Julia Brystiger

Julia Brystiger (née Prajs) was born in 1902 in Stryj to a Jewish family, as the daughter of Hermann Preiss, a pharmacy magistrate, and Berta (née Salzerberg). She was a Polish communist, doctor of philosophy, functionary of the security apparatus of the People's Republic of Poland, director of Department V and III of the MBPMinistry of Public Security (MBP) - a ministry introducing internal security, public security, external security obtained by counterintelligence and intelligence, functioning during the formation of the communist dictatorship in the Polish People's Republic on the order and dictation of the Soviet authorities. In addition to the Main Directorate of Information of the Polish Army, responsible for the massive bloody repression of citizens during the Stalinist period. In the field, the Ministry was represented by the Public Security Offices (polish: Urzędy Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego - UBP) subordinate to it, which is why these institutions were colloquially referred to as UB. and plenipotentiary of the secret Central Bureau Communists of PolandA secret centre of Polish Communists in the USSR, set up by the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) to seize power in Poland, operating between January and August 1944. . She was known as the 'bloody Luna'.

She worked as a teacher, but was also active in many communist parties, which were considered illegal. Brystygier involvement in activities hostile to Poland came to light, she lost her job while being banned from working in education and was arrested and sentenced to 10 months in prison. After her release, she devoted herself solely to the revolutionary movement. In 1937 she was arrested again and sentenced to 6 years in prison (she was released after 2 years). Thanks to this, she avoided the purge among Polish communists, which was carried out on Stalin's orders.

Before the Second World War, revolutionary circles sympathised with the communists and during the war even looked forward to be "liberated" by the Soviet's Red Army. Brystiger's attitude towards the war was written about by Patrycja BukalskaWriter and journalist for "Tygodnik Powszechny". Specialises in the history of the 20th century; in her work she always looks at great history through the prism of individual human fates. She has worked on oral history projects and documentaries.: It is striking that for her the beginning of the Second World War was associated only with the advent of Soviet power, not with war.

When the Red Army began to gain victories over Germany in 1943, a convention of the Union of Polish PatriotsA political union, organised by Polish communists in the USSR, constituting an instrument of Stalin's and the USSR's policy on the Polish issue - it prepared the conditions for the communists' seizure of power in post-war Poland. The Union carried out cultural and social activities and intensive propaganda among the Polish population in the USSR, fully developed after the USSR broke off diplomatic relations with the Polish Government in Exile as a consequence of the disclosure of the Katyn massacre. was held - an anti-Polish and anti-independence organisation whose members were Polish communists. The legal government of the Republic of Poland in exile was condemned and the "cooperation" between Poland and the USSR was discussed. Julia Brystygier was dragged to Moscow. From December 1944, she worked in the Department of Public SecurityThe Department of Public Security (polish: Resort Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego - RBP) - a department fulfilling the role of a civilian special service and leading the police formation and prison formation at the Polish Committee of National Liberation (PKWN), the first organised security organ created and staffed by the NKVD on the pattern of Soviet security organs, in order to introduce a system of communist rule subordinated to the USSR on the Polish territories occupied by the Red Army and to protect this system. According to the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance - Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation, it is considered a state security organ. in the positions of section head, department head and then director of the Department VA socio-political department of the Ministry of Public Security for "political purity". It infiltrated and invigilated government structures so that communist activists would not have access to information related to independence activities. It eliminated 'insecure' individuals, manifesting overly Polish thinking. It also pacified so called "religious associations" - brutally combating the Catholic Church and liquidating priests. It supervised various organisations and associations, education and culture. of the Ministry of Public Security. Many people stressed that her position carried a great deal of power, and that the Soviet comrades must have had a lot of confidence in her, since she had just been brought to Moscow from so far away. She was an intelligent person, and it was such people that the Soviets lacked the most. Here she established contacts with, among others, Jakub Berman and Stanisław RadkiewiczStanisław Radkiewicz (b. 19 January 1903 in Razmierki, d. 13 December 1987 in Warsaw). He came from a peasant family of Franciszek and Paulina née Lenczewska. He completed 3 forms of a primary school. A major general in public security, he held numerous high-ranking positions in the communist government apparatus. Responsible for numerous crimes in the post-war period. , which influenced her later exceptional position in the ministry. She accepted Russian citizenship.

According to Paweł SztamaBorn in 1985, historian, PhD student at the Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin, employee of the Historical Research Office of the Institute of National Remembrance. Author of books: General August Emil Fieldorf. A Military Biography (2016), Intelligentsia in the Security Services: Brystygier, Humer, Różański (2017). , for Brystiger and other Polish communists, September 1939 was above all a time of joy. Joy that at last this longed-for Red Army was coming, this ideal state system for them, in which they would be able to live, in which they would feel good (...) This is called fanaticism. If someone is a fanatic, no matter what happens around them, nothing will change them. And Julia Brystiger was a perfect example of this. Just like Józef Różański. Różański almost starved to death in Moscow, his daughter was almost killed (...), and we all know who he became later". She was a zealous NKVDPeople's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR (NKVD, russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел) – a central state organ existing under this name in the years 1917–1946. He became a symbol of all crimes committed by the Soviets in the public consciousness. confidante. Immediately after the Bolshevik army entered in 1939, Brystygierowa started to report so rudely that she alienated her party comrades, because she made herself known to them - Józef Światło, a functionary of the communist security in the Polish People's RepublicPolish People's Republic (Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa) - the official name of the Polish state in the years 1952–1989. During this period, Poland was a non-sovereign, communist state, remaining under the political domination of the USSR. who fled to the West, later recalled in Radio Free Europe broadcasts.

She revolved around a circle of "eminent" Polish writers who played an important role in the Kremlin'sThe name "Kremlin" is used as a synonym for the highest Russian and, in between, Soviet authorities, whose headquarters were traditionally located in the Moscow Kremlin. "Kremlin" means a fortified town or fortress situated within Russian cities, usually built on a hill. propaganda tube, such as Julian Przyboś, Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński, Jerzy Putrament, Tadeusz Peiper and Adam Ważyk. As a functionary of the communist secret police, she wrote: The Polish intelligentsia is opposed to the communist system and there is no chance of re-educating it. All that remains is to liquidate it. However, the mistake that was made in Russia after the revolution, exterminating the intelligentsia and retarding the economic development of the country, cannot be made. A system of terror must be created so that representatives of the intelligentsia do not dare to be politically active. And she was also implementing these guidelines herself.

Brystiger was said to have been notorious for the torture she inflicted on prisoners, beating inmates with whips, spikes and crushing men's genitals. However, in light of current research, there is no evidence that she used violence during interrogations or that she had sadistic tendencies. Brystigerova simply did not deal with the Home ArmyHome Army (AK, polish: Armia Krajowa) – the clandestine armed forces of the Polish Underground State during World War II. armed underground, where most such cases occurred. Anna Rószkiewicz-LitwinowiczowaHome Army soldier and unbroken prisoner of Stalin's casemates in Poland, secretary and chief liaison officer to the head of counter-intelligence of the Home Army Warsaw District Command. wrote in her memoirs: she was notorious for the sadistic torture inflicted on young prisoners, she seemed to be sexually perverted and here she had room for showing off. However, the author was not interrogated by Julia Brystiger. She claimed to have heard the story from another Home Army soldier. Confirmation of this, however, cannot be found in any documents or direct witness accounts. This in no way absolves Brystygier of responsibility for the tragic fate of the Polish underground heroes - she undoubtedly authorised the use of illegal torture on prisoners. She must have had knowledge of what was going few floors below her office and she also knew what was going on in Mokotov prisonThe Detention Centre in Warsaw-Mokotów, also known as Rakowiecka Prison or Mokotov Prison - a prison located in Warsaw at 37 Rakowiecka Street. Until March 1945 it was administered by the Soviet authorities, then it was taken over by the Ministry of Public Security. Many political prisoners were murdered here, especially during the Stalinist terror, and their bodies were buried secretly. and at Różanski's, she even spoke openly about it - Bukalska wrote of her. She was certainly aware of the violence and torture on prisoners that took place in the UBMinistry of Public Security (UB, polish: Urząd Bezpieczeństwa) - secret police, intelligence and counterintelligence agency operating during the communist era of the Polish People's Republic. Identified with communist crimes; murders and bestial torturing of those fighting for independent Poland. prisons.

Julia Brystiger was involved in provocations, agenting in literary, artistic and intelligentsia circles, inspiring schisms there, but she did not directly investigate or formally interrogate, although she did talk to those arrested on many occasions. She also conducted surveillance operations against the Catholic Church. Her department recruited beggars, suppliers of goods, pupils attending religious lessons, and she exploited animosities among the clergy. She interrogated the Primate [Stefan Wyszynski], who said of her: She is a terrible woman!. Thanks to her work, in 1950 alone, as many as 123 priests were arrested. She also persecuted other religious groups: 2000 people from the Jehovah's Witnesses' congregation were imprisoned.

With so much power in her hands, the bloody Luna was responsible for the fate of the people arrested, imprisoned and tortured. Her decisions directly contributed to the bestial treatment of prisoners. Despite the fact that she was Polish, she gave herself completely to a hostile system of terror. She must have known the consequences of her decisions, and although she claimed that she was unaware of the violence in her department, and that she never went down into the casemates of the UB's executioner cells, this is simply impossible.

She left the security ministry in 1956, in a wave of purges in the security services. In 1957, in connection with the trials of former UB officers, there were plans to hold her criminally liable. Her name appeared over and over again in testimonies. GomułkaWładysław Gomułka, pseudonym "Wiesław", "Feliks Duniak" (1905 - 1982) - Polish communist politician, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish Workers' Party, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Recovered Territories. Member of the National Council, the Legislative Seym and the Seym of the People's Republic of Poland, member of the State Council. Builder of the People's Republic of Poland. Gomułka's political line aroused distrust in Moscow. Gomułka believed that strong-arm rule and repressions could not replace social support for the people's government. He recognized that it was possible to build socialism in Poland without the dictatorship of the proletariat, terror and the annihilation of existing social structures., however, did not allow this to happen. Perhaps because another trial of a UB prominence in such a position would have been too great a blow to the image of the communist regime or could have started an avalanche of other trials.

After her career as a "bloody Luna" ended, she visited a facility for the blind in Laski, run by nuns, which was famous for its meetings of opposition intellectuals and converts of the communist regime. She even became the subject of surveillance by the secret police, at which point she abandoned her visits. She was said to have accepted Christian baptism and converted, but: Not only did I not find [evidence of conversion - editor's note], but also the sisters in Laski, who sought this information and convinced me that it could not be confirmed - Bukalska wrote in her book on Brystiger.

She died in Warsaw in 1975. She is buried in the Powązki Military Cemetery.