ABBREVIATIONS

SL Source List (at the end of this book)

Archives and Archival Terms

Listed in Abbreviations and Notations Used in the Appendixes and at the beginning of the Source List (SL)

Communist Party Authorities

KCPPR Central Committee of the Polish Workers’ Party (Komitet Centralny Polskiej Partii Robotniczej)

KRN Homeland National Council (Krajowa Rada Narodowa)

PKWN Polish Committee for National Liberation (Polski Komitet Wyzwolenia Narodowego), also known as the “Lublin Committee”

PPR Polish Workers’ Party (Polska Partia Robotnicza)

Security Apparatus

KBW Internal Security Corps (Korpus Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego [name changed in 1946 to Wojska Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego,]); a military formation under the MBP created by the Communist authorities in 1945 to combat underground independence (anti-Soviet) groups remaining in Poland after the war

MBP Ministry of Public Security (Ministerstwo Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego)

PUBP County Office of Public Security (Powiatowy Urząd Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego)

UBP, UB Office of Public Security (Urząd Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego), referred to colloquially as UB, bezpieka, herein also referred to as “security service.” A person who worked for the UB was referred to colloquially as an Ubek (pl. Ubecy).

WUBP Provincial Office of Public Security (Wojewódzki Urząd Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego)

Military

2DP 2nd Warsaw Infantry Division, also 2nd Infantry Division (2 Warszawska Dywizja Piechoty)

AL People’s Army (Armia Ludowa); Polish guerilla forces backed and supplied by the Soviet Union; established as the Gwardia Ludowa (People’s Guard, GL) in 1942 and renamed in 1944

GL See “AL” above.

WP Polish Army/Armed Forces/Military (Wojsko Polskie, WP); the regular Polish military forces established after Poland regained independence in 1918

WSR Regional Military Court (Wojskowy Sąd Rejonowy)

Police

KW MO Provincial Headquarters of the Citizens’ Militia (Komenda Wojewódzka Milicji Obywatelskiej; usually referred to throughout as “provincial headquarters of the MO.”

MO Citizens’ Militia (Milicja Obywatelska); the postwar police established by the Communist authorities. Before World War II and since the end of communism, the Polish police force was known, and continues to be known, as Policja, equivalent to the term Police in English; herein referred to as the police/policeman or the MO.

Cross-Institutional

WKB Provincial Security Committee (Wojewódzki Komitet Bezpieczeństwa); these committees were established under the MBP in 1946 to coordinate responses to attacks by the underground or other perceived threats. They reported to the MBP but were made up of representatives of all “force institutions”: UB, MO, Red Army, Polish Army.

Polish Underground (Wartime/Postwar)

AK The Home Army (Armia Krajowa); the military wing of the Polish government-in-exile headquartered in London; the main resistance force in occupied Poland, incorporating most of the resistance movements that emerged in response to Poland’s military defeat

BCh Peasants’ Battalions (Bataliony Chłopskie); armed resistance movement formed in 1940 by the military wing of the People’s Party (Stronnictwo Ludowe), an agrarian populist party. The BCh for the most part cooperated with the AK, and was partially integrated with it at the end of the war.

NSZ National Armed Forces (Narodowe Siły Zbrojne); a right-nationalist, anticommunist and antisemitic underground independence movement formed in 1942 and partially integrated with the AK at the end of the war

WiN Freedom and Independence Union (Zrzeszenie “Wolność i Niezawisłość”); a civil, anti-Soviet underground resistance movement established in September 1945

Jewish Communal Organizations

CKŻP Central Committee of Polish Jews (Centralny Komitet Żydów w Polsce); established in late 1944 to provide care and assistance to Polish Jewish Holocaust survivors

TSKŻ Socio-Cultural Society of Jews in Poland (Towarzystwo Społeczno-Kulturalne Żydów w Polsce); the successor to the CKŻP as of 1950