Wide context

Complete PICLE corpus of essays by Polish advanced EFL students (330,000)

/^t/The end of the communist state in Poland was a starting point for the collapse of the secret services that had control over all aspects of life of the citizens. Till 1989 Poles had lived under a constant fear, there were accidents of robberies and other crimes, but never on such a large scale as it is now. At the time when the communists were in power it was impossible for any organized group to function without the acceptance from the government or the police. However after 1989 it all changed so quickly that the state was not able to control the process. The secret police lost its privileged status, thus no one exercised control over the criminal underground. The criminals started to organize themselves in larger groups and the mob became a great power.