Operational surveillance of Security Service over sports movement in People’s Republic of Poland in the 80’s

Abstract

Operational surveillance by Security Service over sports in People’s Republic of Poland took place, as in other areas of political state and social life, throughout the years 1944–1989. Until the 80’s, however, it had not been done non-stop. This was introduced in the 80’s – due to the fact that majority of the society was in opposition to the rule of the Polish United Workers’ Party. A constant operational surveillance of sport and tourism in Poland was supervised by Unit IX of Department III in the Ministry of Home Affairs, whereas locally, from 1983, it was done by Units III of the Provincial Offices of Home Affairs. Within the operational work of Security Service [SB] the so-called “Object cases”, as well as “Operational check-out cases” were conducted. Those embraced all aspects of sport’s activities carried out by sports clubs, being focused on personal cases and the surveillance of nationwide and international sports events. The majority of the source materials concerning the security surveillance over the sport’s movement in Poland have been destroyed. As an example of scale, form and methods used by security organs one should study e.g. the object cases of code names: STADION [Stadium] and IKAR [Icarus]. The first one spread over 51 sports clubs, 14 district sports unions and more than 6 thousand sportsmen. The latter referred to the circle of Aero-Club of the Walbrzych province with its 120 members and 3 employees. Here the Security Service focused on the supervision on the flying staff and regular verification of those people, since at that time hijacking was quite frequent in Poland.