Second Department of Polish General Staff

The Second Department of Polish General Staff (Polish: Oddział II Sztabu Generalnego Wojska Polskiego, also called Dwojka) was a department of the Polish General Staff in the Second Polish Republic. It was responsible for military intelligence, counterintelligence, cryptography, analysys of foreign military forces and foreign affairs of the Polish Army. It existed from 1918 until 1939.

First intelligence units were formed soon after the creation of the General Staff of the Polish Army (General Tadeusz Rozwadowski). In mid-October 1918, the Information Department of the General Staff, as it was called, was formed under Major Mieczysław Mackiewicz. It handled both offensive and defensive intelligence services, evidence and military ciphers. Until ca. 1921, Polish military used the word “defensive”, while describing intelligence. Due to various political events, changes in the organizational structure of the General Staff in the early 1920s were frequent.

At first, the Information Department was divided into seven sections:

Following the victory in the Polish–Soviet War, in which Polish intelligence played a significant role, the Information Department was expanded and renamed into the Second Department of the Polish General Staff. It also was restructured, and divided into the following departments: I - Organizational, II - Offensive A, III - Offensive B, IV - Defensive, V - Foreign Propaganda, VI - Home.

During the Polish Soviet War and in the immediate postwar period, the Information Department had a well-developed network of informants and local units, reaching as far as China, Persia, Siberia and Japan. After the war, it was reorganized into peacetime structures:

The territorial structure of the Second Department of the Polish General Staff was divided into Independent Information Offices (Samodzielne Referaty Informacyjne, SRI), outposts, posts, branches. Also, its officers operated in Polish Army garrisons, and outposts of the Border Protection Corps.

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