The Prague Spring and Bulgarian State Security (524 pages) [CRYPTOME]

CONTENTS

I. Forward .................................................................................................. 8

II. Introduction ............................................................................................ 15

III. List of Documents with Annotations ...................................................... 31

IV. Facsimile of Documents ........................................................................ 41

V. Terms and Abbreviations ........................................................................ 515

VI. Index of Names ..................................................................................... 516

INTRODUCTION

The Prague Spring and State Security chronicles the tumultuous year of 1968 in Czechoslovakia and the activities of Bulgarian Secret Services in the period. The vast body of material offers a detailed and comprehensive evidence of their active interest and reaction capacity to deal with specific international situations.

The selection of documents draws from a number of archival funds of the Committee: F. 1 (Secretariat of the Ministry of the Interior), F. 2 (Second Main Directorate of the SS – Counter-Intelligence), F. 3 (Third Directorate of the SS – Military Counter-Intelligence), F. 9 (First Main Directorate of the SS – Department IV), F. 24 (World Youth Festival – Sofia, 1968), F. I-R (National Intelligence Service), microfilm documents of the Military Information Service and records of the Military Historical Archive in the city of Veliko Tarnovo. Over 2 000 archival units have been surveyed, 130 of which made their way to the paper version of the publication. The upcoming electronic edition of this collection will offer an even more comprehensive volume of archival material.

The rich assortment of documents keeps a chronicle of Czechoslovakian events on a daily and even hourly basis according to the requirements of the situation. The meticulous accuracy and analytical nature of reporting demonstrates an excellent level of awareness and training of Bulgarian secret collaborators operating in Czechoslovakia, an observation confirmed by the content of their personal and operational files. While the bulk of material is agent reports there are sufficient numbers of inquiries, information documents and memoranda originating from secret collaborators and Bulgarian offi cials external to the State Security system. A considerable number of records are reports intended for different structures of the Committee for State Security (CSS), plans, measures and operational tasks within the competence of CSS bodies. Due attention is given to additional documents such as letters, telegrams, declarations, communiqués and messages from confi dential contacts of the CSS.

The collection includes a few selected documents sourced from bodies outside the State Security system considered to be valuable information resources regarding the political situation and developments in Czechoslovakia: orders for military action issued to two APC infantry regiments by the General Staff of the BNA on 19 August 1968 (F. 24, SMHA in the city of V. Tarnovo); a brief action report from the 12 APC Infantry Regiment – Commandant’s office in Banská Bystrice, of 7 September 1968; translations from the Czech language of leafl ets, petitions, addresses, poems, etc. distributed in the CSSR during the Prague Spring events; assessments of the results of mutual cooperation between CSS bodies and the Czechoslovakian Ministry of the Interior; translations from the Hungarian language of documents concerning the Western response to the military intervention and events in Czechoslovakia. Due significance is given to rather specific documents of relevance such as: a memorandum from the authorities in Athens to the First Political Directorate of the Bulgarian MFA of 25 January 1969, analysing Western response to Bulgarian participation in the military intervention in the CSSR; a list of questions to be discussed with the Soviet intelligence services – a remarkable record of the close cooperation and coordination between Bulgarian and Soviet security agencies; a handwritten detailed diagram of the contacts of Dr. Kriegel at the hospital.

The collection offers a closer look behind the political curtain into geostrategic interests circulating in the period’s dominant political reference system based on the notions of “East” and “West”.

This phototype edition comprises archive materials published in a chronological order. For an extensive look at the background and pre-history of the Prague Spring, and for an insight into the immediate results and consequences thereof attention is paid to documents from the years preceding and following the events, 1967 and 1969 respectively. Selection was made with the key intention to present to the public unpublished or little known documents that may provide researchers with insight on lesser-known aspects of Prague Spring’s impact on Bulgaria. With a view to enhanced comprehension, a list has been prepared of short descriptive annotations for individual documents.

This collection would not have been possible without the kind support of the Ministry of the Interior. We extend our thanks to Deputy Minister Veselin Vuchkov and all members of the working group at the Ministry’s Information and Archive Directorate: Slavcho Slavchev, Mariana Dzhambova, Velichka Veleva and Krasimira Kalcheva. We would like to personally thank all staff members of the Committee for their contribution to the timely completion of this project.

Georgi Georgiev

Todor Trifonov