The archival resources of the Institute of National Remembrance mainly comprises the documents produced, in the years 1944-1990, by both civilian and military state security authorities:

• The Public Security Department of the Polish Committee of National Liberation;
• The Ministry of Public Security of Poland;
• The Committee on Public Security;
• Organisational entities subordinate to the above-mentioned bodies, in particular the units of the Citizens’ Militia, in the period until 14 December 1954;
• Central bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, with dependent local units in the voivodeship, county, and equivalent Militia headquarters, as well as the voivodeship, county, and equivalent offices of internal affairs;
• The Academy of Internal Affairs;
• The Reconnaissance of the Border Defence Army;
• The Main Directorate of the Internal Service of the military units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, with subordinate units;
• The Military Information;
• The Internal Military Service;
• The II Directorate of the General Staff of the Polish Army;
• Other services of the Armed Forces dealing with operational-intelligence or investigative activities, including ones within various armed services and branches and military districts.

Furthermore, the resources of the Institute has come to include archival documentation concerning Nazi and Communist crimes that had previously been collected by the Main Commission for the Investigation of Crimes against the Polish Nation and its district commissions, files of those persons who were victimised for political reasons, as produced by the common and military courts and prosecutor’s offices, as well as files by the organisational units of the penitentiary system. The Institute has also succeeded to a part of the documentation accumulated at the State Archives of the Capital City of Warsaw, as well as the archives of the voivodeship offices. A slight, however most valuable, part of the resources is comprised of donations made by private persons.

The material produced by the above-mentioned state security bodies has been bequeathed to the Institute by the following establishments:

• The Ministry of Interior and Administration of the Republic of Poland and the former Office for State Protection, currently the Internal Security Agency and the Intelligence Agency – documents, data bases, registers and records, as well as the officers’ files produced or accumulated until July 31, 1990 (also transferred by the Chief Headquarters of the Border Guard, the Polish Police Headquarters, the Warsaw Metropolitan Police, as well as county headquarters, as a subordinate thereof);
• The Ministry of National Defence of the Republic of Poland – documents, data bases, registers and records of the military security bodies, as well as the files of the officers of these services, as produced or accumulated until December 31, 1990, preserved in ministry-subordinate archives and in the archives of the former Military Information Services, currently the Military Counter-Intelligence Service and the Military Intelligence Service;
• The Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Poland – documents, data bases, registers and records, as well as the officers’ files produced or accumulated by the bodies of the penitentiary system until December 31, 1956, documents, data bases, registers and records, as well as the officers’ files produced or accumulated by the Security Department of the Central Directorate of the Correctional Service and organisational entities subordinate to the same, within the period until December 31, 1989, as well as the penitentiary files of those persons who were victimised for political reasons and were imprisoned, detained or interned;
• Common and military courts and prosecutor’s offices – files of those individuals who were victimised for political reasons.