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StB
State Security (, ), or StB / ŠtB, was the secret police force in communist Czechoslovakia from 1945 to its dissolution in 1990. Serving as an intelligence and counter-intelligence agency, it dealt with any activity that was considered opposition to the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and the state. History From its establishment on 30 June 1945, the StB was controlled by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. The Party used the StB as an instrument of power and repression; State Security spied on and intimidated political opponents of the Party and forged false criminal evidence against them, facilitating the communists' rise to power in 1948. After the arrival of Soviet advisors in 1949, nearly a year after the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia seized power, the StB began to undergo a fundamental ideological change as the older generation of experienced, educated, and mostly middle-class secret police began to be replaced or purged. The replacements were a younger generatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operation Border Stone
Operation Border Stone, also known as Operation Kamen () was an operation of the intelligence services of the Czechoslovak Republic during the Cold War, lasting from 1948 to 1951. According to some sources, the operation continued until 1958. Its goal was to capture citizens who attempted to defect from socialist Czechoslovakia to West Germany, across the Iron Curtain. The plan was initiated in the aftermath of the 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'etat, in which the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, with Soviet backing, seized control of the government of Czechoslovakia. Background After the communist coup of February 1948, thousands of opponents of the communist regime tried to escape the country. Although the border was guarded, in the year after the coup approximately 10,000 people -- including 50 prominent politicians -- escaped. In response to this, the Czechoslovak secret police, also known by the Czech acronym StB, set up parts of the country's border fortifications about 50 km ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sbor Národní Bezpečnosti
The National Security Corps (; ; ZNB) was the national police in Czechoslovakia from 1945 to 1991. History At the end of World War II, on 4 April 1945, Edvard Beneš headed the first postwar government at Košice, dominated by the three socialist parties, including the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ). The SNB was established by the coalition government as part of the Ministry of the Interior (Czechoslovakia), Ministry of the Interior during a meeting in Košice on April 17, replacing the traditional police and gendarmes. The KSČ gained control of the Ministry of Interior when Václav Nosek was appointed minister and began converting the security forces into arms of the party. Between 1945 and 1948, anti-Communist police officials and officers were fired, non-Communist personnel were encouraged to join the KSČ, and all were subjected to Communist indoctrination. Nosek's replacement of the upper police hierarchy with Communists caused the protest resignation of anti-Co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martin Šmíd
Martin Šmíd was a fictitious Czechoslovak university student who was supposedly killed in the police attack on 17 November 1989 student demonstration in Prague that launched Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution.Dan Bilefsky"Velvet Revolution’s Roots Obscure 20 Years Later,"''New York Times,'' 17 November 2009. The rumour of Šmíd's death was spread by Drahomíra Dražská, a porter at a student dormitory in the city's Troja district. The dissident Charter 77 activist Petr Uhl believed her story and passed it along to Radio Free Europe, the BBC and Voice of America, who broadcast it.Sebestyen (2010), ''Revolution 1989: The Fall of the Soviet Empire'', p. 370-371 The news of a student's death shocked many, and the rumour is thought to have contributed to the fall of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. The Martin Šmíd in question was allegedly a student of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at Charles University. Two students with that name attended the school at the time, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red Brigades
The Red Brigades ( , often abbreviated BR) were an Italian far-left Marxist–Leninist militant group. It was responsible for numerous violent incidents during Italy's Years of Lead, including the kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro in 1978, a former prime minister of Italy through the organic centre-left. The assassination of Moro was a national shock in Italy, as was that of left-wing trade unionist Guido Rossa in January 1979. Sandro Pertini, the then left-wing president of Italy, said at Rossa's funeral: "It is not the President of the Republic speaking, but comrade Pertini. I knew he realred brigades: they fought with me against the fascists, not against democrats. For shame!" Formed in 1970, the Red Brigades sought to create a revolutionary state through armed struggle, and to remove Italy from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The organization attained notoriety in the 1970s and early 1980s with their violent acts of sabotage, bank robberies, the kn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Petr Cibulka
Petr Cibulka (born 27 October 1950) is a Czech politician and former dissident. He is the founder and leader of the minor Right Bloc political party. Communist era Cibulka was born in Brno, Czechoslovakia. As a former member of Charter 77, Cibulka was imprisoned multiple times during Communist rule in Czechoslovakia. Prior to the Velvet Revolution The Velvet Revolution () or Gentle Revolution () was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 28 November 1989. Popular demonstrations against the one-party government of the Communist Pa ... in 1989, Cibulka had been arrested three times, and spent a total of four years in prison for distributing non-official cultural and musical material. During the Velvet Revolution, he was again arrested and imprisoned, but was released as crowds gathered in front of the prison in which he was held and demanded his release. StB archives disclosure In the early 1990s, Cibulka publish ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lustration
Lustration in Central and Eastern Europe is the official public procedure of scrutinizing a public official or a candidate for public office in terms of their history as a witting confidential collaborator (informant) of relevant former communist secret police, an activity widely condemned by the public opinion of those states as morally corrupt due to its essential role in suppressing political opposition and enabling persecution of dissidents. Surfacing of evidence for such a past activity typically inflicts severe damage to the reputation of the person concerned. It should not be confused with decommunization, which is the process of barring former communist regular officials from public offices as well as eliminating communist symbols. The principle of non-retroactivity means that a past role of a confidential collaborator (informant) is alone as such inadmissible from the beginning for criminal prosecution or conviction, thus, lustration allows at least to bring such pas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Velvet Revolution
The Velvet Revolution () or Gentle Revolution () was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 28 November 1989. Popular demonstrations against the one-party government of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia included students and older dissidents. The result was the end of Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, 41 years of one-party rule in Czechoslovakia, and the subsequent dismantling of the command economy and conversion to a parliamentary republic. On 17 November 1989 (International Students' Day), riot police suppressed a Student activism, student demonstration in Prague. The event marked the 50th anniversary of a violently suppressed demonstration against the Nazi storming of Prague University in 1939 where 1,200 students were arrested and 9 killed (see International Students' Day#Origin, Origin of International Students' Day). The 1989 event sparked a series of demonstrations from 17 November to late December and turned ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Telephone Tapping In The Eastern Bloc
Telephone tapping in the Eastern Bloc was a widespread method of the mass surveillance of the population by the secret police. History In the past, telephone tapping was an open and legal practice in certain countries. During martial law in Poland, official censorship was introduced, which included open phone tapping. Despite the introduction of the new censorship division, the Polish secret police did not have resources to monitor all conversations. In Romania, telephone tapping was conducted by the General Directorate for Technical Operations of the Securitate. Created with Soviet assistance in 1954, the outfit monitored all voice and electronic communications inside and outside of Romania. They bugged telephones and intercepted all telegraphs and telex messages, as well as placed microphones in both public and private buildings. Fiction The 1991 Polish comedy film '' Calls Controlled'' capitalizes on this fact. The title alludes to the pre-recorded message "Rozmowa kontro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monster (manga)
''Monster'' (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Naoki Urasawa. It was published by Shogakukan in its manga magazine ''Big Comic Original'' between December 1994 and December 2001, with its chapters collected in 18 volumes. The story revolves around Kenzo Tenma, a Japanese surgeon living in Düsseldorf, Germany whose life enters turmoil after he gets himself involved with Johan Liebert, one of his former patients, who is revealed to be a nihilistic sociopath and a serial killer. Urasawa later wrote and illustrated the novel ''Another Monster'', a story detailing the events of the manga from an investigative reporter's point of view, which was published in 2002. The manga was adapted by Madhouse into a 74-episode anime television series, which aired on Nippon TV from April 2004 to September 2005. The manga and anime were both licensed by Viz Media for English releases in North America, and the anime was broadcast on several televi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Time (magazine)
''Time'' (stylized in all caps as ''TIME'') is an American news magazine based in New York City. It was published Weekly newspaper, weekly for nearly a century. Starting in March 2020, it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on March 3, 1923, and for many years it was run by its influential co-founder, Henry Luce. A European edition (''Time Europe'', formerly known as ''Time Atlantic'') is published in London and also covers the Middle East, Africa, and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition (''Time Asia'') is based in Hong Kong. The South Pacific edition, which covers Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands, is based in Sydney. Since 2018, ''Time'' has been owned by Salesforce founder Marc Benioff, who acquired it from Meredith Corporation. Benioff currently publishes the magazine through the company Time USA, LLC. History 20th century ''Time'' has been based in New York City since its first issue published on March 3, 1923 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Office For The Documentation And The Investigation Of The Crimes Of Communism
The Office of the Documentation and the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism (, abbrev. ÚDV) is the Czech police subdivision which investigated criminal acts from 1948 to 1989 which were unsolvable for political reasons during the Czechoslovak communist regime. See also * Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes External links Official website of the office Anti-communism in the Czech Republic Law enforcement agencies in the Czech Republic Commemoration of communist crimes Decommunization Truth and reconciliation commissions 1995 establishments in the Czech Republic {{Czech-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radio Prague
Radio Prague International () is the official international broadcasting station of the Czech Republic. Broadcasting first began on 31 August 1936 near the spa town of Poděbrady. Radio Prague broadcasts in six languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Czech and Russian. It broadcasts programmes about the Czech Republic on satellite and on the Internet. In 2021, Rospotrebnadzor blocked the website of Radio Prague International in Russia due to a report about Jan Palach from 2001. See also * Battle for Czech Radio * Czech Radio Czech Radio (, ČRo) is the public radio broadcaster of the Czech Republic operating continuously since 1923. It is the oldest national radio broadcaster in continental Europe and the second-oldest in Europe after the BBC. Czech Radio was esta ..., the Czech publicly funded radio broadcaster * Czech Television, the Czech publicly funded television broadcaster References External links * – Radio Prague Radio Prague International ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
