The established in 1956 Codification Committee was designed to prepare the draft of the Polish penal code. The Committee consisted of 10 professors and practitioners, headed by professor Jerzy Sawicki. In the course of changing the liberal policy of the communist party some members of the group lost the confidence granted earlier by communist authorities. Sawicki was suspected of spying
and of having Zionist views. The secret Security Service (SB) was keeping an eye on some other members of the group. The SB officers in their documents described the final part of works on the draft when Sawicki was trying to save the draft by using his contacts in the communist party apparatus. Finally the draft was rejected and the official reasons were: “novelty”, and the fact that the draft had
not been consulted with the communist party apparatus. However the real reason was different: the members of the Committee had no confidence among officials. The classified document of SB is attached to the article and it describes the las stage of working on the final draft.