Koleje pod specjalnym nadzorem. Służba Bezpieczeństwa jako instrument nadzoru państwowego nad koleją w latach 1957–1980, cz. 1 (1957–1975)

Due to their strategic importance, the railways were subject to particular surveillance by the state security apparatus of the Polish People’s Republic. Since 1957, the related tasks were carried out by department III of the Security Service (Służba Bezpieczeństwa), which centered its operations on broadly understood economy issues. The security apparatus not only counteracted the oppositional activities among the railway workers; broad range of its tasks encompassed also counter-intelligence protection of the railways, combating economic irregularities, investigating the causes of rail accidents and catastrophes, as well as actively reacting on unwanted phenomena occurring within the state railways. All activities listed above were described with an umbrella term of “railway protection”. The security apparatus created and developed so-called “unit files” for key railway facilities, such as regional directorates of state railways, Rail Rolling Stock Repair Workshops (Zakłady Naprawcze Taboru Kolejowego – ZNTK), railway junctions and crucial railway lines. In 1970 and from then on, the activities of the Security Service were systematized through establishing the so-called “unit cases” for the key organizational units of the railways. Several operations of other types were also undertaken.