Im Sog interner Ermittlungen: „Geliebte von Banditen“ und die fehlende Wachsamkeit eines Offiziers des Sicherheitsamtes im stalinistischen Polen

Abstract

This essay examines the investigation of high-ranking Security Office officer Jan Tataj during increasing numbers of internal purges in Stalinist Poland. Although the starting point for the investigation was provided by “inconsistencies” in Tataj’s curriculum vitae, the investigating officers of the Security Office soon declared his acquaintance with two young women to be the main subject of the entire proceedings. Since both women had previous ties to the anti-communist resistance, it was insinuated that they had used their acquaintance with Tataj for espionage purposes, and thus the Security Office accused Tataj of a lack of vigilance toward these women. Both Tataj and the two women were eventually sentenced to several years of imprisonment by the Military Tribunal in Warsaw after a year-long investigation. The paper primarily analyzes the extent to which the investigating officers considered the two women dangerous because of their gender in the context of contemporary images of women (co-)created by the Stalinist regime, and how incriminating evidence of Tataj’s lack of “vigilance” was generated in this context.