A Handbook of the Communist Security Apparatus in East Central Europe, 1944-1989

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Scarce hardcover, 352pp + 8 pages of b&w photos. Cancelled foreign library stamps & pencil inventory numbers on the reverse of the title page. Page 320 with a triangular tear in inner lower corner and faint dark dusty marks (neither is affecting the text). Else interior is very good, clean and bright throughout, with unmarked text, firmly bound. Boards show mild handling wear. Issued without a dust jacket. -- The security apparatus, the "sword and shield of the party," was a mainstay of the communist system, which let the totalitarian dictatorship continue for so many years. The communist security apparatus in East Central Europe left tens of thousands dead, millions incarcerated and persecuted in sundry ways. Without studying its history it is impossible to understand not only the past but also the present of this part of Europe. This book is the first attempt at a synthesis of the history of the communist security apparatus in the European countries of the Soviet bloc. Nine authors from six countries present the current state of research and point directions for further investigation. -- Contents: Preface; Soviet Union 1917- 1945 / Nicholas Werth [Origins of the Soviet Security Apparatus, December 1917- End of 1921; From Cheka to GPU: Change and Continuity, 1921-1922; OGPU in Action, 1923-1934; NKVD: Executor of Stalinist Mass Crimes in the Second Half of the 1930s; People's Commissariats of Internal Affairs and of State Security During the Great Patriotic War, 1941-1945]; Bulgaria / Jordan Baev & Kostadin Grozev [Organisation, Structures, and Staff of the Security Apparatus; Secret Collaborators and Methods of Operation; Main Directions of Activities (Fighting Against the Internal Enemy; Foreign Intelligence and Counter-intelligence Operations); Victims; Access to Archives and Selected Bibliography; Biographical Notes]; Czechoslovakia / Petr Blazek & Pavel Zacek [Organisation and Structures; Cadres; People 'Surveyed' in StB Files and Methods of StB Operational Work; Secret Collaborators; Victims; State of Research and Bibliography; Access to Archives; Biographical Notes]; German Democratic Republic / Jens Gieseke [Organisation and Structures of the Security Apparatus (Formation; Legal Basis; Structural Development; Budget); Staff (Number of Personnel; Social and Political Background); Methods of Operational Work (Surveillance Techniques and Technologies); Main Focuses of Security Apparatus Activities (Stalinism, 1950-1956; De-Stalinisation and Recovery, 1956-1971; Honecker Era, 1971-1989); Secret Collaborators (IM Network and Its Development; Types of Informers and Other Collaborators; Foreign Espionage Network; Recruiting Methods, Payment); Victims (Persecution and Arrests; Murders and Killings); Access to Archival Materials and Selected Bibliography; Biographical Notes]; Poland / Antoni Dudek & Andrzej Paczkowski [Organisation and Structure of the Security Apparatus; Security Apparatus vs. the Communist Party and Organs of the State; Cadres; Operational Techniques and Investigation; Agent Network; Main Areas of Activity (Combating the Anti-communist Underground; Purges in the Army; Combating Espionage and Sabotage; Destruction of the Polish Peasant Party PSL and Fight Against the Independent Peasant Movement; Fight Against the Church; Fight Against the Political Opposition); Scale of Repressions and the Number of Victims; State of Research and Bibliography; Biographical Notes]; Romania / Dennis Deletant [Origins and Structure of the Securitate; Staff; Methods of the Operational Activity; Tasks (Counter Espionage; Securitate and International Terrorism; Defection of Ion Pacepa; Developments in the DSS; Ceausescu Personality Cult; Silencing Critics Abroad); Informer Network; Victims; Access to Archives; Selected Bibliography; Biographical Notes]; Contributors; List of abbreviations; List of diagrams; List of tables; Index of names. Seller Inventory # 007075

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