednostki administracyjno-gospodarcze), 4 594 in Ministry schools plus students.

[edit] Military branches

First military special services in Poland after WW2 were created in 1943 as part of the Polish Military in the USSR. First organ that dealt with military counterespionage was called Directorate of Information by the commander-in-chief of the Polish Army (Zarząd Informacji Naczelnego Dowódcy Wojska Polskiego - ZI NDWP) . November 30, 1944, commander-in-chief of Polish Army general Michał Rola-Żymierski in his #95 order transformed the ZI NDWP into the Main Directorate of Information of the Polish Army (Główny Zarząd Informacji Wojska Polskiego) or. GZI WP. Then from 30 November 1950, GZI WP, became Main Directorate of Information of Ministry of Defense (Główny Zarząd Informacji Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej) or GZI MON. In September 1955, GZI MON became part of Committee for Public Security (Komitet do spraw Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego), with was the well known successor of Ministerstwo Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego more known as Urząd Bezpieczeństwa or UB, and was called Main Directorate of Information of the Committee for Public Security or GZI KdsBP. In November 1956 GZI Kds.BP separated from Committee for Public Security, and returned to previous role becoming again Main Directorate of Information of Ministry of Defense. After the reform instituted by Władysław Gomułka in 1956, and the role GZI played in repressions and executions, one year later in 1957 Main Directorate of Information of Ministry of Defense was cancelled and replaced by Military Internal Service (Wojskowa Służba Wewnętrzna - or. WSW). The WSW continuously operated as the main military police and counterespionage service until the fall of communism in Poland.

First Polish Military Intelligence after WW2 was Oddział II Sztabu Generalnego Ludowego Wojska Polskiego (2nd Section of General Staff of the Polish People's Army) or Odział II Szt Gen LWP, so it bore the same name that his precursor from before world war 2. Odział II Szt Gen WP, was establish in July 18, 1945, but his origin reaches May 1943 when first reconnaissance company was created in Polish Army units in USSR. Between July 1947 and June 5, 1950, 2nd Section of General Staff of the Polish People's Army, operated in structure of the Ministry of Public Security together with civilian intelligence branch as a Department VII. In June 5, 1950, it has returned to the Ministry of Defense. The first head of Odział II Szt Gen WP, was Colonel Gieorgij Domeradzki, in November 1945 this position was occupy by general Wacław Komar, and between October 1950 and March 1951 by soviet officer Konstantin Kahnikov. The last in command of 2nd Section of General Staff of the Polish People's Army was Igor Suchacki.
November 15, 1951 Polish Defence Minister Konstantin Rokossovsky in his order (#.0088) transformed 2nd Section of General Staff of the Polish People's Army to 2nd Directorate of General Staff of the Polish Army (Zarząd II Sztabu Generalnego Wojska Polskiego). Inside organization was transformed from Section to Directorates and Intelligence work among United States, Great Britain, Federal Republic of Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Austria, has been expanded among to countries like Norway, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey and Israel. In 1990 2nd Directorate of General Staff of the Polish Army was join with military Counter-intelligence - Military Internal Service (Wojskowa Służba Wewnętrzna - or. WSW, that way Intelligence and Counter-intelligence was working under one structure which was Zarząd II Wywiadu i Kontrwywiadu - 2nd Directorate for Intelligence and Counter-intelligence. Then in 1991 2nd Directorate for Intelligence and Counter-intelligence was transformed on to Military information services - Wojskowe Służby Informacyjne (or. WSI). Military information services or WSI. Responsible for military Intelligence and Counter-intelligence, continues to function under this name to this day.

[edit] 1989–present

After the changes of 1989 the Służba Bezpieczeństwa was disbanded by the first free government under the prime minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki. A new agency, called Urząd Ochrony Państwa or UOP (State Protection Office) was formed and was staffed mainly by the former SB officers who successfully passed a verification procedure. Its mission was primarily general espionage and intelligence gathering as well as counter-espionage and fight against high ranked organised crime. It was commanded by a career intelligence officer but was directly supervised by a civilian government official, Coordinator for the Special Services.

For most of the time the agency evaded public attention, although it was dragged into political fighting over appointments of its chiefs, lustration and some perceived failures with organized crime cases. In 2002 the new, left-wing government reorganized the special services by dividing them into two agencies – Agencja Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego (Internal Security Agency) and Agencja Wywiadu (Intelligence Agency). The move was widely perceived as a way of cleansing the higher ranks of the intelligence from the officers appointed by previous right-wing governments.

It is worth noting that the military intelligence continued to function under a slightly altered name (Wojskowe Służby Informacyjne) and without much organisational change – at least none that would be visible to the general public. The new Polish conservative government declared dissolution of the WSI and creating new services (October 2005), since the agency skipped serious external reforms after the collapse of communism in 1989. Throughout the transformation the WSI was involved in dubious operations, arms sales to UN-sanctioned states and corruption scandals.

[edit] Notable AW personnel

[edit] References

  • Richard A. Woytak (1979). On the Border of War and Peace: Polish Intelligence and Diplomacy in 1937-1939, and the Origins of the Ultra Secret. Boulder, East European Quarterly, distributed by Columbia University Press, New York. ISBN 0-914710-42-7.
  • Maj. Gen. Mieczysław Rygor-Słowikowski (1988). translated by George Slowikowski: In the Secret Service: the Lighting of the Torch. London, The Windrush Press. ISBN 0-900075-40-6.
  • Józef Kasparek (1992). Przepust karpacki: tajna akcja polskiego wywiadu (The Carpathian Back Door: a Covert Polish Intelligence Operation). Warsaw, Sigma NOT. ISBN 83-85001-96-4.
  • Paweł Samuś (1998). Akcja Łom: Polskie działania dywersyjne na Rusi Zakarpackiej w świetle dokumenów Oddziału II Sztabu Głównego WP (Operation Crowbar: Polish diversion in Transcarpathian Ruthenia in light of the documents of the II Detachment of the Polish General Staff, Kazimierz Badziak, Giennadij Matwiejew, Warsaw, Adiutor. ISBN 83-86100-31-1.
  • Władysław Kozaczuk (1999). Bitwa o tajemnice: służby wywiadowcze Polski i Niemiec, 1918-1939 (Secret Battle: the Intelligence Services of Poland and Germany, 1918-1939). Warsaw, Książka i Wiedza. ISBN 83-05-1383-5.
  • Grzegorz Nowik (2004). Zanim złamano Enigmę: Polski radiowywiad podczas wojny z bolszewicką Rosją 1918 - 1920 (Before Enigma was Broken: Polish radio-intelligence during the war against Bolshevik Russia 1918 - 1920). Warsaw, RYTM Oficyna Wydawnicza. ISBN 83-7399-099-2.
  • Tessa Stirling et al. (2005). “vol. I: the Report of the Anglo-Polish Historical Committee”, Intelligence Co-operation between Poland and Great Britain during World War II. London, Vallentine Mitchell. ISBN 0-85303-656-X.
  • Henryk Piecuch, Brudne gry: ostatnie akcje Służb Specjalnych (seria: "Tajna Historia Polski") [Dirty Games: the Last Special Services Operations ("Secret History of Poland" series)], Warsaw, Agencja Wydawnicza CB, 1998.

[edit] See also

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