Published : 2014-12-30

The power of power(less). The actions of democratic opposition from the Security Service’s perspective.

Sylwia Galij-Skarbińska



Abstract

A wave of strikes which was launched on the 24th of June 1976 by the rise of food prices introduced by the Seym had its culmination in Radom and Ursus. The strikers were brutally pacified. A visible reaction to the events mentioned above was the formation of opposition initiatives. Since the mid-seventies these initiatives have become a matter of interest for the Security Service which treated them as an “anti–socialist element”.

The text presented below, entitled: The attacks of organized anti–socialist groups on Security Service and Citizen Militia, comes from the operational files of the case under the code name “Players” which Security Service aimed at infiltration of the people gathered within an oppositional group known as KOR (later named KSS KOR). The infiltration took place between 1976 and 1981. The described report was compiled by major Ryszard Wiązowski from the IX Section of the 3rd Department of the Home Office in December 1977. It summarizes the annual activity of a democratic opposition in a tendentious way, indicating its criminal activities such as creating and distribution of opposition materials, informing western media about the situation in the country or inspiring and persuading people to make complaints about the actions of Security Service and Citizen Militia. In comparison with the
whole range of means, methods and forms of operational work which were used by the Security Service against the opposition activists during this period, the report presented above can be considered peculiar, especially if one takes into consideration major Wiązowski’s statement that “Security Service and Citizen Militia are capable of recognizing, counteracting, fighting and exposing the true face of these groups which have always been controlled by the western sabotage centres” - it is a sad recapitulation and at the same time an announcement of future repressions. However, a critical analysis of the above document provides a considerable number of factual information on the opposition movement in 1977, showing its strength and helplessness of Security Service’s actions.

Keywords:

KOR, Radom, Ursus, Ryszard Wiązowski


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Galij-Skarbińska, S. (2014). The power of power(less). The actions of democratic opposition from the Security Service’s perspective. Fides, Ratio Et Patria. Studia Toruńskie, (1), 122–159. https://doi.org/10.56583/frp.1945

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