Websites, databases
Websites, databases
Websites
The IPN Archives are engaged in maintaining and providing contents for several thematic IPN internet portals, popularizing the knowledge on specific events and personalities of Polish history.
Polskie Miesiące - “Polish Months” portal leads to the number of the sub-portals containing documents, publications and audiovisual documentation concerning the key events in Polish history:
Wrzesień 1939 – concerning the events and occurrences of the Polish Defense War in 1939 (among the items publish on this site are selected photographs, the German propaganda footages, the radio speeches of Minister of Foreign Affairs Col. Józef Beck and President of Warsaw Stefan Starzyński, the witnesses of history accounts, etc.).
Lipiec 1945 – concerning the events of so-called Obława Augustowska (Augustów Round-Up), the raid performed in July 1945 by Soviet security and military forces and affiliated Polish Communist security apparatus and military in the northern region of Augustów, aiming at capture of Polish Armia Krajowa (Home Army) soldiers. The number of detained during 5-day raid amounted to 7019 persons, of which 5115 were later released; 592 prisoners never returned, and their fates are unknown – supposedly they were summarily executed, and their remains hidden or disposed of in unknown place. The Augustów Round-Up is estimated as one of the largest mass Soviet crimes of this time.
Styczeń 1947 – concerning the forged general election of January 1947; the electoral fraud was accompanied by the wave of brutal reprisals against the non-Communist parties and murders of its activists. The ‘free election’ was a formal term of the normalisation of situation in Poland pointed in the Yalta Conference communique. The 1947 forged election result was a cornerstone of the post-war order in Poland.
Czerwiec 1956 – concerning the June 1956 strike and mass protests in Poznan, that were breaking point of the “Thaw” and precede the Polish 1956 October events, that led to the shift in Communist party policy towards society, and to the short-term liberalisation of the regime.
Marzec 1968 – concerning the March 1968 university students’ protests that engulfed the major academic cities in Poland.
Grudzień 1970 – concerning the December 1970 strikes and mass protests in the Polish coastal towns and its suppression by Communist authorities that resulted in great number of casualties and subsequent fall of the then Party’s first secretary, Władysław Gomułka.
Czerwiec 1976 – concerning the June 1976 mass protests in Radom, Ursus and Płock and several other industrial cities, its suppression by authorities, and subsequent reaction.
Sierpień 1980 – concerning the August 1980 strikes wave, that led to the forming of the several joint strike committees and in consequence, to the forming of the independent Solidarity trade union. The events of August 1980 were of key importance for the fall of the then Party’s first secretary, Edward Gierek, and begun the short period of Solidarity (1980-1981).
Grudzień 1981 – concerning the Martial Law events in Poland: the brutal suppression of workers’ trade union movement Solidarity, the repressions against the opposition activists and independent organisations that emerged in the Solidarity period (1980-1981). The website contains also the index of the Solidarity and opposition activists apprehended and ‘interned’ during the Martial Law: Baza Internowanych.
Czerwiec 1989 – concerning the fall of the Communist rule in Poland as well as in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, German Democratic Republic, Hungary and Romania.
Biogramy – Biographies: this website integrates several IPN biographical internet projects, containing the websites concerning the several personalities of the Polish 20th century history, i.a. Witold Pilecki, rev. Jerzy Popiełuszko, Leopold Okulicki.
Zbrodnia Wołyńska – 1943 Volhynia Massacre - Truth and Remembrance - Волинський злочин: contains the information on the Volhynia Massacre, the genocidal action perpetrated in 1943 by Ukrainian Insurgent Army on the Polish inhabitants of Volhynia region. The website contains i.a. the index of the victims, interactive map of the events and places of mass murders, the accounts of the survivors, the timeline of the events.
Pielgrzymki Papieskie w okresie PRL w dokumentach – In the footsteps of Papal pilgrimages during the Polish People’s Republic: integrates three portals containing the documents, publications and interactive maps concerning the Papal Pilgrimages to Poland in 1979, 1983 and 1987.
Żołnierze Wyklęci – Accursed Soldiers: contains the articles, biographical studies and interactive maps on the post-war anti-Communist insurgency in Poland.
Wolne Związki Zawodowe – Free Trade Unions: contains copies of documents, biographical articles and audiovisual documentation concerning the WZZ (Free Trade Unions) movement in Poland of 1978–1980, that preceded and prepared the Solidarity movement.
Solidarność Walcząca – Fighting Solidarity: contains copies of the documents, audiovisual documentation, biographical articles and education materials concerning the Solidarność Walcząca (Fighting Solidarity) 1982-1992 movement, an underground anti-Communist organisation led by Kornel Morawiecki, Andrzej Kołodziej and Jadwiga Chmielowska.
Katyń 1940 – contains information concerning events, occurrences and victims of 1940 Katyn Forest Massacre, as well as information on the investigations conducted, social efforts for revealing of truth on Katyn, remembrance activities, the artefacts found in the mass graves.
Śladami Zbrodni – “In the Traces of Crimes” contains information concerning the locations of the Communist crimes and repressions scenes, including the locations of the security police units, NKVD and NKGB units, detention centres and camps, forced labour camps, places where bodies of the persons executed or extra-judicially killed or dead in the detention were hidden. The website contains the interactive map and territorial index of the crime scenes, the educational materials, as well as information on the education projects.
Archiwum Pełne Pamięci Project
The IPN Archives run Archiwum Pełne Pamięci project encouraging donations of family archives of importance for national remembrance to the Institute of National Remembrance. The project encompasses arranging of donated records, its conservation, digitization and long-term storage, as well as making them accessible to the research.
Databases
Inwentarz Archiwalny – the Archival Inventory is the general inventory of the records kept in the IPN Archives. Since 2010, the IPN is lawfully obliged to publish the inventory of its archival resources – and choose to publish it online, in form of the internet database added with search engine and some aid tools. The Inventory contains the entries describing the archival records transferred from the internal archival information system Cyfrowe Archiwum (Digital Archive, see below) – as a rule, the entries are elaborated descriptions edited by the archivists. The Inventory contains (as for March 2023) 2 million 494 thousand entries, and is periodically supplemented with the newly elaborated records. The Inventory contains also the directory of the IPN Archives (Centre and branches), the glossary of the terms used in the Communist security police documentation, guidelines on searching in the Inventory, and the downloadable PDF of the guide of the IPN archival resources, printed in 2009.
Cyfrowe Archiwum is the general archival information system, containing database, description and access tools, as well as a digitization tools. The CA system was initially projected as a database with description module and search engine, however gradually evolved to be a general archival environment system, covering the majority of the archival activity. The system contains today not only the descriptions of the funds and particular records, but also the digitized audiovisual records (video footage, photographs, audio recordings), digitized and described operative card-indexes and registry tools, as well as some categories of digitized and indexed serial documents (e.g. the daily reports filed to the minister of internal affairs, the normative acts of the ministry, etc.). The CA system is available for the authorised personnel and archive users in the IPN reading rooms in all of the IPN branches.
Other databases accessible online
Elektroniczny inwentarz archiwalny akt dotyczących represji za głoszenie prawdy o zbrodni w Katyniu – the Electronic Archival Inventory of the Records Concerning the Repressions for Spreading Truth about the Katyn Forest Massacre contains the entries concerning the persons repressed for informing about Katyn Forest Massacre or expressing opinions about this crime doubting in the Communist propaganda version of the case. The inventory contains data identifying the relevant records kept in the IPN Archives, and concerning persons affected (persecuted) as well as security service and state functionaries engaged in repressions.
Elektroniczny inwentarz archiwalny akt spraw karnych z okresu stanu wojennego – the Electronic Archival Inventory of the Court Cases of the Martial Law Period contains the entries concerning the trials held against the Solidarity and other opposition organisations activists for their union or political activity during the Martial Law (13th December 1981 – 22nd July 1983). The inventory contains data on the records kept in the IPN Archives, and of the persons affected (persecuted) as well as of the judicial officials engaged in the cases: prosecutors and judges.
Żydzi polscy i Żydzi w Polsce. Katalog materiałów archiwalnych z zasobu Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej (stan na 12 czerwca 2009 r.) – Polish Jews and Jews in Poland. Catalogue of the archival records in the IPN archival resources (state on 12th June 2009) – the catalogue containing the descriptions of the selected records kept in the IPN archives that concern the Polish Jews in general.
Ukraińcy w Polsce w latach 1944–1956. Katalog materiałów archiwalnych z zasobu Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej (stan na dzień 15 kwietnia 2009 r.) – Ukrainians in Poland in 1944–1956. Catalogue of the archival records in the IPN archival resources (state on 15th April 2009) – the catalogue containing the descriptions of the selected records kept in the IPN archives that concern the Ukrainians living in Poland in the period of forced deportation to the Soviet Union (1944–1945), so-called Action “Wisła” (1947), that comprised forced deportation of the remaining Ukrainians from the southern-eastern Poland to the newly acquired Northern-Western territories and armed suppression of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army by Polish military and security police, and subsequent period of Stalinist rule (up to 1956).
The Lustration Bureau, relying on the queries made in the IPN Archives resources, publishes online its four-fold Catalogues, consisting of the separate indexes of persons on the leading positions in the Communist state and party, of the security apparatus functionaries, of the persons in the positions subject to the vetting (lustration) law, and of the persons affected by the surveillance by the Communist security bodies. The catalogue entries contain detailed information on the work or service of the state, party and security bodies functionaries, the contents of the records concerning the vetted persons and of the person affected. The Catalogues are also added with a Glossary of some terms used by the security apparatus, containing the introduction explaining some basic principles of Communist security police operative work and its impact on the documentation and registry, index of specific terms, and the concise list of the most important publications in the field.