"Our Solidarity in the Struggle is the Guarantee of our Victory". The Counterintelligence Anti-Terrorist Apparatus in the Eastern Bloc in the 1980s. A Czechoslovak Perspective

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F27590101%3A_____%2F20%3A00000098" target="_blank" >RIV/27590101:_____/20:00000098 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="http://ipn.gov.pl/pl/publikacje/periodyki-ipn/pamiec-i-sprawiedliwosc/137393,Pamiec-i-Sprawiedliwosc-nr-2-36-2020.html" target="_blank" >http://ipn.gov.pl/pl/publikacje/periodyki-ipn/pamiec-i-sprawiedliwosc/137393,Pamiec-i-Sprawiedliwosc-nr-2-36-2020.html</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

"Our Solidarity in the Struggle is the Guarantee of our Victory". The Counterintelligence Anti-Terrorist Apparatus in the Eastern Bloc in the 1980s. A Czechoslovak Perspective

Original language description

At the turn of the 1970s and 80s, the Czechoslovak security apparatus formed an interest in the undercover and espionage activities of the various state security forces in Communist countries in the Eastern Bloc tasked with operations against international terrorism and the training and deployment of special antiterrorist units. Following the establishment of a counterintelligence directorate for “special and unusual types of criminal activity” (the 14th Department of the National Security Corps or SNB), the leadership of the new structure was given the opportunity to make several international study trips to the Soviet Union, Hungary, East Germany, Poland, Bulgaria and even Yugoslavia. Reports from those official visits to security institutions in other Communist countries were filed with the leadership of the Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs. The accounts capture a cross-section view of the status of counterintelligence structures tasked with containing international -terrorism (and partly also so-called “domestic” terrorism) in Eastern Europe, including the organisational structures, training programmes and tactics for deploying special anti-terrorist units. During those meetings, representatives of the Czechoslovak state security services (StB) and public law enforcement and criminal police (VB) were given access (obviously limited) to information concerning the activities of the 2nd Main Directorate of the KGB USSR, the 5th Directorate of the KGB, but also the special Alpha Unit of the 7th Directorate of the KGB, the 2nd Directorate and the 3rd Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in People’s Republic of Hungary, and the line units of the Revolutionary Regiment of Public Security, the 22nd Main Department of the Ministry of State Security (Hauptabteilung XXII MfS, “Terrorabwehr”) and the special units subordinated to a special working group of the permanent operational staff of the Ministry of State Security (AGM/S MfS) of the German Democratic Republic, the central apparatus of the Polish Security Service, as well as the special security unit in the Main Directorate of the People’s Police, the 2nd Main Directorate in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, People’s Republic of Bulgaria, the special motorised regiment, the federal directorate of counterintelligence at the Secretariat of Internal Affairs, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and the special anti-terrorist unit of the Militia Brigade. The aim of this article is to serve as a reference work based primarily on the information sourced from Czech archives in order to provide new insights into the collaboration and exchange of information within the Communist Bloc regarding the establishment, training, organisation and, ultimately, deployment of special anti-terrorist units working within the counterintelligence apparatus aimed against the activities of terrorist groups and organisations.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_ost - Miscellaneous article in a specialist periodical

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

60101 - History (history of science and technology to be 6.3, history of specific sciences to be under the respective headings)

Project

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Continuities

N - Vyzkumna aktivita podporovana z neverejnych zdroju

Publication year

2020

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Remembrance and Justice

ISSN

1427-7476

e-ISSN

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Volume of the periodical

2020

Issue of the periodical within the volume

2 (36)

Country of publishing house

PL - POLAND

Number of pages

34

Pages from-to

449-482

UT code for WoS article

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EID of the result in the Scopus database

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