PROTECTION OF POPULATION AND CIVIL DEFENSE – HISTORY AND PRESENT

The article presents the genesis and development of organizations whose goal was and is to ensure the security of civilians in the context of the evolution of national security threats. The functions and selected tasks presented in it, as well as the principles of their subordination to public administration in Poland. The current dimension of the civil protection organization was also characterized in terms of the parts under consideration, in which civil defense promotes all the theoretical aspects of this process, leaving the State Fire Service to act as a pillar of the National Rescue and Fire Fighting System.