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74-772: In February 2020, the party initiated a process to absorb the Spring party, choosing the name New Left ( Polish : Nowa Lewica ), and changing to a more modern logo. The party was a member of the Party of European Socialists and Progressive Alliance . The party can be classified as centre-left. However, during the 1990s, it managed to attract voters from the pro-market and even right-wing camp. The main support for SLD came from middle-rank state sector employees, retired people, former communist Polish United Workers Party (PZPR) and All-Poland Alliance of Trade Unions (OPZZ) members and those who were unlikely to be frequent church-goers. The core of

148-565: A legal resident gathered intelligence while based at the Soviet embassy or consulate, and, if caught, was protected from prosecution by diplomatic immunity . At worst, the compromised spy was either returned to the Soviet Union or was declared persona non grata and expelled by the government of the target country. The illegal resident spied, unprotected by diplomatic immunity, and worked independently of Soviet diplomatic and trade missions, ( cf.

222-524: A 'modern' take on leftism. Spring (political party) Spring ( Polish : Wiosna ) was a social democratic and pro-European political party in Poland led by a former mayor of Słupsk , Robert Biedroń . It merged with Democratic Left Alliance and created New Left . The party was founded on 3 February 2019 in Hala Torwar and ran in the 2019 European elections , winning three seats. For

296-576: A 30-year contract with him soon after. The centre then realized that it was better for them to deal with a more competent agent, which at the time was Babrak Karmal , who later accused Taraki of taking bribes and even of having secretly contacted the United States embassy in Kabul. On that, the centre again refused to listen and instructed him to take a position in the Kabul residency by 1974. On 30 April 1978, Taraki, despite being cut off from any support, led

370-529: A USSR-born illegal spy was elaborate, using the life of either: The agent then substantiated his or her false-identity by living in a foreign country, before emigrating to the target country. For example, the KGB would send a US-bound illegal resident via the Soviet embassy in Ottawa , Canada . Tradecraft included stealing and photographing documents, code-names, contacts, targets, and dead letter boxes , and working as

444-481: A considerable portion of economically left-wing Poles to vote for Law and Justice instead. Besides self-described left-wingers, the party enjoys the support of many members of the country's police and military, but its largest voting bloc resides among former PZPR members, government officials and civil servants during the PPR period , which are seen as the party's core supporters. The loyal support of this voting bloc enabled

518-533: A letter accusing the Reagan administration of plotting to overthrow President Zia and his regime. The letter also mentioned that after Mujib was assassinated the United States contacted Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad to replace him as a short-term President. When the election happened in the end of 1979, the KGB made sure that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party would win. The party received 207 out of 300 seats, but

592-725: A liberal stance by proposing to introduce civil partnerships for opposite-sex and same-sex couples as well as the legalisation of same-sex marriage , legalisation of abortion up to 12 weeks of pregnancy, IVF funded by the state, total separation of church and state and abolition of the so-called Church Fund. In a TV interview for TVN24, Biedroń stated that the cost of his party's programme will be 35 billion PLN. KGB The Committee for State Security ( Russian : Комитет государственной безопасности , romanized :  Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti , IPA: [kəmʲɪˈtʲed ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ] ), abbreviated as KGB (Russian: КГБ ; listen )

666-505: A new party called BAKSAL and created a one-party state. Three years later, the KGB in that region increased from 90 to 200, and by 1979 printed more than 100 newspaper articles. In these articles, the KGB officials accused Ziaur Rahman , popularly known as "Zia", and his regime of having ties with the United States. In August 1979, the KGB accused some officers who were arrested in Dhaka in an overthrow attempt, and by October, Andropov approved

740-455: A paid weekly holiday for carers of the disabled. On the environment, the party leader Biedroń stressed the importance of fighting smog by closing all mines by 2035, departing from coal and switching to renewable sources of energy . Biedroń also stressed the importance of protecting animal rights and called for the creation of an office of the Advocate of Natural Rights. On education, Spring took

814-418: A way to put Karmal back in. They brought him and three other ministers secretly to Moscow during which time they discussed how to put him back in power. The decision was to fly him back to Bagram by 13 December. Four days later, Amin's nephew, Asadullah, was taken to Moscow by the KGB for acute food poisoning treatment. On 19 November 1979, the KGB had a meeting on which they discussed Operation Cascade, which

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888-682: The 2019 parliamentary election , the alliance won 12.6% of the vote and 49 seats in the Sejm, with the SLD winning 24. Later, it was announced that the Democratic Left Alliance would form with the Spring new political party called the New Left. The creation was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic . The SLD is usually seen as the face of the standard Polish left, having achieved notable electoral success during

962-1020: The Federal Security Agency of the RSFSR (AFB), the Inter-Republican Security Service (MSB), the Central Intelligence Service (TsSR), and the Committee for the Protection of the State Border (KOGG). In 1993, the KGB was succeeded overall by the Federal Counterintelligence Service (FSK) of Russia (itself a direct successor to the AFB), which in-turn was succeeded by the Federal Security Service of

1036-669: The Federal Security Service (FSB). Following the 1991–1992 South Ossetia War , the self-proclaimed Republic of South Ossetia established its own KGB, keeping the unreformed name. In addition, Belarus established its successor to the KGB of the Byelorussian SSR in 1991, the Belarusian KGB , keeping the unreformed name. Restructuring in the MVD following the fall of Beria in June 1953 resulted in

1110-667: The Moscow Narodny Bank Limited to finance the acquisition, and an intermediary, Singaporean businessman Amos Dawe, as the frontman. On 2 February 1973, the Politburo , which was led by Yuri Andropov at the time, demanded that KGB members influence Bangladesh (which was then newly formed) where Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was scheduled to win parliamentary elections. During that time, the Soviet secret service tried hard to ensure support for his party and his allies and even predicted an easy victory for him. In June 1975, Mujib formed

1184-787: The Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR). Despite its accurate forecast of crisis, the PZPR hindered the KGB's destroying the nascent Solidarity-backed political movement, fearing explosive civil violence if they imposed the KGB-recommended martial law. Aided by their Polish counterpart, the Security Service (Służba Bezpieczeństwa—SB), the KGB successfully infiltrated spies to Solidarity and the Catholic Church, and in Operation X co-ordinated

1258-552: The West German intelligence service . In the 1960s, acting upon the information of KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn , the CIA counter-intelligence chief James Jesus Angleton believed KGB had moles in two key places—the counter-intelligence section of CIA and the FBI's counter-intelligence department—through whom they would know of, and control, US counter-espionage to protect the moles and hamper

1332-581: The declaration of martial law with Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski and the Polish Communist Party; however, the vacillating, conciliatory Polish approach blunted KGB effectiveness—and Solidarity then fatally weakened the Communist Polish government in 1989. Nadezhin saw that China threatened the USSR by claiming a historic right to regions under the USSR's control. China also wanted to displace the USSR as

1406-613: The non-official cover CIA officer). In its early history, the KGB valued illegal spies more than legal spies, because illegal spies infiltrated their targets with greater ease. The KGB residency executed four types of espionage: (i) political, (ii) economic, (iii) military-strategic, and (iv) disinformation , effected with "active measures" (PR Line), counter-intelligence and security (KR Line), and scientific–technological intelligence (X Line); quotidian duties included SIGINT (RP Line) and illegal support (N Line). The KGB classified its spies as: The false-identity (or legend ) assumed by

1480-703: The republics of the Soviet Union aside from the Russian SFSR , where the KGB was headquartered, with many associated ministries, state committees and state commissions. The agency was a military service governed by army laws and regulations, in the same fashion as the Soviet Army or the MVD Internal Troops . While most of the KGB archives remain classified, two online documentary sources are available. Its main functions were foreign intelligence , counter-intelligence, operative-investigative activities, guarding

1554-578: The 2019 parliamentary election, the party formed a coalition with the Democratic Left Alliance and Razem , known as The Left , winning 19 seats in the Sejm . The party was set to merge with the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) into a unitary party called the New Left in 2021. On 11 June 2021, the party's general assembly voted in favour of dissolving the party in order to merge with the SLD. The merger

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1628-448: The 90s and benefitting from a strongly organized network of local offices, which span 320 of Poland's 380 administrative counties. For this reason, it was often viewed as the go-to party for left-leaning Poles for the majority of Poland's modern history. The party's monopoly on mainstream left-wing economic ideas in Poland however ended, after the right-wing Law and Justice party adopted many economically interventionist positions, which led

1702-646: The Afghan-controlled KGB intelligence service throughout the nation which were under the command of Ahmad Shah Paiya and had received all the training they need in the Soviet Union. By May 1982, the Ministry of Internal Affairs was set up in Afghanistan under the command of KHAD. In 1983, Boris Voskoboynikov became the next head of the KGB while Leonid Kostromin became his Deputy Minister. The KGB dissolved on December 3, 1991. Its immediate successor agencies were

1776-681: The August 1991 Soviet coup d'état in an attempt to depose President Mikhail Gorbachev . The failed coup d'état and the collapse of the USSR heralded the end of the KGB on 3 December 1991. The KGB's modern day successors are the FSB ( Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation ) and the SVR ( Foreign Intelligence Service ). The GRU (Foreign military intelligence service of the Soviet Union) recruited

1850-662: The Hungarian revolt, KGB chairman Ivan Serov personally supervised the post-invasion "normalization" of the country. Consequently, the KGB monitored the satellite state populations for occurrences of "harmful attitudes" and "hostile acts"; yet, stopping the Prague Spring, deposing a nationalist Communist government, was its greatest achievement. The KGB prepared the Red Army's route by infiltrating Czechoslovakia with many illegal residents disguised as Western tourists. They were to gain

1924-468: The Justice and Reconciliation Commission. The party proposed to introduce a minimum monthly pension at PLN 1,600 per month as well as raising the minimum wage to PLN 2,700 by 2020 and then PLN 3265 by 2022 per month. Another proposal was to introduce a new law that would set the minimum wage at 60% of the national monthly income average. Spring supports increasing wages of the teachers, and proposes to set

1998-668: The KGB's structure, completely separate from the Soviet armed forces - the Border Troops , the Governmental Signals Troops (which in addition to providing communications between the central government and the lower administrative levels, also provided the communications between the General Staff and the military districts), the Special Service Troops (which provided EW , ELINT, SIGINT and cryptography) as well as

2072-653: The KGB). Brezhnev sacked Shelepin's successor and protégé, Vladimir Semichastny (in office: 1961–1967) as KGB Chairman and reassigned him to a sinecure in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic . Shelepin found himself demoted from the chairman of the Committee of Party and State Control in 1965 to Trade Union Council chairman (in office 1967–1975). In the 1980s, the Soviet Union glasnost provoked KGB Chairman Vladimir Kryuchkov (in office: 1988–1991) to lead

2146-449: The PDPA received a fake request from Taraki concerning health issues among the party members. On that, the centre accused him of "terrorist" activities and expelled him from the party. The following day General Boris Ivanov, who was behind the mission in Kabul along with General Lev Gorelov and Deputy Defense Minister Ivan Pavlovsky, visited Amin to congratulate him on his election to power. On

2220-471: The Red Army's invasion. The KGB's Czech success in the 1960s was matched with the failed suppression of the Solidarity labour movement in 1980s Poland. The KGB had forecast political instability consequent to the election of Archbishop of Kraków Karol Wojtyla as the first Polish Pope, John Paul II, whom they had categorised as "subversive" because of his anti-Communist sermons against the one-party régime of

2294-738: The Roosevelt Government—to identify the Soviet spies Duggan, White, and others—he was ignored. Hence, during the Second World War (1939–45)—at the Tehran (1943), Yalta (1945), and Potsdam (1945) conferences—Big Three Ally Joseph Stalin of the USSR, was better informed about the war affairs of his US and UK allies than they were about his. Soviet espionage was at its most successful in collecting scientific and technological intelligence about advances in jet propulsion , radar and encryption , which impressed Moscow, but stealing atomic secrets

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2368-583: The Russian Federation (FSB). The Committee for State Security was a militarized organization adhering to military discipline and regulations. Its operational personnel held army style ranks, except for the maritime branch of the Border troops, which held navy style ranks. The KGB consisted of two main components - organs and troops. The organs included the services directly involved in the committee's main roles - intelligence, counter-intelligence, military counter-intelligence etc. The troops included military units within

2442-549: The SLD received 9.4% of the national vote and returned four MEPs. In July 2015, the SLD formed the United Left electoral alliance along with Your Movement (TR), Labour United (UP) and The Greens (PZ) and minor parties to contest the upcoming election. In the 2015 parliamentary election held on 25 October 2015, the United Left list received 7.6% of the vote, below the 8% threshold (electoral alliances must win at least 8% of

2516-456: The SLD to remain the largest party of the Polish left, even throughout the scandals that rocked the party in the early 2000s. However, this electoral bloc was seen as unreliable by political observers, as despite the fact that it originally constituted a huge voting bloc, that segment of the population would inevitably shrink as its members steadily age. Following the passage of a "degradation law" by

2590-546: The SLD's huge defeat in the 2005 parliamentary election , in which it won only 11.3% of the vote. This gave the party 55 seats, barely a quarter of what it had had prior to the election. It also lost all of its senators. In late 2006, a centre-left political alliance called Left and Democrats was created, comprising SLD and smaller centre-left parties, the Labour Union, the Social Democratic Party of Poland, and

2664-535: The Second Red Scare (1947–57) and the crisis in the CPUSA hampered recruitment. The last major illegal resident, Rudolf Abel (Vilyam Genrikhovich Fisher/"Willie" Vilyam Fishers), was betrayed by his assistant, Reino Häyhänen , in 1957. Recruitment then emphasised mercenary agents, an approach especially successful in scientific and technical espionage, since private industry practised lax internal security, unlike

2738-523: The Spetsnaz of the KGB (the Kremlin Regiment , Alpha Group , Vympel , etc.). At the time of the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991 the KGB had the following structure: The Soviet Union was a federal state, consisting of 15 constituent Soviet Socialist Republics, each with its own government closely resembling the central government of the USSR. The republican affiliation offices almost completely duplicated

2812-612: The US Government. One notable KGB success occurred in 1967, with the walk-in recruitment of US Navy Chief Warrant Officer John Anthony Walker . Over eighteen years, Walker enabled Soviet Intelligence to decipher some one million US Navy messages, and track the US Navy. In the late Cold War, the KGB was successful with intelligence coups in the cases of the mercenary walk-in recruits FBI counterspy Robert Hanssen (1979–2001) and CIA Soviet Division officer Aldrich Ames (1985–1994). It

2886-675: The Zia regime did not last long, falling on 29 May 1981 when after numerous escapes, Zia was assassinated in Chittagong . The KGB started infiltrating Afghanistan as early as 27 April 1978. During that time, the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) was planning the overthrow of President Mohammed Daoud Khan . Under the leadership of Major General Sayed Mohammad Gulabzoy and Muhammad Rafi – code named Mammad and Niruz respectively – the Soviet secret service learned of

2960-451: The coalition (Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland) rejected concepts such as lustration and de-communization, supported a parliamentarian regime with only the role of an arbiter for the president and criticized the right-wing camp for the introduction of religious education into school. The ex-communists criticized the economic reforms, pointing to the high social costs, without negating

3034-719: The coup which later became known as Saur Revolution , and became the country's leader, with Hafizullah Amin as vice-chairman of the Council of Ministers and vice-chairman of the Revolutionary Council . On 5 December 1978, Taraki compared the Saur Revolution to the Russian Revolution , which struck Vladimir Kryuchkov , the FCD chief of that time. On 27 March 1979, after losing the city of Herat in an uprising , Amin became

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3108-437: The detection and capture of other Communist spies. Moreover, KGB counter-intelligence vetted foreign intelligence sources, so that the moles might "officially" approve an anti-CIA double agent as trustworthy. In retrospect, the captures of the moles Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen proved that Angleton, though ignored as over-aggressive, was correct, despite the fact that it cost him his job at CIA, which he left in 1975. In

3182-430: The diplomats Laurence Duggan and Michael Whitney Straight in the State Department, the statistician Harry Dexter White in the Treasury Department , the economist Lauchlin Currie (an FDR advisor), and the "Silvermaster Group", headed by statistician Greg Silvermaster , in the Farm Security Administration and the Board of Economic Warfare. Moreover, when Whittaker Chambers , formerly Alger Hiss's courier, approached

3256-427: The fabrication of a letter in which he stated that Muhammad Ghulam Tawab , an Air Vice-Marshal at the time, was the main plotter, which led the Bangladesh, Indian and Sri Lankan press to believe that he was an American spy. Under Andropov's command, Service A, a KGB division, falsified the information in a letter to Moudud Ahmed in which it said that he was supported by the American government and by 1981 even sent

3330-459: The formation of the KGB under Ivan Serov in March 1954. Secretary Leonid Brezhnev overthrew Premier Nikita Khrushchev in 1964. Brezhnev (in power: 1964–1982) was concerned about ambitious spy-chiefs – the communist party had managed Serov's successor, the ambitious KGB Chairman, Aleksandr Shelepin (in office: 1958–1961), but Shelepin carried out Brezhnev's palace coup d'état against Khrushchev in 1964 (despite Shelepin not then being in

3404-469: The ideological agent Julian Wadleigh , who became a State Department diplomat in 1936. The NKVD 's first US operation was establishing the legal residency of Boris Bazarov and the illegal residency of Iskhak Akhmerov in 1934. Throughout, the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and its General Secretary Earl Browder , helped NKVD recruit Americans, working in government, business, and industry. Other important, low-level and high-level ideological agents were

3478-402: The imminent uprising. Two days after the uprising, Nur Muhammad Taraki , leader of the PDPA, issued a notice of concern to the Soviet ambassador Alexander Puzanov and the resident of Kabul -based KGB embassy Viliov Osadchy that they could have staged a coup three days earlier hence the warning. On that, both Puzanov and Osadchy dismissed Taraki's complaint and reported it to Moscow, which broke

3552-435: The leader of the international socialist movement. The KGB wanted to infiltrate the Chinese security services with "a sufficient number of agents". Top agents also believed that the KGB needed to do more to ensure the protection of the USSR from Chinese spies. According to declassified documents, the KGB aggressively recruited former German (mostly Abwehr ) intelligence officers after the war. The KGB used them to penetrate

3626-404: The liberal Democratic Party – demokraci.pl . The coalition won a disappointing 13% in the 2007 parliamentary election and was dissolved soon after in April 2008. On 31 May 2008, Olejniczak was replaced by Grzegorz Napieralski as an SLD leader. In the 2009 European election , the Democratic Left Alliance-Labor Union joint ticket received 12% of the vote and seven MEPs were elected as part of

3700-406: The life of Gulabzoy and Watanjar and send them to Tashkent from Bagram Airfield by giving them fake passports. With that and a sealed container in which an almost breathless Sarwari was laying, they came to Tashkent on 19 September. During the continued investigation in Tashkent, the three were put under surveillance in one of the rooms for as long as four weeks where they were investigated for

3774-500: The mainstream press, including the Rywin affair , in which film producer Lew Rywin , claiming to be acting on behalf of the government, sought a bribe from the editor of the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper in return for favourable amendments to a proposed new law on media ownership. Prime Minister Leszek Miller was obliged under Polish law to report the attempted bribery to the police when it was brought to his attention, but did not do so. On 6 March 2004, Miller resigned as party leader and

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3848-439: The mid-1970s, the KGB tried to secretly buy three banks in northern California to gain access to high-technology secrets. Their efforts were thwarted by the CIA. The banks were Peninsula National Bank in Burlingame, the First National Bank of Fresno, and the Tahoe National Bank in South Lake Tahoe. These banks had made numerous loans to advanced technology companies and had many of their officers and directors as clients. The KGB used

3922-411: The newly retitled Socialists & Democrats group. In the 2011 parliamentary election , SLD received 8.24% of the vote which gave it 27 seats in the Sejm. After the elections, one of the party members, Sławomir Kopyciński, decided to leave SLD and join Palikot's Movement . On December 10, 2011, Leszek Miller was chosen to return as the party leader. In the 2014 European elections , on 25 May 2014,

3996-502: The next Prime Minister , and by 27 July became Minister of Defense as well. The centre though was concerned of his powers since the same month he issued them a complaint about lack of funds and demanded US$ 400,000,000. Furthermore, it was discovered that Amin had a master's degree from Columbia University , and that he preferred to communicate in English instead of Russian. Unfortunately for Moscow's intelligence services, Amin succeeded Taraki and by 16 September Radio Kabul announced that

4070-427: The operation, including the Interior Ministry building, the Internal Security ( KHAD ) building, and the General Staff building ( Darul Aman Palace ). Out of the 54 KGB operators that assaulted the palace, 5 were killed in action, including Colonel Grigori Boyarinov, and 32 were wounded. Alpha Group veterans call this operation one of the most successful in the group's history. In June 1981, there were 370 members in

4144-439: The reforms per se. SdRP, SDU and some other socialist and social-democratic parties had formed the original Democratic Left Alliance as a centre-left coalition just prior to the nation's first free elections in 1991. In 1999 the coalition became a party but lost some members. At the time, the coalition's membership drew mostly from the former PZPR. An alliance between the SLD and the Polish People's Party (PSL) ruled Poland in

4218-473: The reliability of their claims by the KGB. Soon after, they were satisfied with the results and sent them to Bulgaria for a secret retreat. On 9 October, the Soviet secret service had a meeting in which Bogdanov, Gorelov, Pavlonsky and Puzanov were the main chiefs who were discussing what to do with Amin who was very harsh at the meeting. After the two-hour meeting they began to worry that Amin would establish an Islamic republic in Afghanistan and decided to seek

4292-572: The ruling right-wing PiS party, which cut pensions and disability benefits to thousands of former bureaucrats, however, the party has undergone a revival, as more and more people's primary income came to be threatened by the new government policy. This led many of those affected to support the SLD, thus enlarging and mobilizing the formerly shrinking voting bloc. The SLD nonetheless made a significant effort to broaden its political appeal by joining forces with two smaller left-wing parties in 2019, creating The Left political alliance, which poses itself as

4366-411: The same day the KGB decided to imprison Sayed Gulabzoy as well as Mohammad Aslam Watanjar and Assadullah Sarwari but while in captivity and under an investigation all three denied the allegation that the current Minister of Defence was an American secret agent. The denial of claims was passed on to Yuri Andropov and Leonid Brezhnev , who as the main chiefs of the KGB proposed operation Raduga to save

4440-495: The stance of making the education system more practical and less theory-based. The party also proposed to introduce obligatory anti-violence education and sex education in all types of schools, as well as doubling the number of hours during which English is taught in schools. Furthermore, the party wanted to remove religious education classes from schools. Spring was committed to deglomeration of civil servant offices from Warsaw to other smaller cities. On world view issues, Spring took

4514-432: The state border of the USSR, guarding the leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Soviet Government , organization and security of government communications as well as combating nationalist , dissident , religious and anti-Soviet activities. On 3 December 1991, the KGB was officially dissolved. It was succeeded in Russia by the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and what would later become

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4588-445: The structural organization of the main KGB. The Chairman of the KGB , First Deputy Chairmen (1–2), Deputy Chairmen (4–6). Its policy Collegium comprised a chairman, deputy chairmen, directorate chiefs, and republican KGB chairmen. A Time magazine article in 1983, reported that the KGB was the world's most effective information-gathering organization. It operated legal and illegal espionage residencies in target countries where

4662-463: The trust of and spy upon the most outspoken proponents of Alexander Dubček 's new government. They were to plant subversive evidence, justifying the USSR's invasion, that right-wing groups—aided by Western intelligence agencies—were going to depose the Communist government of Czechoslovakia. Finally, the KGB prepared hardline , pro-USSR members of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ), such as Alois Indra and Vasiľ Škultéty, to assume power after

4736-474: The vote, as opposed to the 5% for individual parties), leaving the SLD without parliamentary representation for the first time. Indeed, for the first time since the end of Communism, no centre-left parties won any seats in this election. In 2017, the party withdrew from the Socialist International , while maintaining ties with the Progressive Alliance . For the 2019 parliamentary election, SLD formed an alliance with Razem and Wiosna , known as The Left . In

4810-432: The votes, giving it 5 of 54 seats reserved for Poland in the European Parliament , as part of the Party of European Socialists . Wojciech Olejniczak , the former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, was elected the president of SLD on 29 May 2004, succeeded Józef Oleksy , who resigned from the post of Polish Prime Minister due to false accusations of links to the KGB . The 2004 European elections foreshadowed

4884-425: The wage at PLN 3,500 per month for teachers that are just beginning their job. Spring also pushed for the abolition of ZUS (Social Insurance Institution) and KRUS (Agricultural Social Insurance Fund) and the consequent transferal of their competences to the tax administration. Yet another proposal was free access to the internet in the entire country. The party also pledged to increase disability benefit and to introduce

4958-473: The whole and won 200 of 460 seats in the Sejm and 75 of 100 in the Senate . After the elections, the coalition was joined by the Polish People's Party (PSL) in forming a government and Leszek Miller became the Prime Minister. In March 2003, the PSL left the coalition. By 2004, the support for SLD in the polls had dropped from about 30% to just below 10%, and several high-ranking party members had been accused of taking part in high-profile political scandals by

5032-451: The years 1993–1997. However, the coalition lost power to the right-wing Solidarity Electoral Action in the 1997 election as the right-wing opposition was united this time and because of the decline of support for SLD's coalition partner PSL, though the SLD itself actually gained votes. SLD formed a coalition with Labour Union before the 2001 Polish election and won it overwhelmingly at last by capturing about 5.3 million votes, 42% of

5106-437: Was Cold War policy for the KGB of the Soviet Union and the secret services of the satellite states to extensively monitor public and private opinion, internal subversion and possible revolutionary plots in the Soviet Bloc . In supporting those Communist governments, the KGB was instrumental in crushing the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the Prague Spring of " Socialism with a Human Face " in Czechoslovakia, 1968. During

5180-413: Was finished on 9 October 2021 via a unification congress. The core ideology of the party revolved around issues such as women’s rights , equality, creating a better community, bringing the European Union closer to the citizens, civic participation, increasing green politics and animal rights, rights of disabled people, innovative education, better public transport, better healthcare and establishment of

5254-560: Was launched earlier that year. The operation carried out bombings with the help of GRU and FCD . On 27 December, the centre received news that KGB Special Forces Alpha and Zenith Group, supported by the 154th OSN GRU, also known as Muslim battalion and paratroopers from the 345th Independent Guards Airborne Regiment stormed the Tajbeg Palace and killed Amin and his 100–150 personal guards. His 11-year-old son died due to shrapnel wounds. The Soviets installed Karmal as Amin's successor. Several other government buildings were seized during

5328-580: Was replaced by Krzysztof Janik. On March 26, the Sejm speaker Marek Borowski , together with other high-ranking SLD officials, announced the creation of a new centre-left party, the Social Democratic Party of Poland . On the next day, Leszek Miller announced he would step down as Prime Minister on 2 May 2004, the day after Poland joined the European Union . Miller proceeded to do so. In the 2004 European Parliament election , it only received 9% of

5402-626: Was the capstone of NKVD espionage against Anglo–American science and technology. To wit, British Manhattan Project team physicist Klaus Fuchs (GRU 1941) was the main agent of the Rosenberg spy ring. In 1944, the New York City residency infiltrated top secret Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico by recruiting Theodore Hall , a 19-year-old Harvard physicist. The KGB failed to rebuild most of its US illegal resident networks. The aftermath of

5476-546: Was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka , OGPU , and NKVD . Attached to the Council of Ministers , it was the chief government agency of "union-republican jurisdiction", carrying out internal security, foreign intelligence , counter-intelligence and secret police functions. Similar agencies operated in each of

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