"Invisible.The biggest secret of the special services of the Polish People's Republic " - a fragment of the book

Few people knew about the existence of a special counterintelligence group in the Ministry of the Interior.Those who had this knowledge called the agents of the mysterious "IX" "Status" because they used gamma radiation dangerous to health to open the doors of treasures and safe.

Years after the closing of the Journalist and specialist in the S0szeb specialist, Tomasz Awłasewicz decided to find several former agents who, under the pseudonymsFrom the cinema, they are not so far away from reality.

Read a fragment of the book "Invisible.The greatest secret of the special services of the Polish People's Republic "

Bearded: It is difficult to say how much truth in this, but after our faculty for years there was such a story about the penetration group of Hungarian counterintelligence, which entered Budapest into one of the NATO institutions and never left.It was said that they were killed and burned at the embassy.

Tourist: Everyone knew this story with us, but during all these years of work we have never had signals that anyone except us and the Russians would make such penetrations.In my opinion, the KGB itself went to this type of actions to all socialist countries, except for Poland, where we operated.I am not saying that this story with Hungary is one hundred percent bujda, but I am not sure that true.

Hunter: I think it's true.Do you remember our friend from the Department of Technology, this Andrzej from the keys?After all, he went to Hungarians, to the overall operating technique division, and I remember how he mentioned that counterintelligence has its separate operational technology department, just like with us.What did the Hungarians do?Only any apartments and hotels?In my opinion, they could enter the embassies and this story about hasslete is not unbelievable at all.And you definitely remember the stove that stood in one of the facilities with us in Poland.It was used to destroy documents, but there was such a temperature that the metal could melt.It would not be a human problem to burn.

Tourist: Only that he would not fit, you would have to quartered.Blood, it's all not bad for their cleaner to cut their cleaner.

Bearded: But after all, the Saudis recently arranged in their consulate in Turkey this journalist Chaszukdji and apparently a culture, they cleaned up with a flash.

Tourist: Each facility had its own briefcase in our department, which you always had to take when going to the action.It was an ordinary document folder, as in the office, and inside there were copies of the keys, which we had, all information about the security we know, building plans, work graphics.These were thick folders.Most of these documents were destroyed.What is left to this day is just a small fraction of the whole.

Bearded: There you could even find information like "the first step on the stairs between the second and third floor crackling, as it will happen on the left."We remembered all this after some time, because some objects, such as American ones, visited even twice a week.Still, such comments were written.If we could not show up for some reason, our colleagues would have the whole instruction in the folder.

Tourist: The items we took with us can be divided into two basic groups. The first one was those that we always necessary, regardless of the object we went to. Flashlights, radio stations, scraps and so on - without it. It was a pile of equipment, and there were also things from the second group, i.e. those that were needed in a particular facility. Take, for example, one of the most important objects, without specifying which exactly not to give instructions for entering the building, because he can still have the same protection in the door. Today, it is no longer included in the diplomatic representation, only the seat of a private company, but let's skip the address. In any case, there was a reading room in this facility. During the day, everyone could go there to read the press from this country, watch the movie and so on. For this room you could enter the second door, as if from the garden, and we managed to make a key to them. However, to get to the staircase from the reading room and to the main part of the representation, we had to overcome another door on which great protection was installed. Namely, from the side of the facility they were closed to the latch. There was no key hole on the reading room - this latch could be opened, only if it happened on the other side, already in the right part of the facility. As if that was not enough, it was not an ordinary slope that just went to the right and left. There was a button on it - first you had to press it, and only then you could move it and open the door. This button changed a lot. For us, it would not be a big problem opening the ordinary gate, even if it was on the other side of the door. But specialists developing a plan to secure this facility cleverly hindered us. We had to find a way to postpone the tool to the other side, which we press the button and pull this latch. The reading room was slightly below the door level, so they led to them stairs, which later flew even higher. There was a storage space under these stairs. When we entered him, we managed to pull out one of the boards and in this way a clearance was created, through which from a distance of several dozen centimeters we saw this loot at an angle. So we made a tool, such a properly bent rod that we translated through the hole, pressed the button and opened. This rod is just an example of a tool that was necessary on a specific object. In another facility it could have been some other object, a hook, a baking tray, anything. It all had to be packed while going to the action. Did we create a list of necessary things? In the briefcase something was supposed to be written there, but to be honest, we had such skill that we really didn't need the list for anything. We remembered very well what to take.

Bearded: And you still had to remember to take a toothbrush and take some clothes if the work was outside Warsaw. I always kept a suitcase under the desk with the necessary minimum. When the signal came from the operational department that interesting materials probably appeared in the facility, I only called my wife, I said: "Honey, do not make dinner, because I am going on a delegation," and I went on the road. And you must remember that she had no idea why I was still not at home and what was the delegation, because I couldn't tell her anything about what I was doing. When I told her, what was my work really about? Sir, she learned the most in the last few hours, listening to our conversation. Do you think that why does he come to the kitchen all the time and look for something on the shelves, in the fridge, under the sink? He finally wants to find out what a delegation was! I have a wonderful and very forgiving wife, but I think that if I told her the truth, she would just murder me

Tourist: My children do not know what I was doing to this day.Thread.Zero.I worked in some services and that's it.

Hunter: I remember this situation from the beginning of my work in the department.It was a period when my loved ones were not used to my night out, because I haven't been so much to the actions yet.One time, in the evening, I come back from a walk with my family and I see that "bearded man" and "tourist" are waiting for me at the house ...

Bearded: ... because you know, we with the "tourist" even before coming to Department IX worked together, we went to the officer's school together, to Department IX together, then almost every job together, always together.We understood each other without words, the work went smoothly.

Tourist: And to this day we are friends, what is here to talk a lot.

Hunter: So I go to the house with my family, I look, and here you are waiting for me. They say I have to pack and we're going. I ask them what and how, how much I come back. And they say that when I come back, I will, and at the moment I have to load into the car and that's it. And now take, man, explain to your wife that you have to go in a few minutes, you won't eat dinner, you can't say where and why you are going, and you have no idea when you come back. It was so years, but with time the family got used to it, it was easier. We always had to be in full readiness, you have never known when they would call and you will have to go. In the Polish People's Republic it was impossible to install the phone in the apartment, man had to wait all eternity in the queue. Imagine that I waited for eight years, then I went to Department IX and two days later the phone was found for me, because with the officers of this department it had to be the possibility of rapid contact even in the middle of the night.

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Tomasz Awłasewicz (born in 1989) is a journalist of the Onet.pl portal, special services expert and knowledge promoter about the role of counterintelligence in the state security system.Currently, his research interests are focused on the history of Polish special services, with particular emphasis on the period of the Polish People's Republic.He worked as a lecturer at the College of Social Skills in Poznań and at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw, where he conducted classes in the field of counterintelligence security of the state.In 2018, his first book "Spy Hunters" was published, dedicated to the competition of Polish special services from the CIA.