“The twins mean business,” said a 51-year-old teacher who once taught my son at a Warsaw kindergarten. “It’s time to retire.”

She was referring to the Kaczynski brothers — Jaroslaw as Prime Minister, Lech as President — who have made high office in Poland into a family affair.

The new amendment to the so-called Transparency Law — passed by the lower house of parliament last week and to be rubberstamped on Friday — is the sharp edge of a campaign slightly reminiscent of the communist era, when dissidents were hounded out of public service.

“We are dismantling the past but we don’t believe in a future,” said the novelist Andrzej Stasiuk, one of many intellectuals critical of the ultranationalist, anticommunist line taken by the twins. “Those who still believe in a future are leaving the country in droves.”

This time, the victims of the purge are people who co-operated with the communist police two or more decades ago. A list of all former secret police officers is to be placed on the internet. The names of their informants will be made public. Anyone in public life who is on either list — and was born before August 1, 1972 — can be sacked.

Until now the Transparency Law, first passed in 1997, has applied only to members of parliament and senators. They faced a ten-year ban from political life if the authorities discovered that they had lied about their former contacts with the secret police. That law was regarded by many in Central Europe as a model of how to deal with the past. It allowed former communist agents to live normal lives, providing that they did not seek a political career. About 27,000 people were vetted under the law.

But the Kaczynski twins are determined to push harder and to accelerate what they call the decommunisation of Poland, 17 years after the communists surrendered power. This week, Jaroslaw Kaczynski installed as deputy Defence Minister Antoni Macieriwsz, a passionate anticommunist who has been given the specific brief of getting rid of all suspect members of the military intelligence agency. He has until the end of September to turn it into a modern spy service. The appointment was announced by the new Prime Minister without consulting Radoslaw Sikorski, the Defence Minister, who nonetheless seems to be ready to soldier on rather than resign in a huff.

There are about 1,800 military spies, some of whom are working with the Coalition in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hundreds are likely to lose their jobs, much to the dismay of the United States.

Bronislaw Wildstein, a journalist who made his name by publishing lists of communist collaborators, has been installed as head of state television. He, too, is expected to play a role in the Kaczynski counter-revolution, unmasking those who made moral compromises under the communists. Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s team has also been working on plans for a central anticorruption agency. The aim is to smash what the Kaczynski twins believe to be the fundamental weakness of Poland: the existence of secret networks of former communists who continue to wield influence in the business world.

Katarina Niewiedzial, a political scientist, said: “If they succeed, they will strengthen the sense of community in Poland and restore confidence in the state.”

Those who have already been fired see the campaign less charitably. “It was nothing short of an act of political blackmail,” said Zyta Gilowski, a former Finance Minister, after she was levered out of office because of allegations that she had collaborated with the communist secret services.

The twins agree that Poland needs to fight to reclaim its sovereignty. That means, they say, strengthening the power of the state and stiffening Poland’s attitude towards Russia, Germany and the European Union.

A law to be passed this summer will allow the state to assume control of an energy company if it faces a hostile takeover bid, a process that is intended to defend Poland against predatory moves by Gazprom, the Russian energy company.

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