Polish Interior Ministry Report on Information Leaked to Radio Free Europe on Catholic Church

[Excerpt]

Department IV division III MIA Warsaw, 1985-08-01

Secret
7771/85

Report on Case Opening

Operational Case cryptonym “anKieta” [“Survey”]

# 92597, July 26, 1985

In January 1985, the Ministry of Culture and Art sent to individual voivodships a confidential questionnaire pertaining to the activities of the Catholic Church in the cultural sphere. Material collected in this way was processed by the Ministry Institute of Culture. The work was conducted by the library department, Houses of Culture and Social-Cultural Activities of the Ministry

On May 20 [1985] the Polish section of Radio “Free Europe” in its program “Facts and Views” discussed the questionnaire, noting that the actions of the Ministry were one more indication of the battle of the PRL authorities with the Church. This touched off a propaganda campaign on the subject by RFE on May 21 and 22. It went on to quote information processed by the government offices of Warsaw Old Town and Krakow voivodship. This indicates that RFE has informants within the circle of people who had access to the referenced material.

Deputy Chief, IV DEP. III MI
Captain A. Minkowicz

Warsaw

June 25, 1987

Report on Case Closure
Operational case cryptonym “anKieta”
# 92597, date. 1985-07-26
Reference 7771/85

An operational case was opened on July 26, 1985, in connection with the leak to RFE and other Western centers of ideological subversion of material from the Ministry of Culture and Art concerning surveys in individual voivoidships on the subject of the influence of the Catholic Church on culture. It was established in pursuing the case that Western subversive centers had the full text of the letter from the Ministry of Culture and Art to voivodship leaders, and partial texts of replies to that letter from five voivoidships.

Following a detailed analysis of the circulation of documents utilized by the survey in question, personnel from the Ministry of Culture and Art and the Institute of Culture were eliminated as the source of the leak. It was also established that, apart from the Ministry and the Institute, several hundred people had access to the documents in question, including personnel of the culture and religion sections of voivodship governments. For this reason, despite the operational [investigation], it was not possible to identify those responsible for the leaks to RFE.

As a result of this case, the system of document distribution in the Ministry of Culture and Art has been tightened, and a special briefing has been given to administrative cadres on safeguarding official and state secrets. To date there are no new facts about the leaks.

Given this situation, and the time elapsed since the threat occurred, the case in its current form has been closed. Any future investigation of the problem, and control of individuals based on future information, will be conducted under case cryptonym “Kultura” [Culture] reference nr. 62295.

[signature illegible]