Untried and unpunished: operational and common criminality of the Security Service (SB). An outline of the problem

Abstract

The apparatus of repression in People’s Poland, including the security services, employed illegal
methods also from the point of view of the contemporary law applicable to its functionaries.
Unfortunately, today such activities are oft en considered justifi ed due to the so-called service
that the security services (UB, SB) rendered for communist Poland. The article presents selected
cases of this criminal activity, which included invading the privacy of correspondence, practicing
blackmail by the use of compromising materials (for example, regarding the person’s sexual
preferences), and oft en combined with intimidation, cessation of investigation proceedings
involving off enders, as well as tolerance of protection, nepotism, and alcoholism in the inner
circles. While the legal assessment of these activities is challenging, their historical evaluation
ought to be easy.