Ministry of Public Security (Poland)

Ministry of Public Security

Ministerstwo Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego
Coat of Arms of Polish People's Republic used by the UB as its official logo
Agency overview
Formed	1 January 1945 (1945-01-01)
Preceding agency	Resort Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego
Dissolved	7 December 1954 (1954-12-07)
Type	Secret police, counterintelligence, border security, criminal investigations
Jurisdiction	Poland
Headquarters	Warsaw, Polish People's Republic
Employees	10,000 employees (1945)[1]
Agency executive	Stanisław Radkiewicz (1944–1954), Generał dywizji of the Polish People's Army
Parent agency	National Security Commission, from 1949 Commission of the Secretariat of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers Party for Public Security
Child agencies	KBW MO ORMO WOP

The Ministry of Public Security (Polish: Ministerstwo Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego), was the secret police, intelligence and counter-espionage agency operating in the Polish People's Republic. From 1945 to 1954 it was known as the Security Office (Urząd Bezpieczeństwa, UB), and from 1956 to 1990 as the Security Service (Służba Bezpieczeństwa, SB).^[2]

The initial UB was headed by Public Security General Stanisław Radkiewicz and supervised by Jakub Berman of the Polish Politburo. The main goal of the Department of Security was the swift eradication of anti-communist structures and socio-political base of the Polish Underground State, as well as the persecution of former underground soldiers of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa) and later anti-communist organizations like Freedom and Independence (WiN).

The Ministry of Public Security was established on 1 January 1945 and ceased operations on 7 December 1954. It was the chief secret service in communist Poland during the period of Stalinism. Throughout its existence, the UB was responsible for brutally beating, arresting, imprisoning, torturing and murdering at least tens of thousands^[3][4] of political opponents and suspects as well as taking part in actions such as Operation Vistula in 1947. The headquarters were located on Koszykowa Street in central Warsaw, but its branches and places of detention were scattered across the entire country, the most infamous being Mokotów Prison.

The Department of Security was replaced by a short-lived Committee for Public Security (1954–1956) and then by a marginally less repressive Security Service (SB) in 1956. All secret servicemen, functionaries, and employees were widely known by the public as Ubecy; in English "Ubeks" and singular "Ubek/Esbek" (pronounced: OO-beck).