With the advent of the telegraph, telephone and radio, and before the age of computers and satellites, those concerned (primarily officials and military officers) had a choice of different methods to transmit secret information of a military or political nature over a distance. The radio route was considered to be the safest, fastest and cheapest. Provided, of course, that procedures were followed and ciphers were developed that the enemy could not break. Waves in the ether could be picked up by anyone, even the owner of an ordinary radio. Hence the great importance attached to ensuring the secrecy of the information sent, especially under wartime conditions.

Jan Kowalewski and the world of secrets

We shall only focus in this text on one thread from the extraordinarily rich life of the brilliant Polish intelligence officer. Moreover, far from all historical sources concerning the most closely guarded secrets, intelligence wars and behind-the-scenes political dealings have been declassified to this day. Fortunately, Jan Kowalewski's role in the incidents described is well described.

Science is the key to power

The problems under consideration belong not only to military and political history, but also to the history of science. Hence, special attention must be paid to the education of Jan Kowalewski (1892-1965). Born in Łódź, he graduated from the Secondary School of the Congregation of Merchants in his hometown. Between 1909 and 1912, he studied at the University of Liège in Belgium , where he received a so-called semi-diploma in technical chemistry (after passing a partial examination, without obtaining the title of qualified engineer). Returning to his native Lodz, he did his apprenticeship in nearby Zgierz. He then found employment as an engineer in Biała Cerkiew (modern Ukraine).

The First World War soon broke out. Kovalevsky served in the Tsarist army, then in the Polish formations formed in Russia after the February Revolution of 1917. After returning from Odesa to Poland, he became an officer under General J. Haller's orders in the 4th Polish Rifle Division (of which he was head of intelligence). He was head of intelligence for the so-called Blue Army which, after being transported from France to Poland, took part in battles in Volhynia and Podolia (from June 1919).

Chemist becomes a cipher-breaker

His superiors soon recognised Jan Kowalewski's analytical skills, based on out-of-the-box thinking, a rich imagination, mathematical aptitude and knowledge of the languages most important to the service at the time (French, German and Russian). He was ordered to organise and command the cryptanalytic Division II of the Cipher Bureau of the Cipher Branch II of the General Staff of the Supreme Command (1919-1924). The young officer was eager to cooperate, and was not afraid to employ people more proficient than himself - outstanding mathematicians from Lviv and Warsaw. He expanded the listening network.

The Bolshevik-Polish war was already underway at the time, from the beginning of 1919. Kovalevsky's credentials were excellent: born in the Russian partition, educated in a Russian school, he had served in the tsarist army. He knew the enemy, his mentality and thinking patterns. In August 1919, he was assigned to the Cipher Section , the top-secret cell where foreign dispatches were listened to. Initially responsible for sorting them out, he broke the first Red Army ciphers as early as the turn of August/September. As a result, in Warsaw, at the Saxon Palace, not only was Soviet information from the Polish front being read, but also from all fronts of the civil war in Russia. Over time, the knowledge of Soviet ciphers was deepened, an increasing percentage of texts were read and the time required for this was reduced, and any changes in the enemy's codes were also dealt with.

The Battle of Warsaw 1920

"The certainty of victory was based not on hope but on facts. For all reports and orders of the Soviet army were intercepted and deciphered as soon as they were received. Thanks to the information received in this way, the Polish staff was better informed about the enemy's movements, forces and intentions than the commanders of individual Soviet groups". - recalled Jan Kowalewski in an interview with Radio Free Europe. The information gained gave the Chief of State and Commander-in-Chief, Józef Piłsudski, an insight into the enemy's most important decisions - which made it possible to detect the enemy's strengths and weaknesses, and to anticipate his movements.

This was also the case during the Battle of Warsaw in August 1920, when information from Lt. Jan Kowalewski and his team had a decisive and crucial influence on Pilsudski's orders and the size of victory - both the defeat of General Mikhail Tukhachevsky near Warsaw and the final, victorious outcome of the war for Poland.

After the war, Jan Kowalewski remained in the army as an intelligence officer. In the 1920s, at the request of the Japanese, he deciphered Soviet dispatches in Manchuria and later trained Japanese intelligence officers in cryptography. He later served as, among others, military attaché at the Polish embassies in Moscow (1928-1933) and Bucharest (1933-1937). After his return to Poland, in 1937, he was briefly Chief of Staff of the Obóz Zjednoczenia Narodowego ["Camp of National Unity "], a Sanacja political organisation that was torn apart by factional fighting and drifting ever more strongly towards authoritarianism after the death of Marshal Józef Piłsudski.

During the Second World War, after the fall of France, Jan Kowalewski made his way to Portugal, where he coordinated the Continental Action - a network of conspiratorial and diversionary structures against Germany in Polish communities throughout Europe. From 1945, he settled in London as a political émigré , intransigent about Poland being subordinate to the Soviet Union.

Recognition after many years

Jan Kowalewski died half a century ago, on 31 October 1965, in London. He was buried in London's North Sheen Cemetery (located in the south-west of the city, in the borough of Richmond upon Thames). He was posthumously promoted to the rank of Brigadier General by the President of Poland in 2020.

The vertical stele of the gravestone, made of black stone, bears bilingual text, with Polish text at the top and English below. A cross has been forged in the upper left corner, and in the right corner - the sign of the graduate officers of the pre-war General Staff of the Second Republic. The texts and both symbols are forged and gilded. The last fragment comes from the soldier's song Jak to na wojence nicely (written during the January Uprising).

The Polish text on Jan Kowalewski's tombstone:

Here rests
the late
Lt. Col. Dypl. JAN KOWALEWSKI
(1892-1965)
Outstanding cryptologist
He was instrumental in
Poland's defeat of Bolshevik Russia in 1920
One of the most outstanding staff
and intelligence officers of the Second Polish Republic

Honour His Memory!

˶...may Poland dream of you...�.