Bulgarian State Security and the Education 1944–1989 (536 pages) [CRYPTOME]

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

INTRODUCTION

The book “State Security and the Education 1944–1989” is a sixth documentary 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 People’s Army. It is an important part of the activities of the Committee under the legal requirement to provide access to archival works that illuminate the nature and actions of the former secret services in Bulgaria in the period 1944 -1989.

The document is the most valuable source for the historians while the documents of the State Security are indeed a rich treasure trove for researchers. For the most part, unknown and unexplored for years, kept in archives of various institutions (especially in the MI), these documents remained for a long time inaccessible or difficult to access for readers. The big change came with the adoption in December 2006 of the Law on Access and Disclosure of Documents and Announcing Affiliation of Bulgarian Citizens to the State Security and Intelligence Services of the Bulgarian People’s Army. Under this law the State Security documents are declassified into one centralized archive under the direct control of a Parliament Committee elected in 2007. A great merit of the Committee was that it managed to collect, preserve and provide public access to these documents as required by law.

The National Security and Education theme is very interesting for researchers and also for the ordinary readers, as it is directly related to ideology, going actively through all spheres of life under socialism in Bulgaria. It is also known that the intelligentsia, including the entire academic community of students and professors are constantly subject to the security services. As the most educated and awake part of the society, among the Bulgarian intellectuals was formed views and some opinions expressed, often in deep conflict with the official Marxist-Leninist ideology and its postulates. That makes the State Security especially vigilant to these circles. Under observation are also students and teachers, for which the State Security often noted that they were committing or attempting to commit “hostile acts.” All youth organizations and unions in the state are subject to continuous observation. The network of operational workers, agents, secret assistants, informants, and trusted links and collaborators of the State Security extends to all institutions, schools, organizations, formal or informal groups and it continuously informs the services about the policy views, hostile acts, statements and attitudes among the observed individuals.

During the selection of the documents there have been reviewed over 700 archival units, while 1500 pages were removed. Several institutions fi les were used from the archives of the Committee: IF. 1 (Ministry of Interior Secretariat), IF. 12 (Instructive Dormitories, Set in and Displaced), IF. 13 (Combating Internal Counter-Revolution) and IF. 22 (6th Directorate of the State Security). 200 documents were selected and the readers can see them in the online edition of this book. 60 of these documents were published in the paper version of the book. In the variety of documents, most of the reports are prepared by various directorates and divisions of the State Security, which deal with intellectuals, young people and schools within the state. They are extremely detailed and provide interesting information not only on the political status of individuals, but the work of agents, operating system, embedded in them. The next place is for the references, information and memos. There also many reports by the different departments and services of the State Security, as well as plans, measures and targets for work identified by the authorities of the State Security. Letters, reports, telegrams, lectures, thesis and other materials on the ideological issues are also among the documents.

Some of the most interesting documents in the book:

Document No. 1: This document is the earliest included in the book. It is a record of Division “A” to the People’s Militia Directorate in 1946 and contains information about the network of secret informers and collaborators of the division among students and teachers in the country.

Document No. 14: The document is a report of Division III to the 2nd Directorate of the State Security and contains information on enemy contingents among youth, supervised by the State Security agents and the system of agents among students and teachers.

Document No. 22: The document is from 1960 and it is a reference/information of State Security on the work of the services in relation to the Sofi a State University. It contains important information about the political orientation of teachers and students, as well as about the system of agents, associates and trust relationships of State Security in the Sofia State University.

Document No. 24: The document is from 1961 and it is information of State Security on the nature and understanding of the ideological subversion by examining its various forms and methods of combating these forms.

Document No. 27: The document is from 1971 and it is an evaluation of the Ministry of Interior for the services in implementing the tasks set by the Central Committee and Politburo of the Bulgarian Communist Party to work with youth in improving their education and ideological training, as well as the work with the Komsomol.

Document No. 37: The document represents information from the Head of the 6th Directorate of the State Security on the subversive activities of the enemy against the youth of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria in 1973-1974. It analyzes the major trends in youth groups, antisocial orientation, forms, methods and tools for religious treatment of the youth; manifestations of ideological subversion in universities and subversive activities developed by some foreign students.

Document No. 41: The document is from 1976 and it is a lecture spread by State Security on ideological subversion of the enemy against the intelligentsia and the youth in the People’s Republic of Bulgaria. By this lecture the State Security employees and officers were familiarized with the methods and means of ideological subversion as well as some typical manifestations among the intelligentsia and youth, resulting from this diversion.

Document No. 60: This is a document with the latest date included in the book edition – 1985. It is a report on the work of Division II to the 6th Directorate of the State Security and it is focused on several main themes: the enemy activity among students, teachers and under the international scientific exchange; the impact of the ideological subversion and disturbing trends in the emerging youth groups from different background; condition and operation of the system of agents; specific work on signals and cases, interaction and coordination with fraternal bodies and plants. A table of agents, cases, contingent and prevention in relation to the 6th Directorate of the State Security is also enclosed to this document.

The selection of documents has been led by the desire to put into scientific circulation unknown and unpublished documents, throwing further light on the work of the State Security on the education. The materials in the book were published chronologically, as the earliest dates from 1946 and the latest from1985. Documents from 1944 and 1945 are not included in the book version, as in this period the education was not a priority of the State Security and the documents on the subject are not of particular interest. Documents after 1985 are not included, because the archives of the 6th Directorate of the State Security, which in this period mainly dealt with the intelligentsia and youth, were cleaned and essential documents on the subject after that date were not found. For the convenience of readers, it has been drawn a list of brief summaries for each document and a list with detailed description of each of the published documents.

Dr. Orhan ISMAILOV