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Służba Bezpieczeństwa
The Security Service (; ), in full Security Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and commonly known as SB, was a secret police force established in the Polish People's Republic in 1956 as a successor to the Ministry of Public Security (Poland), Ministry of Public Security (UB). The SB was the chief foreign and domestic Intelligence agency, security organization in Poland from 1956 until the fall of communism in 1989. The parent agency of SB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, had been established in 1954, but the Ministry did not play a significant role until the winding-up of the Committee for Public Safety in 1956. History The post-World War II Ministry of Public Security (Poland), Ministry of Public Security (UB) was responsible for security, intelligence and counterintelligence. It controlled over 41,000 soldiers of the Internal Security Corps, 57,500 members of the Milicja Obywatelska, Citizens' Militia, 32,000 Border Protection Forces, 10,000 Prison Service (Poland ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Secret Police
image:Putin-Stasi-Ausweis.png, 300px, Vladimir Putin's secret police identity card, issued by the East German Stasi while he was working as a Soviet KGB liaison officer from 1985 to 1989. Both organizations used similar forms of repression. Secret police (or political police) are police, Intelligence agency, intelligence, or Security agency, security agencies that engage in covert operations against a government's political, ideological, or social opponents and dissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic of Authoritarianism, authoritarian and Totalitarianism, totalitarian regimes. They protect the political power of a dictator or regime and often operate outside the law to repress dissidents and weaken political opposition, frequently using violence. They may enjoy legal sanction to hold and charge suspects without ever identifying their organization. History Africa Egypt Egypt is home to Africa and the Middle East's first internal security service: The Stat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Józef Światło
Józef Światło, born Izaak Fleischfarb (1 January 1915 – 2 September 1994), was a high-ranking official in the Ministry of Public Security of Poland (UB) who served as deputy director of the 10th Department run by Anatol Fejgin. Known for supervising the torture of political prisoners, he was nicknamed "the Butcher" by the detainees. After the 1953 death of Joseph Stalin and arrest of Lavrentiy Beria, Światło traveled to East Germany on official business. While on the Berlin subway with Fejgin, passing through West Berlin, on 5 December 1953, he "slipped away" and defected to the West. Afterwards he worked for the American Central Intelligence Agency and Radio Free Europe. Światło's written and broadcast denunciations shook the Polish United Workers' Party. This ultimately contributed to post-Stalinist reforms of the Polish security apparatus and to Poland's political liberalisation in the socialist Polish October revolution. Biography Józef Światło was born on 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Covert Agent
The term ''covert agent'' can have many meanings, depending on context. United States As it is used in the United States Intelligence Community, it is legally defined in 50 USCA §426. The definition is subject to judicial interpretation, but a reading of the plain language of that statute reveals that a covert agent can be an employee of the US intelligence agencies or a private citizen working on behalf of that community. Cornell Law definition The term ''covert agent'' means: :(A) a present or retired officer or employee of an intelligence agency or a present or retired member of the Armed Forces assigned to duty with an intelligence agency— ::(i) whose identity as such an officer, employee, or member is classified information, and ::(ii) who is serving outside the United States or has within the last five years served outside the United States; or :(B) a United States citizen whose intelligence relationship to the United States is classified information, and— ::(i) who ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PZPR
The Polish United Workers' Party (, ), commonly abbreviated to PZPR, was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other legally permitted subordinate minor parties together as the Front of National Unity and later Patriotic Movement for National Rebirth. Ideologically, it was based on the theories of Marxism-Leninism, with a strong emphasis on left-wing nationalism. The Polish United Workers' Party had total control over public institutions in the country as well as the Polish People's Army, the UB and SB security agencies, the Citizens' Militia (MO) police force and the media. The falsified 1947 Polish legislative election granted the Communist Polish Workers' Party (PPR) complete political authority in post-war Poland. The PZPR was founded forthwith in December 1948 through the unification of the PPR and the Polish Socialist Party (PPS). From 1952 onward, the position of "First Secretary" of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Communist
Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange that allocates products in society based on need.: "One widespread distinction was that socialism socialised production only while communism socialised production and consumption." A communist society entails the absence of private property and social classes, and ultimately money and the state. Communists often seek a voluntary state of self-governance but disagree on the means to this end. This reflects a distinction between a libertarian socialist approach of communization, revolutionary spontaneity, and workers' self-management, and an authoritarian socialist, vanguardist, or party-driven approach to establish a socialist state, which is expected to wither away. Communist parties have been described as radi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Władysław Wicha
Władysław Wicha (born 3 June 1904 in Warsaw; died 13 December 1984 in Warsaw) was a Polish politician in the early communist period. Ministry of Interior (Poland), Minister of Interior in the years 1954–1964, member of the Polish Council of State, Council of State (1965–1969), deputy to the Sejm of the Polish People's Republic of the first and fourth term. Biography He was born into a working family and had secondary education as metallurgist. From 1924, he was a member of the Young Communist League of Poland, then an activist of the Communist Party of Poland, secretary of the district committees of the Warsaw-Lewa Podmiejska, Częstochowa-Piotrków, Łódź, Warsaw branches of the party. In the years 1938–1945 he worked as a metal worker in western Europe (Belgium, France, Spain and Great Britain). In 1945 following the end of World War II, he returned to Poland, joined the Polish Workers' Party. He was the chairman of the Delegation of the Special Commission in Warsaw, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polish United Workers' Party
The Polish United Workers' Party (, ), commonly abbreviated to PZPR, was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other legally permitted subordinate minor parties together as the Front of National Unity and later Patriotic Movement for National Rebirth. Ideologically, it was based on the theories of Marxism-Leninism, with a strong emphasis on left-wing nationalism. The Polish United Workers' Party had total control over public institutions in the country as well as the Polish People's Army, the UB and SB security agencies, the Citizens' Militia (MO) police force and the media. The falsified 1947 Polish legislative election granted the Communist Polish Workers' Party (PPR) complete political authority in post- war Poland. The PZPR was founded forthwith in December 1948 through the unification of the PPR and the Polish Socialist Party (PPS). From 1952 onward, the position of "First Secretary ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Secretary (title)
Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived from the Latin word , "to distinguish" or "to set apart", the passive participle () meaning "having been set apart", with the eventual connotation of something private or confidential, as with the English word ''secret.'' A was a person, therefore, overseeing business confidentially, usually for a powerful individual (a king, pope, etc.). The official title of the leader of most communist and socialist political parties is the "General Secretary of the Central Committee" or "First Secretary of the Central Committee". When a communist party is in power, the general secretary is usually the country's '' de facto'' leader (though sometimes this leader also holds state-level positions to monopolize power, such as a presidency or prem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Władysław Gomułka
Władysław Gomułka (; 6 February 1905 – 1 September 1982) was a Polish Communist politician. He was the ''de facto'' leader of Polish People's Republic, post-war Poland from 1947 until 1948, and again from 1956 to 1970. Born in 1905 in Galicia (Eastern Europe), Galicia, Gomulka was of proletarian origin. A plumber from the age of fourteen, he joined the revolutionary movement, made propaganda in the trade unions and suffered the rigours of the Wincenty Witos, Witos government, then of the Pilsudski dictatorship. When Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939, he was imprisoned in Lwow, but was later released. He moved to Warsaw and became one of the most energetic organisers of the resistance against the Nazis. In 1943, he became the leader of the left-wing resistance fighters, the general secretary of the underground workers' party. When Poland was occupied by the Red Army, he collaborated with the Lublin government, formed by the Soviets with the Polish Bolesław Bierut, Bie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions and has played a prominent role in the history and development of Western civilization.Gerald O'Collins, O'Collins, p. v (preface). The church consists of 24 Catholic particular churches and liturgical rites#Churches, ''sui iuris'' (autonomous) churches, including the Latin Church and 23 Eastern Catholic Churches, which comprise almost 3,500 dioceses and Eparchy, eparchies List of Catholic dioceses (structured view), around the world, each overseen by one or more Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishops. The pope, who is the bishop of Rome, is the Papal supremacy, chief pastor of the church. The core beliefs of Catholicism are found in the Nicene Creed. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Intelligence
Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. It can be described as the ability to perceive or infer information and to retain it as knowledge to be applied to adaptive behaviors within an environment or context. The term rose to prominence during the early 1900s. Most psychologists believe that intelligence can be divided into various domains or competencies. Intelligence has been long-studied in humans, and across numerous disciplines. It has also been observed in the cognition of non-human animals. Some researchers have suggested that plants exhibit forms of intelligence, though this remains controversial. Etymology The word '' intelligence'' derives from the Latin nouns '' intelligentia'' or '' intellēctus'', which in turn stem from the verb '' intelligere'', to comprehend or perceive. In the M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
