From the history of the PRL-USSR border after World War II. Selected cases of contraband and illegal border crossing

Abstract

The article presents six disclosed cases of illegal border crossing between People's Poland and the Soviet Union from the 1950s to the beginning of the 1980s. They were committed by people with a low social status and poor education. The first two of the discussed cases concern the mentally ill who, completely unknowingly, found themselves on the territory of the USSR. The remaining four refer to people who, under the guise of tourist trips, were in fact involved in illegal trade and tried to smuggle prohibited items across the border. The text was largely based on documents of the Ukrainian KGB, which had not been present in the scientific circulation so far.