John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin (, , abbreviation KUL) is a university established in 1918. It is the only private college in Poland with the status of a university. History Father Idzi Radziszewski founded the university in 1918. Vladimir Lenin allowed the priest to take the library and equipment of the Saint Petersburg Roman Catholic Theological Academy to Poland to launch the university just as Poland regained its independence. The aim of the university was to be a modern place of higher education that would conduct research in the spirit of harmony between science and faith. The university sought to produce a new Catholic intelligentsia that would play a leading role in Poland. The number of students increased from 399 in 1918–1919 to 1440 in 1937–1938. This growth was interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War and Nazi Germany's occupation of Poland. Of all the universities located in the German-occupied territory, the University of Lublin was the only one to resume work in October 1939. On 23 November 1939, the Nazis executed a number of academic workers, among others, professors Michał Niechaj and Czesław Martyniak. The university was ordered shut down and its buildings were converted into a military hospital. Nevertheless, the university carried on its teaching activities in secret. After the invasion of Lublin in July 1944 by the Red Army, the university reopened on 21 August 1944. Since then the university has functioned without interruption. The university stayed open during the years Poland was under Communist control between 1944 and 1989, though some of its faculties did not. The faculties of law, social science and education were shut down between 1953 and 1956. It was the only independent, Catholic university in existence in the entire Soviet bloc. Given that the Communist governments all insisted on having a total monopoly of control over educational institutions, the preservation of its independence was a great achievement. The university was often harassed in various ways by the Communist authorities, especially in the 1950s and the 1960s. The university faculty were under frequent surveillance by the secret police. Periodically some faculties were denied by the state the right to grant graduate degrees. The employment prospects of its graduates were limited. Despite the difficulties, the university's independence was maintained and it never adopted Marxist dogmas taught at all the other state universities. It served as a haven for students who