6585845104

298

SHORT NOTES

could serve as a motto of this book: ‘I think that there is not a shadow of a doubt that an objective evaluation would recognize that the boundless work of our intelligence service, a work which cannot be measured, helped morę to defeat Germany than all the battles with arms in hand\ This book is yet another attempt to verify this opinion. It consists of six articles written by Władysław Bułhak, Ziemowit Chomiczewski, Andrzej Gąsiorowski, Waldemar Grabowski, Janusz Marszalec and Andrzej Krzysztof Kunert. The authors refer to the rich scholarly literaturę and journalistic studies devoted to the Home Army’s activity, but they have also tried to present a new interpretation of the archival materi-als that have already been used and to get access to rich Soviet and German archives {access to the former is not easy). As regards the studies included in the book, mention should be madę especially of Andrzej Gąsiorowski’s essay ‘The Counter-intelligence of the Połish Victory Service — the Union of Armed Struggle — the Home Army in Pomerania in 1939-1945’which discusses little known operations against the Gestapo, and Janusz Marszalec’s article ‘The Home Army’s Intelligence and Counter-intelligence during the Warsaw Uprising’, which shows the contribution of the Home Army’s intelligence service to the planning of military operations and political activities during the Warsaw Uprising. The book ends with Andrzej Krzysztof Kunerfs extensive study ‘Counter-intelligence in Underground Warsaw’. The volume depicts what is known about the intelligence and counter-intelligence operations of one of the most important conspiratorial organizations in occupied Europę. (KK)

Krzysztof Lesiakowski, Powszechna Organizacja ‘Służba Polsce' 1948-1955. Powstanie, działalność, likwidacja (The ‘Service to Poland’ Organization, 1948-1955: Its Establishment, Activ-ity and Liąuidation], Łódź 2008, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, 2 vols., 822 pp., index of persons, ills.

This is a monograph presenting the ‘Service to Poland’ Organization, which func-tioned in 1948-55. The author says that communism, irrespective of its national versions, always tried to mobilize people. The transformation of socio-political life it wanted to implement required the commitment of millions of people. By creating ‘Service to Poland’ the leadership of the Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR) wanted to mobilize all young people from the age of 16 to 21 to participate in the political and economic projccts it was carryingout. This was to help create ‘a new mentality’, a united society ready obediently to carry out all instructions. The ‘Service to Poland’ Organization was to be helped by the monopolistic youth organization, the Union of Polish Youth, modelled on the Soviet Komsomol. Lesiakowski points out that in fact ‘Service to Poland’ duplicated military organi-zational methods. He pays much attention to the everyday activity of ‘Service to Poland’, describes the living conditions of the organization’s summer brigades, the forms of training, the work done by the young people. He draws attention to the youth’s inereasing opposition to the duty of serving in the brigades during summer holidays, and to military drills. The liąuidation of ‘Service to Poland’ in 1955 was a sign of the ‘thaw’. The book is based on the author’s large-scale