Historical story

Historians from the Institute of National Remembrance prove:Marian Zacharski was only a talented amateur

Poland had its own 007 spy. His name was Zacharski, Marian Zacharski. Only that instead of the charm and extraordinary talents of Her Majesty's agent, he had mainly ... a stroke of luck.

Marian Zacharski ps. "Pay" is presented as the truest ace of Polish intelligence. As Czesław Kiszczak said about him: He was the greatest Polish spy ... among those detected.

He was called a hero, posed as a model of professionalism. Zacharski himself in his memories creates himself as a super agent who for years played an exciting game with alien interviews. As Władysław Bułhak and Patryk Pleskot, authors of the book "Spies of the People's Republic of Poland" write

He became the hero (back in the days when he was in prison) of numerous graduation works written at the famous spy school in Stare Kiejkuty. For them and the like in other countries of the "block", a specialist film "I met him in Los Angeles" was also supposed to be made.

Marian Zacharski in his books creates himself as an interviewer. IPN historians prove that in reality he was only a capable amateur.

He wasn't an ace at all?

Bułhak and Pleskot, IPN employees, were the first to find the non-public personal file of Marian Zacharski. The goal was simple:to shed new light on Zacharski's biography and to confront the hard evidence from the celebrity agent's books. As they say themselves:

We want to complement these fascinating but subjective and sometimes confusing memories as well as simplifying journalistic theses with the documentation of the Ministry of the Interior's intelligence, until recently included in the restricted collection of the Institute of National Remembrance.

Marian Zacharski, who in the People's Republic of Poland made a brilliant career thanks to obtaining extremely valuable intelligence owes all his success to extraordinary luck and blind luck. At the beginning of his work, "Pay" openly admitted that he did not know anything about "espionage craft", and the Polish Ministry of the Interior did not even provide him with an elementary course .

Rookie wins the spy lottery ticket

When the newly minted agent arrived in Los Angeles, his job was to provide information about American machine tool companies. To this end, he settled in Playa del Rey, near the Silicon Valley.

The news is based on the book "Spies of the People's Republic of Poland" by Patryk Pleskot and Władysław Bułhak (Znak Horyzont 2014).

It was here, on the local tennis court, that he ran into William Bell, an employee of a company dealing with the supply of top-secret technologies for the American military aviation, thanks to which he made a brilliant career in intelligence.

Living next door to Bell was not the result of any deliberate operation . Intelligence files confirm that no one even knew about Bell and his connections. Just a simple coincidence. Zacharski's happiness turned out to be double. He did not have to "soften" Bell - he happened to be at the most difficult moment in the American's life.

The man slowly plunged into depression, and due to alimony for his first wife and exorbitant needs of the second, he fell into more and more debts. He had access to strategic information, but at the same time he was discouraged and lost his enthusiasm for work. Until he pleaded with foreign intelligence to pay attention to him. In addition, had recently lost a son whom young and energetic Zacharski reminded him of.

A completely fledgling PRL intelligence agent was in the right place and time to open the money tap just when Bell needed it. By the way - he came across an informant with no qualms or suspicions.

The fact that in the middle of the Cold War in the hands of Polish and Soviet spies there was information about undetectable bombers, anti-aircraft defense systems or research directions of the Pentagon for the entire decade it was purely by luck.

The low competences of the Prlowian James Bond are confirmed by the way his career ended.

Zacharski obtained, among others, the Pentagon's research plans for the years 1980-1990. (Photo licensed under CC BY-SA by David B. Gleason from Chicago, IL).

Bravado and lack of skill led him straight to prison on a life sentence. After several years in prison, the Americans exchanged him for CIA agents caught on the other side of the Iron Curtain.

Bułhak and Pleskot, after a careful analysis of the materials collected in the archives of the Institute of National Remembrance, briefly summarize Zacharski's attitude.

[...] creates the next incarnation of James Bond and [...] clearly embellishes the beginnings of his relationship with the Ministry of the Interior.

The authors of the book "Spies of the People's Republic of Poland" add that "Pay", which for years did not leave the headlines of the period of the political transformation in Poland, suggests that he knows many secrets dangerous for the Polish political scene. At the end of their argument, they make a conscious suggestion: Or maybe their existence is another element of skilful self-advertising?

The source of the above news is:

  • Władysław Bułhak and Patryk Pleskot, Spies of the People's Republic of Poland , Znak Horyzont, Krakow 2014.

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