Polowanie na orły. Wstępny etap rozpracowania lotników byłych Polskich Sił Powietrznych przez Urząd Bezpieczeństwa w ramach operacji „Mewa” (1948–1949)

This study is an attempt to present the beginnings of the operational activities of the Security Office (Urząd Bezpieczeństwa, UB) against Polish Air Force airmen returning to the country. In the period immediately after the end of World War II, almost ¼ of Polish Air Force soldiers returned to Poland, trying to make a new beginning in the country. At that time, the interest of the UB in the aviators was incidental, and the activities of the security service were part of general spying on returning emigrants. They were of regional character and were not coordinated by the Ministries of Public Security until June 1948, when the intelligence activity of Lieutenant Pilot Władysław Śliwiński was discovered. The final caesura of this study is the date of the implementation of new methods of conducting and documenting the operational activity against former Polish Air Force aviators.