Ministry of Public Security (Poland) - Soviet Control and Political Penetration

Soviet Control and Political Penetration

Political penetration and military control over the country by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was easily visible in the People's Republic of Poland. The Soviet Northern Group of Forces stationed there until 1956. The command and administrative structure of the Polish Armed Forces, Intelligence, Counter-intelligence, special services and Internal security organs both civilian (MBP) and military (Main Directorate of Information of the Polish Army GZI WP) were infiltrated by the Soviet intelligence and counter-intelligence officers, who served as the main guarantee of the pro-Soviet policy of the new Polish socialist state. The Red Army provided assistance to MPB not only in the form of advisors, but also with their own paramilitary units including NKGB, NKVD, GRU, SMERSH; and, in later years MGB, MVD and KGB.

The first Russian chief advisor to the MPB was Major General Ivan Serov, a well-trained Stalinist experienced with Soviet security organs. Serov became commander of the NKVD-run militsiya during World War II. He worked as chief of the NKVD Secret Political Department, before becoming People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1941–1945, he was the First Deputy People's Commissar of the State Security and later – Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR. Once he became main advisor to the MBP in March 1945, Ivan Serov oversaw the kidnapping of 16 Polish top politicians and underground resistance leaders, secretly transported to Moscow, tortured and thrown into jail after a staged Trial of the Sixteen. None survived.