Strengthening Cooperation with Polish IPN Archive
Prague, April 30, 2026 – The Director of the Security Services Archive (ABS), Mr. Miroslav Urbánek, together with the Director of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes (ÚSTR), Mr. Ladislav Kudrna, and their team, successfully completed a two-day visit to the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) in Warsaw, Poland. This working meeting, held on April 28-29, 2026, emphasized mutual cooperation in archival preservation, digitization, and research on repressive apparatuses under totalitarian regimes.
During the first day a productive meeting took place with Dr. hab. Karol Polejowski, Deputy President of IPN, alongside key officials: Marzena Kruk (Director of the IPN Archive), Dr. Sebastian Pilarski (Director of the Bureau of Historical Research), and Katarzyna Dryńska (Director of the Bureau of International Cooperation). Discussions centered on advancing bilateral cooperation, with a strong focus on archival projects, security and digitization. We explored joint strategies for preserving and making accessible documents related to the operations of security services in totalitarian systems.
Key highlights included planning for collaborative conferences and expanding research fields. A major point of interest was a potential involvement in IPN’s Soviet Bloc Security project, which aims to publish declassified documents from Warsaw Pact multilateral meetings. This initiative aligns perfectly with ABS archival expertise and could enhance mutual access to historical resources.
On the second day, the delegation visited the IPN archives in Warsaw, toured the storage facilities, and gained a detailed insight into the IPN’s extensive archival collections. During the expert discussion, the Polish partners presented a digital archive project that they have been continuously developing since 2012 as a modular system based on international standards for archival description and for structured project management. Thanks to this management approach, they can seamlessly establish and develop partnerships with external subcontractors. Of the total volume of approximately 94 km of archival materials, over 160 million files, photographs, audio-visual materials and 3D objects have currently been digitized and are managed in the digital archive (over 890,000 archival units).
The two-day visit represents a significant step toward deepening cooperation between the ABS and IPN archives in the areas of legislation, the processing and public access to archival records, digital archives, educational projects, and more. The visit established a new framework for further professional cooperation and the exchange of expertise, and underscored a shared commitment to preserving historical sources from the period of oppression.
Photo by IPN/ABS