Obedience to Authority: Attitudes of Prison Officers in Stalinist Poland, 1944–1954.

This article examines the prison system in Poland from 1944 to 1956, focusing on how an imposed legal and administrative framework under Stalinism demoralized prison staff and shaped their behavior within a totalitarian security apparatus. Using archival documents and prisoner testimonies, the study analyzes the recruitment, ideological training, and working conditions of prison officers, situating their obedience and violence in the context of psychological models by Stanley Milgram and Philip Zimbardo on authority and situational behavior. The article highlights that officers, often from low-education backgrounds and subjected to intense ideological pressure, enacted harsh treatment toward prisoners—both political and criminal—under a system that prioritized repression over rehabilitation. It also notes the complex interplay between individual dispositions, group identity, and systemic factors, including the legacy of wartime brutality, limited professional training, and the absence of external oversight, which collectively fostered a culture of obedience and violence within the Polish prison service during this period.