Authors

Piotr Osęka¹;  ¹ Institute of Political Studies PAS, Poland

Discussion

Oral history has in recent years become one of the basic tools in the study of social history or the history of the anti-communist opposition. At the same time, this methodology is practically absent in the narrative on the functioning of the security apparatus. The presentation will be aimed at filling this gap. I’m going to present findings from anonymous biographical interviews with secret police agents. I have conducted several dozens of interviews with former high-ranking officers of the Security Service; the political police in communist Poland. These were hours-long talks, focused on their career paths; I asked about the motives that drove them to join the service; the investigative method they employed; their daily routine, and details of the police job. Almost all my interviewees were involved in cracking down on the dissident movement in the '70s and '80s, the policing activity usually associated with intimidations, blackmails, beatings, and even assassinations.
The paper will focus on presenting the main narrative strategies used by former officers in making sense of their biographies - professionalization, determinism, and denial.