The Milicja Obywatelska (; MO), known as the Citizens' Militia in English, was the national police organization of the Polish People's Republic.
The MO was established on 7 October 1944 by the Polish Committee of National Liberation under Chief Commander Franciszek Jóźwiak to police Red Army controlled areas of Poland during World War II. It became the official police force with the founding of the Polish People's Republic in 1947, effectively replacing the pre-war Policja as the main uniformed civilian police of Poland during the communist era. The MO was headquartered in Warsaw while training for the force was conducted in the town of Legionowo.
The MO was supported by two paramilitary formations: the elite Motorized Reserves of the Citizens' Militia (ZOMO) and the reservist Volunteer Reserve of the Citizens' Militia (ORMO). In most cases it represented a state-controlled force used to exert political repression, especially with its elite ZOMO squads. The MO continued to exist after the fall of communism in Poland in 1989 until it was transformed back into Policja on 10 May 1990.
History
The Citizens' Militia (MO) was created on the basis of provisions of the July Manifesto of the Soviet-backed Polish National Liberation Committee (PKWN), State National Council. It was formally established by decree on 7 October 1944 during the later stages of the Eastern Front of World War II. Milicja had been adapted from the cognate term militsiya used in the Soviet Union, itself derived from militia with its etymology from the concept of a military force composed of ordinary citizens.
The MO was used to establish the authority of the PKWN in areas of Poland that came under control of the Red Army as it pushed through the country into Nazi Germany. The first generation officers and agents were drawn from the following groups and sectors of society:
- Servicemen from the Polish People's Army on secondment.
- Partisans from the People's Army militia.
- Civilians with far-left party affiliation: the Polish Workers' Party, the Polish People's Party and the Polish Socialist Party.
Poland came under the domination of the Soviet Union at the end of World War II and, following the rigged 1947 Polish parliamentary election, the PKWN-derived Provisional Government of National Unity was able to legitimise itself enough to supplant the London-based Polish government-in-exile recognized by the Western allies. The MO effectively became the official civilian police force of Poland replacing the Policja. Former members of the anti-communist underground such as the Home Army, who tried to ensure an influence on everyday life, joined the new force, to the point that the entire outposts were Home Army members. The MO was supplemented by about a thousand former policemen employed in 1945, mainly in positions requiring special qualifications.
In 1948, Poland's strengthened turn toward Stalinism brought the beginning of formalised totalitarian rule, "in which one Party ruled autonomously over all sections of society". Officers of the MO took the same solemn oath as the officers of the Security Service. Its main fragment read as follows:
The first chief commander of MO was Franciszek Jóźwiak.
The militia was then subordinated to Ministry of Public Security, and from 1955 to Ministry of Internal Affairs. From March 1946 to the end of the 1940s, local MO units with units of the Polish People's Army, Internal Security Corps, Ministry of Public Security and Border Protection were subordinated to provincial security committees subordinate to State Security Commission. In the years 1944–1948, the Citizens' Militia was used to fight "cursed soldiers", as well as servicemen of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and German Werwolf elements.
The decrees and the first organizational structure
When on July 27, 1944, the Civic Militia was established by one of the two decrees of the Polish Committee of National Liberation (PKWN's decree was approved on August 15, 1944, by the National National Council), in Rzeczpospolita - "press organ of the Polish Committee of National Liberation" - August 16, 1944 This consisted of 47 officers assigned to five sections. The WZ would later be known as the Biuro Operacji Antyterrorystycznych (BOA) after being reorganized.
Directors
{| class="wikitable" style="display: inline-table;"
|-
!Portrait
!Rank
!Name
!Term
|-
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|50px
|Franciszek Jóźwiak
|October 1944 - March 1949
|-
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|50px
|Józef Konarzewski
|March 1949 - December 1953
|-
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|50px
|Stanisław Wolański
|December 1953 - June 1956
|-
|
|50px
|Ryszard Dobieszak
|June 1956 - July 1965
|-
|120px
|50px
|Tadeusz Pietrzak
|July 1965 - August 1971
|-
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|50px
|Kazimierz Chojnacki
|September 1971 - May 1973
|-
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|50px
|Marian Janicki
|May 1973 - February 1978
|-
|
|50px
|Stanisław Zaczkowski
|February 1978 - October 1981
|-
|120px
|50px
|Józef Beim
|October 1981 - April 1987
|-
|
|50px
|Zenon Trzciński
|May 1987 - May 1990
|}
Organisation
thumb|right|Militia shields from 1980s, display at the [[w:European Solidarity Centre|European Solidarity Centre]]
170px|thumb|right|An actor dressed in a militiaman's uniform
When the MO was first organized in 1945, it comprised the following:
- Main Office (Kancelaria główna)
- Political and Educational Board (Zarząd polityczno-wychowawczy)
- Investigation Service Board (Oddział służby śledczej)
- External Service Branch (Oddział służby zewnętrznej)
- Operational Battalion (Battalion operacyjny)
- Personnel Department (Wydział personalny)
- Finance and Economic Department (Wydział Finansowy i gospodarczy)
Until 1950, Poland was divided to 16 provinces. It was only from 1950 to 1975 when the country was divided to 17 provinces and five cities with voivodeship rights.
From the 1960s through the 1980s, ORMO forces, which at one time numbered as many as 600,000 civilian volunteers, were used to augment regular police personnel at key trouble spots. In the early 1980s, ORMO harassed Solidarity members and prevented independent groups from organizing. Largely staffed by industrial workers who gained substantial privileges by monitoring their peers in the workplace, ORMO was the object of extreme resentment throughout the 1980s. Kiszczak attempted to promote ORMO as a valuable auxiliary police force, but the organization was abolished by the Sejm in 1990.