Milicja Obywatelska (Citizens' Militia)
시민경찰, 밀리치아 오비바텔스카
Milicja Obywatelska (MO) was the national civilian police organization established in 1944 and operating in the Polish People's Republic. Its official duties were crime control and public order, but it was also deployed for protest suppression and political control, before being replaced by Policja in 1990.
In depth
MO began as a policing body supporting the authority of the Polish Committee of National Liberation in areas under Soviet control and became Poland's official civilian police after 1947. It was a uniformed regular police force with local commands and posts under the public-security and later interior ministries, whereas UB, and later the Security Service, was a separate secret-police apparatus. After 1956 the two were institutionally linked and shared uniforms and ranks, making them appear intertwined in practice; MO also intervened in mass protests through formations such as ZOMO. In the 1956 Poznań Uprising, demonstrators disarmed several MO posts, a fact that helps distinguish the regular police from the UB security apparatus.
Sources
- Wikipedia (EN) (establishment in 1944, national police role in the Polish People's Republic, replacement of pre-war Policja, subordination and dissolution in 1990, distinction from the Security Service/UB)
- enrs.eu (independent historical account identifying MO buildings as Citizens Militia police buildings and reporting their disarming during the Poznań uprising, while separately describing the Provincial Office for Public Security and its gunfire)