Bulgarian Military Intelligence During the Communist Era (552 pages) [CRYPTOME]

Part of the Bulgarian State Security in Communist Era Files collection.

INTRODUCTION

The Military Intelligence of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria continues to be one of the most secret institutions of the communism. Not only because of the nature of its business, but for purely political reasons. For over 20 years - during the public discussion on the communist secret services lead with a different intensity, the Military Intelligence remained in the shadow of the State Security. Immediately after November 10, 1989, the public attention was manipulatively drawn to the Sixth Directorate of the State Security, which was successfully introduced as an emanation of the whole activity of the State Security. However, documents indicate otherwise. Although not structurally attached to the State Security, the Military Intelligence proved to be one of the elite and privileged structures of the communist secret services. One of the main reasons for this is the direct contact between the Military Intelligence and other military intelligences from the Warsaw Pact led by the GRU – the Military Intelligence of the Soviet Union. Indeed, the General Staff Intelligence Directorate /GSID/ of the Bulgarian National Army /BNA/ was seriously mentioned for the first time in 2001 when the 39th National Assembly included this structure in the scope of the Access to the Former State Security and the General Staff Intelligence Directorate Files Act. This philosophy was confirmed and the scope of the law – expanded and adopted by the 40th National Assembly in December 2006 Access and Disclosure of Documents and Announcing Affiliation of Bulgarian Citizens to the State Security and the Intelligence Services of the Bulgarian National Armed Services Act. Thus, albeit belatedly, the National Assembly classified the Military Intelligence among the structures of the communist regime, which records must be declassified, and regular and supernumerary employees holding different positions should be publicly announced by the Committee established pursuant to that Act.

The Intelligence services of the Bulgarian Nation Army “made it up” as their inclusion in the scope of the law has given rise to some strange abbreviations. Therefore, the Committee received the official name CDDAABCSSISBNA and its centralized archives - unified archive of the communist secret services – which is also strange and unutterable – ACDDAABCSSISBNA.

The collection “Military Intelligence during the Communist Era” is the ninth edition of the Committee for Disclosing of the Documents and Announcing Affiliation of Bulgarian Citizens to the State Security and Intelligence Services of the Bulgarian National Army. With this collection, fulfilling our obligations under the law, we give everyone interested in the history of the Republic of Bulgaria the opportunity to read it through these documents. But what distinguishes the collection “Military Intelligence during the Communist Era” from the other editions of the Committee?

Documents about regular and supernumerary employees, secret agents, operative reports and cooperation between the Military Intelligence of the BNA and GRU and military intelligence of countries from the Warsaw Pact and others for the period September 9, 1944 - November 10, 1989 are published for the first time in the history of the Republic of Bulgaria. Here is included a section, which provides evidence of the heads of the structure under review – the Military Intelligence. Excerpts of their personal matters that give insight into the problems of the Military Intelligence and show the inside contradictions and conflicts (e.g. the arrest and investigation of the first head of the Military Intelligence - Colonel Vranchev in connection with a case from 1952 against the “anti-Party, espionage and conspiratorial group of Traicho Kostov”) are also published for the first time.

We believe that these documents will broaden and deepen the public discussion on the legacy of the totalitarian communist past. This is important because until now the main focus continues to be placed on the State Security – on concrete facts and aspects of its work, as well as on its structures.

Leaving aside the most common historical notes for the Military Intelligence on the website of the Military Information Service, the society does not know anything substantial about its activity during the Communist era. Exceptions are some memoirs as those of the longest working head of the Military Intelligence General Vasil Zikulov1. However, it displays a biased and subjective view on the subject. In the collection “Military Intelligence during the Communist Era”, the documents speak for themselves.

1 Zikulov, V. “Military Intelligence of the Republic of Bulgaria and the Cold War”, second additional edition, “Bulgarian Books” Publishing House, Sofia 2007.

In the book of Georgi Krastev “The Intelligence Services of the Republic of Bulgaria - Origin, Development, Perspectives”2, some changes concerning the military intelligence in the period after September 9, 1944 are entered in the Central State Archive on the basis of individual decisions of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party, without using and quoting other archival sources from the State Military Historical Archives – in Veliko Tarnovo or from the archives of the General Staff Intelligence Directorate.

2 Krastev, G. “The Intelligence Services of the Republic of Bulgaria – Origin, Development, Perspectives”, Military Publishing House, Sofia 2006.

It is indicative that even in 2011, Wikipedia seems to have difficulties in providing the most basic information about the Bulgarian military intelligence. Such information is missing compared to the information provided for the more powerful Soviet Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU).

What were the aims and objectives of the Military Intelligence during the one-party rule of the Bulgarian Communist Party? Who was in control of it? How was it affected by the communist ideology? What were the basic principles for the formation of its personnel and agents? Was there a common ground with the State Security and what was it? The archives contained in the collection give readers the opportunity to answer these questions themselves.

However, what it seems to be the most important conclusion is that the published documents largely demythologize the idea for the Military Intelligence as a body, which was not influenced and dependent on the communist regime and its objectives in terms of the totalitarian communist system. On the contrary, the documents we present show the strong politicization and ideologization of the structure of the Military Intelligence of the Bulgarian National Army. Although its priority is the Southeast flank of NATO, i.e. the neighbors Turkey and Greece, it built the same structures and almost the same methods as the FMD - external political intelligence. The conclusion that its activity is highly ideological and subordinate to the leadership of the Bulgarian Communist Party (the trend which in fact has decreased in the 80s) is confirmed by the materials included in the “Guiding party and ministerial documents” (e.g. secret decision of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party).

The first step in highlighting the activities of the Military Intelligence after September 9, 1944 was not made easily. When it comes to the secret services of the communist era, the problem has always been associated with access to archives. The compilation of the collection overtook the regulated transmission of the archives of the General Staff Intelligence Directorate from its successor - the Military Information Service to the Committee. We have received mostly archival material relating to people - collaborators of the General Staff Intelligence Directorate, whose affiliation the Committee announces by law. This largely hampers the team in the orientation in relation to the volume and content of the documentary heritage of the General Staff Intelligence Directorate.

As a result of the cooperation with the Military Information Service, the Committee received important archival material on the activity of the General Staff Intelligence Directorate. Most of it is included in this collection.

The editorial team was not satisfied with the study of this backup array and sought and included in the collection documents about the Military Intelligence from the communist period, held at the Central State Archives and State Military Historical Archive – Veliko Tarnovo. Thus were completed milestones in the history of the Military Intelligence.

More than 600 file units were reviewed in the different archives. Unlike previous work on the study of the archives of the State Security, microfilms were used. In the Committee, 260 file units were digitally processed on microfilms, which corresponds to over 13,000 pages.

After analyzing and selecting the most important material, it was organized into the following structure. It includes 9 basic components:

Guiding party and ministerial documents
Internal party documents
Operational guidance documents
Management of the Military Intelligence
Personnel and regular employees
Agents
Operating reports and secrecy
Operational documents
Cooperation with GRU and other Military Intelligence of countries of the Warsaw Pact

The structuring of the documents included in these thematic sections allows for easy perception and analysis. All archival material in the sections is arranged chronologically. Only 3 /three/ of total 92 /ninety-two/ documents included in the collection are anonymised – i.e. third party information is deleted. Some of these documents are obvious, received from the State Archives, but the team deemed correct certain information about third parties, mainly relatives of heads of the Military Intelligence to be anonymised.

As in the current publishing practice of the Committee, in the “List of Documents with annotation”, the original archival source of each document is labeled with a specific cut, which precedes the signature. Thus, the documents from the Central State Archives are labeled with A, the documents from the Military Information Service with BP, the documents from the State Military Historical Archive – Veliko Tarnovo with BA and documents from the Ministry of Interior with M.

The book “In Defense of the Fatherland. 100 Years Bulgarian Military Intelligence” was kindly presented by the Military Information Service for the purposes of compiling the collection. From this book we used information about and photos of the heads of the Military Intelligence.

The team tried to present graphically the evolution of the structure of the Military Intelligence in section “Applications”. Unlike some Directorates of the State Security, structures to monitor the development in graphical form were not found in the archives of the Military Intelligence.

In selecting the materials, the team tried to include as many documents as possible in order to reflect the diversity of archival sources. Thus, royal orders, orders issued by the Minister of National Defense and the Head of the General Staff Intelligence Directorate, instructions, guidance, textbooks, party decisions, records and reports, operational information and reviews, correspondence and documents of personal and agent matters found place in the collection.

Like previous documentary collections from the series “In the archives of the State Security”, this collection has also been issued in two editions. The paper edition contains 92 archival documents /total of 490 pages/. The advanced DVD digital version will contain a much bigger volume of archive material.

The editorial team would like to express special thanks to the Military Information Service, the Central State Archives and the State Military Historical Archives in Veliko Tarnovo for their cooperation in preparing the collection.

Ekaterina BONCHEVA

Member of the CDDAABCSSISBNAF