„ŻADNA WŁADZA NIE INTERESUJE SIĘ NAMI I NIE MIESZA SIĘ DO NASZYCH SPRAW”? INWIGILACJA HOMOSEKSUALNYCH MĘŻCZYZN PRZEZ MILICJĘ OBYWATELSKĄ W PRL
“No Authority Is Interested in Us or Interferes in Our Affairs”? Surveillance of Homosexual Men by the Citizen’s Militia in the People’s Republic of Poland

Author(s): Karolina Morawska
Subject(s): Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Pre-WW I & WW I (1900 -1919), Interwar Period (1920 - 1939), WW II and following years (1940 - 1949), Post-War period (1950 - 1989), Transformation Period (1990 - 2010)
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: state surveillance; homosexuality; Operation Hyacinth; LGBTQ+ History; Citizen's Militia
Summary/Abstract: This article examines the surveillance and repression of homosexual men in the People's Republic of Poland from the 1960s to the mid-1980s. Based on documents from the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), it explores how the Milicja Obywatelska (Citizen's Militia) and Ministry of Internal Affairs monitored this group, culminating in the 1985 Operation Hyacinth – a mass registration of homosexual men. The study highlights the sociopolitical motivations behind these actions and their unintended role in fostering early LGBTQ+ activism in Poland.

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