The series discusses the penetration of different social groups from the Polish People’s Republic to the Third Polish Republic. After analysing the Media (volume 1), and working out the intergenerational connections of Secret Services (volume 2), the third and latest book in the series deal with politicians.
“In the first volume, we dealt with the fourth estate: the media. Next [we dealt with] Special Services, which is the hidden power, our research revealed. Now we are concerned with real power – politicians,” author Dorota Kania said during a book launch.
“We describe presidents, foreign ministry officials, people in the background, who played the most important roles in the Third Polish Republic,” she added.
Journalist Dorota Kania highlighted that work on the next two parts in the series is currently underway. A book regarding business is expected to be released next year, and the last edition in the series will deal with Science.
Historian Dr Jerzy Targalski explained that a “ministerial child” is a person with personal or familiar ties with a ministry.
“It was often that case that a ‘ministerial child’ was given a head start because his parents were in a ministry, that is in a most important institution in the communist dictatorship. The other meaning of the phrase is a person who did not have parents tied with a ministry but who, through cooperation or intimate relations with officers of the ministry, became connected to it,” he said.
Targalski added that, to illustrate the system, one must provide a variety of careers and show that these people are, or have been, in key positions.
“In Poland, we have been under UB [Communist-era secret service] rule for more than 25 years, and those who were main players in the 1990s have, for the most part, left the political stage, with readers focused mainly on personalities who they see on television.
“However, the system cannot be depicted with a focus on people who are active only at a certain time. The book contains people whose careers were so characteristic of UB rule, and without whom UB rule would never have existed. UB rule is not just presidents. It is hundreds if not thousands in the whole of the network. It is impossible to write about them all, because that would take 10 years and you wouldn’t have one book but 10,” Targalski said.
Andrzej Zybertowicz, an aide to the Polish president said: “The third volume is a witness to our naivety. The books are so thick because the area of disinformation that the authors are trying to penetrate and turn into knowledge is great.”
"But the books are also witness to the weaknesses of the social studies in Poland, including history, sociology and political science. Three journalists are doing the work that should be conducted by all of the research institutes,” Zybertowicz added.