This article is part one of a discussion that attempts to examine the state of research on the history of the police in the Second Republic of Poland as presented in to‑date historiography. My interest includes literature concerning both the State Police and the Police of the Silesian Voivodeship, two organisations independent from each other. The 1989/1990 timeline is obviously not accidental, as it was of great significance for the way research on public security organs in the interwar period was conducted.
The recent 100‑year anniversary of the National Police created an excellent opportunity to assess the achievements pertaining to its history and the organisation modelled on it, i.e., the Police of the Silesian Voivodeship (PWŚl). Although their history has been the subject of several studies, it is worth taking a closer look at them trying to assess both the problems addressed and the quality of these studies. The author has made an attempt to carry out a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the existing literature, which is to lead to the identification of significant accomplishments, as well as to highlighting unexplored possibilities.
The author has chosen scientific publications as a basis for his analyses. Publications of an occupational nature, that is, manuals, specialist materials, handbooks, course books, etc., remain outside the area of the author’s interest.
The resulting analysis leads to the conclusion that it was not until the late 1980s that the one‑sided image of the pre‑war police, constructed through the discourse of repression against the “progressive” communist and workers’ movements, began to be abandoned. However, still dominating was the factual history, unfortunately not preceded by theoretical reflections.

The present article is part two of the discussion attempting to assess the state of research on the history of the police in the Second Republic of Poland in historiography. This time I focus on the publications since 1990. I am interested in the literature concerning both the State Police and the Police of the Silesian Voivodeship, two independent organisations. The subsequent part deals with works published since 1990, and the last part is focused on the fate of police officers after September 1, 1939. This section also contains more complete summaries and research postulates. Obviously, the 1989/1990 timeline is not accidental, as it had a significant impact on the way historiography dealing with public security organs in the interwar period was conducted. The turn of the 1980s and 1990s was extremely fruitful for Polish historiography, including research on the history of the pre‑war police. On the one hand, access to archival materials became free and easy, thus opening new perspectives for researchers. This unrestricted possibility of using documents from the family archives of police officers and their family members was of great importance for gaining information about the everyday service of police officers. On the other hand, in some publications we notice a prevailing tendency to over‑heroise and sometimes even mythologise the pre‑war police, and this unfortunately is still happening today. All this coincided with the fact that there were an increasing number of authors dealing with the history of the police in the Second Republic, and consequently, the scope of research I was interested in had to expand.