Daughters of the KGB
Read Daughters of the KGB Online
Authors: Douglas Boyd
Tags: #History, #Military, #General, #Modern, #20th Century, #Political Science, #Intelligence & Espionage
This book is dedicated to all the political prisoners
and others who suffered in the Stasi prison
on the Lindenstrasse in Potsdam,
and to our predecessors there under the KGB 1945–1952
and under the Gestapo 1933–1945
‘Those who do not remember the past are compelled to repeat it.’
George Santayana
Despite the two and a half decades since the collapse of the USSR, a surprising number of people who assisted my research asked not to be mentioned as sources, some giving no reason and others pleading that there might be repercussions against family members still living in their countries of birth. Others still were helpful initially and then said, ‘I’m sorry. I can’t help you any more.’ I never argued or tried to persuade them because it seemed this was not from personal guilt for anything, but rather that even thinking about those years will always be too painful for millions of people who lived through them. Who could blame them for that?
Among those I can thank for their help are Stella Dvoraková, William Sirben and Jiri Dubnicka for insights into the Cold War period in Czechoslovakia; Nikolai Karailiev for reading the Bulgarian pages and Gabriele Schnell, whom I first met in the former Lindenstrasse prison in Potsdam, for the work she has done to document the experiences of the Stasi’s victims in the so-called German Democratic Republic.
At The History Press, I can also thank commissioning editor Mark Beynon, project editor Rebecca Newton, designer Katie Beard and cover designer Martin Latham.
C
ONTENTS
Title
Dedications
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Part 1: Setting the Scene
1 Through a Glass Darkly
2 Life is a Game of Chess
Part 2: The Stasi in German Democratic Republic
3 Deutschland Unter Russland
4 Creating a New Class of Criminals
5 Fear as a Political Tool
6 The New Class Enemy
7 Lies, Spies and More Spies
8 War on the West
9 War in the Air
10 HVA Versus MI5
11 Death of the Stasi
Part 3: State Terror in Central Europe
12 The Polish UB – Crushing a Suffering Nation
13 Betrayal, Beatings, Elections and Executions
14 The Horizontal Spy
15 The StB Versus the Czechs and Slovaks
16 The ABC of Espionage – Agents, Blackmail, Codes
17 The AVO and Bloodshed in Budapest
18 Magyars on Mission Abroad
Part 4: State Terror in Eastern Europe
19 The KDS – Dimitrov’s Lethal Homecoming Present to Bulgaria
20 A Different Umbrella in Bucharest
21 Albania – From Serfdom to the Sigurimi Secret Police
Author Note
Plates
By the Same Author
Copyright
AAP | Australian Associated Press news agency |
ABLT | Állambiztonsági Szolgálatok Történeti Levéltára (Hungarian state intelligence archives) |
ABW | Agencja Bezpieczenstwa Wewnetrznego (Polish counter-espionage service) |
AK | Armia Krajowa (Polosh Home Army) |
AL | Armia Ludowa (People’s Army) |
AVH | Allamvédelmi Hatósag (second name of Hungarian secret police) |
AVO | Allamvédelmi Osztálya (first name of Hungarian secret police) |
BA | Belügyminisztérium Állambiztonsági (Hungarian intelligence agency) |
BfV | Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (Federal German security service) |
BIRN | Balkan Investigative Reporting Network |
BIS | Bezpecnostní Informacní Služba (Czech post-Communist security service) |
BKP | Bulgarska Komunisticheska Partia (Bulgarian Communist Party) |
BND | Bundesnachrichtendienst (Federal German intelligence service) |
BStU | Bundesbeauftragte der Unterlagen des Staatssicherheitsministeriums der ehemaligen Deutschen Demokratischen Republik (Stasi archives) |
CIA | Central Intelligence Agency |
CIC | US Counter-Intelligence Corps |
CIO | Anti-Communist Czech Intelligence Office |
CNSAS | Conciliul National pentru Studearea Archivelor Securitâtii (Romanian post-Communist intelligence archives) |
CPGB | Communist Party of Great Britain |
CSSR | Ceskoslovenská Socialistická Republika (Czechoslovak Socialist Republic) |
DM | Deutsche Mark (West German currency) |
DST | Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire (French security service) |
EAM/ELAS | Left-wing Greek resistance |
FDJ | Freie Deutsche Jugend (Communist equivalent of the Hitler Youth organisation) |
GCHQ | Government Communications Headquarters |
GDR | German Democratic Republic |
GRU | Glavnoye Razvedatelnoye Upravleniye (Soviet military intelligence) |
GZI | Glowny Zarzad Informacji (Polish military intelligence) |
HVA | Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung (East German foreign intelligence service) |
IGM | Internationale Gesellschaft für Menschenrechte (International Association for Human Rights) |
IM | inoffizielle Mitarbeiter (informer working for the Stasi) |
IWF | Institut für wirtschaftliche Forschung (Institute for Scientific Research, a cover name for HVA) |
KDS | Komitet za Darzhavna Sigurnost (Bulgarian Committee of State Security) |
KdSBP | Komitet do Spraw Bezpieczenstwa Publicznego (Polish Committee for Public Security) |
KGB | Komityet Gosudrarstvennoi Bezopacnosti (Committee of State Security of USSR) |
KgU | Kampfgruppe gegen Unmenschlichkeit (West German anti-Stasi group) |
KKE | Kommunistikó Kómma Elládas (Greek Communist Party) |
KPD | Kommunistiche Partei Deutschlands (German Communist Party) |
KSC | Komunistická Strana Ceskoslovenska (Czechoslovakian Communist Party) |
LSK | Luftstreitkräfte (East German air force) |
MBP | Ministerstwo Bezpieczenstwa Publicznego (Polish Ministry of Public Security) |
MDP | Magyar Dolgozók Párt (Hungarian Workers’ Party, i.e. Communist Party) |
MfS | Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (Ministry of State Security) |
MI5 | British Security Service |
MI6 | British Intelligence Service |
MIG | Mikoyan i Gurevitch (names of two Soviet aircraft designers) |
MKP | Magyar Komunista Párt (Hungarian Communist Party) |
MNVK2 | Magyar Néphadsereg Vezérkara 2 Csoportfonöksege (Hungarian military intelligence) |
MSW | Ministerstwo Spraw Wewnetrznych (Polish Ministry of Internal Affairs) |
MSzMP | Magyar Szocialista Munkáspárt (Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party) |
MVD | Ministerstvo Vnutrennikh Dyel (Soviet successor to NKVD) |
NICSMA | NATO Integrated Systems Management Agency |
NKVD | Narodny Komissariat Vnukhtrennikh Dyel (Soviet forerunner of KGB) |
NSA | US National Security Agency |
NSDAP | Nazionalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (full name of Hitler’s Nazi party) |
NVA | Nazionale Volksarmee (East German army) |
OKW | Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (German General Staff in Second World War) |
OSI | US Air Force Office of Special Investigations |
OSS | US Office of Strategic Services (in Second World War) |
PCF | Parti Communiste Français (French Communist Party) |
PCI | Partito Comunista Italiano (Italian Communist Party) |
PCR | Partidul Comunist Român (Romanian Communist Party) |
PKSh | Partia Komuniste e Shqiperisë (Albanian Communist Party) |
PKWN | Polski Komitet Wyzwolenia Narodowego (Polish Committee of National Liberation) |
POW | Prisoner of war |
PPSh | Partia e Punës e Shqipërisë (Albanian Workers’ Party) |
PSL | Polski Stronnictwo Ludowe (Polish Christian Democrat agrarian party) |
PZPR | Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza (Polish United Workers’ Party, i.e. Communist Party) |
RAF | Royal Air Force |
RBP | Resort Bezpieczenstwa Publicznego (Polish Department of Public Security) |
RHSA | Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Chief Administration of Third Reich Security) |
RIAS | Rundfunk im Amerikanischen Sektor (US-financed propaganda station in West Berlin) |
RTRP | Rzad Tymczasowy Rzeczyoospolitej Polskiej (Provisional Government of Poland) |
SB (MSW) | Słuzba Bezpieczenstwa Ministerstwa Spraw Wewnetrznych (Polish Security Service of Ministry of Internal Affairs) |
SDECE | Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionage (French intelligence service) |
SDP | Sozialistische Demokratische Partei (German Social Democratic Party) |
SED | Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (East German Communist Party) |
SHAPE | Supreme Headquarters, Allied Powers in Europe |
ShIK | Shërbimi Informativ Kombëtar (Albanian successor to Sigurimi) |
ShISh | Shërbimi Informativ Shtetëror (successor to ShIK) |
SIE | Serviciul de Informatii Externe (Romanian post-Communist intelligence service) |
Sigint | Signals intelligence (electronic eavesdropping) |
SIS | Secret Intelligence Service |
SOE | Special Operations Executive |
SRI | Serviciul Rôman de Informatii (Romanian post-Communist security service) |
SSR | Soviet socialist republic |
Stasi | Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (East German Ministry of State Security) |
StB | Státní Bezpecnost / Státna Bezpecnost (Czechoslovakian State Security service) |
SWT | Sektor für Wissenschaft und Technik (HVA Section for technological espionage) |
TVO | Trudovo-Vazpritatelni Obshchezhitiya (Bulgarian gulag) |
UB | Urzad Bezpieczenstwa (Polish state security) |
UPA | Ukraïnska Povstanska Armiya (Ukrainian underground army) |
ZAIG | Zentrale Auswertungs und Informationsgruppe (evaluation department of HVA) |