„Po to góra, żeby myślała, a doły, żeby słuchały” Materiały odprawy kierowników urzędów wojewódzkich, marzec 1948. Obraz niższych kadr aparatu bezpieczeństwa widziany oczyma kierownictwa Ministerstwa Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego w latach 1947–1956
“Those at the Top Are for Thinking, and Those at the Bottom Are for Listen-ing” Material Briefings of Heads of Voivodeship Offices, March 1948. Image of Lower Security Apparatus Cadres as Seen by the Head of the Ministry of Public Security in 1947–1

Summary/Abstract: Research focused on documents in the Security apparatus archive from the 1944–1954 period offers a depiction of relations between the Ministry and the local apparatus: voivodeship, county, and commune Security organs. Attempts at a reorganisation of the system of the functioning of the lowest links did not meet with the approval of the heads of the Ministry. The apparatus was regarded as inefficient and its size grew systematically. Nonetheless, the terror machine carried out its tasks of creating a new political and social system. Within this dialectic the “faulty” apparatus did not hamper the fulfilment of tasks imposed upon it, and thus was fully functional and useful. The creation of negative opinions about it “at the top” of the Ministry was a form of stimuli and pressure applied by superiors.

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