Fałszywka
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Fałszywka () is a
Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...
socio-political Political sociology is an interdisciplinary field of study concerned with exploring how governance and society interact and influence one another at the micro to macro levels of analysis. Interested in the social causes and consequences of how ...
term describing
counterfeit A counterfeit is a fake or unauthorized replica of a genuine product, such as money, documents, designer items, or other valuable goods. Counterfeiting generally involves creating an imitation of a genuine item that closely resembles the original ...
top secret files and fake police reports produced by the
Ministry of Public Security Ministry of Public Security can refer to: * Ministry of Justice and Public Security (Brazil) * Ministry of Public Security of Burundi * Ministry of Public Security (Chile) * Ministry of Public Security (China) * Ministry of Public Security of Co ...
in the
People's Republic of Poland The Polish People's Republic (1952–1989), formerly the Republic of Poland (1947–1952), and also often simply known as Poland, was a country in Central Europe that existed as the predecessor of the modern-day democratic Republic of Poland. ...
. Their purpose was to undermine the popularity of prominent opponents of
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 parti ...
, mainly by attempting to ruin their good name as private individuals. ''Fałszywka'' ( pl. ''fałszywki'') were used from the beginning of the People's Republic against opponents of the Communist system. These included seemingly stolen or declassified revelations about opposition members working as alleged police informants under the Soviet system. Most notably, some have argued that an entire forged file of this sort was produced in the 1980s and then disseminated by the communist establishment about the leading dissident and future President of Poland
Lech Wałęsa Lech Wałęsa (; ; born 29 September 1943) is a Polish statesman, dissident, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as the president of Poland between 1990 and 1995. After winning the 1990 Polish presidential election, 1990 election, Wałę ...
when he was nominated for the
Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish language, Swedish and ) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the Will and testament, will of Sweden, Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobe ...
. Some politicians claim it was fabricated and then "leaked" to the media (as "proof" of his betrayal of
Solidarity Solidarity or solidarism is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. True solidarity means moving beyond individual identities and single issue politics ...
) in an attempt to prevent Wałęsa from being awarded the Prize.


History

The former head of the State Protection Office (UOP), General Gromosław Czempiński, described the method in which typical ''fałszywka'' used to be made. Nobody ever saw the original document (as in the case of Lech Wałęsa). The '' Security Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs'' made sure that only the photocopies were in circulation, because they could not be denounced as fake, and were easy to make. The Ministry of Public Security used them frequently, said Czempiński, stating also that often the officers who signed them were created out of thin air. Writer
Jerzy Urban Jerzy Urban (born Jerzy Urbach, 3 August 1933 – 3 October 2022) was a Polish journalist, commentator, writer and politician, best known as the founder and editor-in-chief of the weekly magazine ''Nie''. From 1981 to 1989 he was the Press Sec ...
noted, that (if available) signatures of alleged collaborators, from unrelated documents, were also photocopied and pasted into ''fałszywkas'' before reprints. Following the
revolutions of 1989 The revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, were a revolutionary wave of liberal democracy movements that resulted in the collapse of most Communist state, Marxist–Leninist governments in the Eastern Bloc and other parts ...
, the ''fałszywkas'' were catalogued by the
Institute of National Remembrance The Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation (, abbreviated IPN) is a Polish state research institute in charge of education and archives which also includes two public prosecutio ...
in accordance with its own mandate, and subsequently also made available to the public based on the right to request access to recorded information held by government organizations (RFI). Numerous prominent politicians, such as
the Minister ''The Minister'' () is a 2011 French-Belgian political drama film directed by Pierre Schöller. Plot French Transport Minister Bertrand Saint-Jean arrives at the scene of a serious bus crash with many fatalities. He later attends a news inte ...
Władysław Bartoszewski Władysław Bartoszewski (; 19 February 1922 – 24 April 2015) was a Polish politician, social activist, journalist, writer and historian. A former Auschwitz concentration camp prisoner, he was a World War II resistance fighter as part of th ...
(former
Auschwitz Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...
concentration camp prisoner), and Professor
Jerzy Kłoczowski Jerzy Kazimierz Kłoczowski (29 December 1924, Bogdany Wielkie, Poland – 2 December 2017) was a Polish historian, professor at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, and former member of the Polish Senate. During World War II, Kłocz ...
(member of the
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
Executive Board), have been noted among their targets. Kłoczowski was defended against slander based on a ''fałszywka'' produced by Security Service, in a letter of protest published in ''
Rzeczpospolita () is a traditional Polish term for a political community founded for the common good. The noun "rzeczpospolita", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage" "thing, matter" and "common" is analogous to the Latin ''rēs pūblica' ...
'' in 2004, and signed by a number of Polish public personalities, including Prof.
Jerzy Buzek Jerzy Karol Buzek (; born 3 July 1940) is a Polish politician and former Member of the European Parliament from Poland. He has served as Prime Minister of Poland from 1997 to 2001, since being elected to the European Parliament in 2004, he serv ...
,
Tadeusz Mazowiecki Tadeusz Mazowiecki (; 18 April 1927 – 28 October 2013) was a Polish author, journalist, philanthropist and politician, formerly one of the leaders of the Solidarity movement, and the first non-communist Polish prime minister since 1946, hav ...
, Jan Nowak-Jeziorański, Prof.
Władysław Bartoszewski Władysław Bartoszewski (; 19 February 1922 – 24 April 2015) was a Polish politician, social activist, journalist, writer and historian. A former Auschwitz concentration camp prisoner, he was a World War II resistance fighter as part of th ...
, Prof.
Andrzej Zoll Andrzej Stanisław Zoll (born 27 May 1942) is a Polish lawyer, former judge and president of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal, former Polish Ombudsman, former president of the State Electoral Commission, former president of the Legislative Coun ...
, Józef Życiński,
Andrzej Wajda Andrzej Witold Wajda (; 6 March 1926 – 9 October 2016) was a Polish film and theatre director. Recipient of an Honorary Oscar, the Palme d'Or, as well as Honorary Golden Lion and Honorary Golden Bear Awards, he was a prominent member of the "P ...
, Prof. Barbara Skarga, Prof.
Jan Miodek Jan Franciszek Miodek (born 7 June 1946 in Tarnowskie Góry, Silesian Voivodeship), is a Polish linguist, a prescriptive grammarian and a professor of Wrocław University. He is regarded as one of the most prominent educators and promoters of t ...
, Prof.
Jerzy Zdrada Jerzy Władysław Zdrada (born 26 November 1936 in Częstochowa) is a Polish historian and politician. Biography He is a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences and a professor at the Jagiellonian University since 1993. As a historian, he specia ...
,
Aleksander Hall Aleksander Jan Hall (born 20 May 1953 in Gdańsk) is a Polish conservative political thinker, scholar and retired politician. He was an activist for the Movement for Defense of Human and Civic Rights, and later a politician and member of Solidari ...
,
Władysław Frasyniuk Władysław Frasyniuk (born 25 November 1954 in Wrocław) is a Polish politician, former activist of Solidarity trade union, and former chairman of the Partia Demokratyczna – demokraci.pl political party. He served as a member of the Sejm ( ...
, Prof.
Adam Galos Adam Galos (22 July 1924 – 11 April 2013) was a Polish historian and professor at University of Wrocław. He specialized in the history of Germany. He died, aged 88, in Wrocław. He spent his childhood in Warsaw Warsaw, officially the C ...
,
Krystyna Zachwatowicz Krystyna Zachwatowicz-Wajda (born ''Krystyna Zachwatowicz''; 16 May 1930) is a Polish scenographer, costume designer and actress. She is a daughter of architect and restorer Jan Zachwatowicz and Maria Chodźko ''h.'' Kościesza, and wife of fil ...
and many others.


Lech Wałęsa as agent Bolek

Wałęsa has been accused of having been an informer for the Polish secret police ''
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 (P ...
'' (SB) already in the early 1970s. A 2008 book by historians from the
Institute of National Remembrance The Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation (, abbreviated IPN) is a Polish state research institute in charge of education and archives which also includes two public prosecutio ...
(IPN),
Sławomir Cenckiewicz Sławomir Cenckiewicz (born 20 July 1971) is a Polish historian and journalist. Life and career A former employee of the Institute of National Remembrance, since 2016 Cenckiewicz has served as president of the Polish Army's History Office. He ga ...
and
Piotr Gontarczyk Piotr Gontarczyk (born 29 April 1970 in Żyrardów, Poland) is a Polish historian with a doctorate in history and political science. He is employed by the Polish Institute of National Remembrance. He specializes in the World War II history of t ...
, presented evidence provoking a nationwide debate. The book was perceived by some as very controversial; but it contained over 130 pages of documents in support of its thesis, originating from the archives of the ''SB'' secret service, which were inherited by the ''IPN''. Cenckiewicz defended his discoveries on those basis. Even
Janusz Kurtyka Janusz Marek Kurtyka (13 August 1960 – 10 April 2010) was a Polish historian, and from December 2005 until his death in the 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash, the second president of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN). Kurtyka was b ...
, president of the Institute of National Remembrance at the time, believed it was true, while admitting that the book did not contain a "hundred-percent" proof of Wałęsa in fact being the agent ''Bolek''. To make the matters worse, some of the photocopies went missing from the secret police records during Wałęsa's presidency of Poland (1990–1995), which some commentators perceived as a more serious problem inhibiting the post-communist process of
lustration Lustration in Central and Eastern Europe is the official public procedure of scrutinizing a public official or a candidate for public office in terms of their history as a witting confidential collaborator (informant) of relevant former commun ...
in Poland. The ''SB'' security police tried to recruit Wałęsa several times and maintained the ''Bolek'' file between 1970 and 1976. At different times in his career Wałęsa had both admitted and denied that he has identified individuals during his interrogations recorded there. However, no compromising ''SB'' documents exist about him at all, once he joined the Solidarity Coastal Free Trade Union in the following years. In 2011 the Bialystok IPN seemingly admitted that the ''Służba Bezpieczeństwa'' fabricated some of the documents pertaining to the alleged collaboration of Wałęsa with the secret police. The SB goal was to slander and discredit him before the Nobel committee. The ''fałszywkas'' were seemingly confirmed in the 2000 court case by a document written in 1985 by Major Adam Styliński during an internal investigation at the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The document written by Styliński described how the ''fałszywkas'' were produced and disseminated by the department as far as Norway during the
martial law in Poland Martial law in Poland () existed between 13 December 1981 and 22 July 1983. The Polish United Workers' Party, government of the Polish People's Republic drastically restricted everyday life by introducing martial law and a military junta in an a ...
. On December 22, 2011, the Institute of National Remembrance confirmed in its final statement that the communist apparatus had forged documents secretly mailed to Oslo in the SB operation "Ambasador" and similar others from the 1980s. In April 2015, on the other hand, the IPN found that there was no evidence that any documents had been falsified regarding Wałęsa's supposed collaboration, which led to the conclusion that the documents on this matter had not been fabricated. Whether or not SB falsified some of the documents to be sent to the Nobel Committee, Cenckiewicz's and Gontarczyk's conclusion are not based on the suspect documents but rather on the authentic SB records which are wholly independent from the Oslo issue. These documents independently establish Wałęsa's collaboration with SB. According to an IPN announcement in 2011 the claim about the falsification of the Nobel Committee Bolek documents only confirms, not refutes Cenckiewicz's and Gontarczyk's findings, specifically what they wrote about SB's falsification attempts on pp. 137–146 of their book. IPN explicitly rejected the incorrect claim that all Bolek documents were found to be fake. Cenckiewicz and Gontarczyk also establish that Wałęsa tried to destroy the authentic documents during his presidential tenure. In 2016-2017 the experts of Prof. Jan Sehn Institute of Forensic Research in Cracow have analyzed the new cache of the Bolek documents demonstrating Wałęsa's collaboration with SB and found them to be completely authentic.


John Paul II assassination folder

On 13 May 1981 Pope
John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...
was shot and critically wounded in Rome by a Turkish gunman. Little is known about classified documents describing an alleged similar attempt on his life during his 1979 Papal visit to Poland. In 2002–2004 the IPN prosecutor Andrzej Witkowski uncovered a ''fałszywka'' suggesting that an assassination attempt was planned by the Polish security forces during his church mass in
Częstochowa Częstochowa ( , ) is a city in southern Poland on the Warta with 214,342 inhabitants, making it the thirteenth-largest city in Poland. It is situated in the Silesian Voivodeship. However, Częstochowa is historically part of Lesser Poland, not Si ...
. The information came from the local communist prosecutor Marek Izydorek. However, when Witkowski attempted to locate the actual folder, the only note he found said that there are no such documents. The alleged John Paul II assassination folder was behind the 1991 publication of an immensely popular book entitled ''Zabić tego Polaka'' (To Kill that Pole) printed in Warsaw by ''Wydawnictwo ROK'' publishing, with 100,000 copies. The book claimed that the action was conducted not in 1979, but in 1983; and not in Częstochowa, but in Warsaw; and that the only reason why it did not succeed was the faulty bomb detonator. It is suspected that the story was based on a counterfeit police report produced by the Ministry of Public Security.


See also

*
Lustration in Poland Lustration in Poland is the policy of limiting the participation of former communists – especially of informants of the communist secret police – during 1944–1990, in successor governments or even in civil-service positions. The term ''lust ...


Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Falszywka Polish People's Republic False documents