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State Security (Czechoslovakia)
State Security ( cs, Státní bezpečnost, sk, Štátna bezpečnosť) 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 June 30, 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. Even before Czechoslovakia became a communist state, the StB obtained forced confessions by means of torture, including the use of psychoactive drugs, blackmail, and kidnapping. After the coup d'état of 1948, these practices developed under the tutelage of Soviet advisers. Other com ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coat Of Arms Of Czechoslovakia
The coat of arms of Czechoslovakia were changed many times during Czechoslovakia’s history, some alongside each other. This reflects the turbulent history of the country and a wish to use appropriate territorial coats of arms. In creation of Czechoslovakia File:Coat of Arms of the Czechoslovak National Council.jpg, Coat of arms of the Czechoslovak National Council in Paris before creation of Czechoslovakia. (1916–1918). File:Coat of arms of the Czechoslovak Legion.svg, Motive from emblem of the Czechoslovak Legion was used as unofficial coat of arms of Czechoslovakia in (1918–1920). File:Lesser arms of Bohemia and Moravia (1939-1945).svg, Coat of arms of Czechoslovakia (1919–1920). First (1918–1938), Second (1938–1939) and Post-War Czechoslovak Republic (1945–1960) The lesser and the greater versions were not used from 1938 onwards, but the middle arms also was effectively put out of use when Germany occupied Bohemia and Moravia in 1939. When Czechoslovakia was re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blackmail
Blackmail is an act of coercion using the threat of revealing or publicizing either substantially true or false information about a person or people unless certain demands are met. It is often damaging information, and it may be revealed to family members or associates rather than to the general public. These acts can also involve using threats of physical, mental or emotional harm, or of criminal prosecution, against the victim or someone close to the victim. It is normally carried out for personal gain, most commonly of position, money, or property. Blackmail may also be considered a form of extortion. Although the two are generally synonymous, extortion is the taking of personal property by threat of future harm. Blackmail is the use of threat to prevent another from engaging in a lawful occupation and writing libelous letters or letters that provoke a breach of the peace, as well as use of intimidation for purposes of collecting an unpaid debt. In many jurisdictions, bla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Act On Lawlessness Of The Communist Regime And On Resistance Against It
Act on Illegality of the Communist Regime and on Resistance Against It ( cs, Zákon o protiprávnosti komunistického režimu a o odporu proti němu, zákon č. 198/1993 Sb.) is an act passed on 9 July 1993 in the Parliament of the Czech Republic. This act declared the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia (25 February 1948 – 23 April 1990) as illegal and the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia as a criminal organisation. Most of the act is formulated as a resolution. The resolution made the Czech Republic the first former Eastern Bloc country or successor state to officially condemn a former Communist regime. Challenge of the Act before the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic After passing the Act a group of 41 Deputies (MPs) challenged the Act before the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic The Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic ( cz, Ústavní soud České republiky) is a specialized type of court which primarily works to protect the people in the Cz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lustration
Lustration is the purge of government officials in Central and Eastern Europe. Various forms of lustration were employed in post-communist Europe. Etymology Lustration in general is the process of making something clear or pure, usually by means of a propitiatory offering. The term is taken from the ancient Roman lustratio purification rituals. Background According to a 1992 constitutional amendment in the Czech Republic, a person who publicly denies, puts in doubt, approves, or tries to justify Nazi or Communist genocide or other crimes of Nazis or Communists will be punished with a prison term of six months to three years. In 1992, Barbara Harff wrote that no Communist country or governing body had been convicted of genocide. In his 1999 foreword to ''The Black Book of Communism'', Martin Malia wrote: "Throughout the former Communist world, moreover, virtually none of its responsible officials has been put on trial or punished. Indeed, everywhere Communist parties, tho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Security Information Service
The Security Information Service (BIS) ( cs, Bezpečnostní informační služba), is the primary domestic national intelligence agency of the Czech Republic. It is responsible for collecting, analyzing, reporting and disseminating intelligence on threats to Czech Republic's national security, and conducting operations, covert and overt, both domestically and abroad. It also reports to and advises the Government of the Czech Republic on national security issues and situations that threaten the security of the nation. The BIS headquarters is located in Stodůlky, Prague 5. The Security Information Service reports directly to the Government, Prime Minister and President of the Czech Republic and is overseen by the Permanent Commission of the Chamber of Deputies. Command, control and organization The BIS is a statutory body under the ''Act No. 154/1994 Coll., on the Security Information Service'' and it is strictly apolitical and has no police powers; BIS cannot detain, arrest or ... [...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 the November 17, 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] |
Velvet Revolution
The Velvet Revolution ( cs, Sametová revoluce) or Gentle Revolution ( sk, Nežná revolúcia) 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 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 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 Origin of International Students' Day). The 1989 event sparked a series of demonstrations from 17 November to late December and turned into an anti-communist demonstration. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palestine Liberation Organization
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establishing Pan-Arabism, Arab unity and History of the State of Palestine, statehood over the territory of former Mandatory Palestine, in opposition to the Israel, State of Israel. In 1993, alongside the Oslo I Accord, the PLO's aspiration for Arab statehood was revised to be specifically for the Palestinian territories under an Israeli-occupied territories, Israeli occupation since the Six-Day War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War. It is headquartered in the city of Al-Bireh in the West Bank, and is recognized as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinians, Palestinian people by over 100 countries that it has diplomatic relations with.Madiha Rashid Al-Madfai, ''Jordan, the United States and the Middle East Peace Process, 1974–1991'', Cambri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red Brigades
The Red Brigades ( it, Brigate Rosse , often abbreviated BR) was a far-left Marxist–Leninist armed organization operating as a terrorist and guerrilla group based in Italy responsible for numerous violent incidents, including the abduction and murder of former Prime Minister Aldo Moro, during the Years of Lead. 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 kneecapping of certain industrialists, factory owners, bankers, and politicians deemed to be exploitative; and the kidnappings and/or murders of industrialists, prominent capitalists, politicians, law enforcement officials, and other perceived “enemies” of the working-class revolution. Nearly fifty people were killed in its attacks between 1974 and 1988. According to the Center ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iron Curtain
The Iron Curtain was the political boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term symbolizes the efforts by the Soviet Union (USSR) to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the West, its allies and neutral states. On the east side of the Iron Curtain were the countries that were connected to or influenced by the Soviet Union, while on the west side were the countries that were NATO members, or connected to or influenced by the United States; or nominally neutral. Separate international economic and military alliances were developed on each side of the Iron Curtain. It later became a term for the physical barrier of fences, walls, minefields, and watchtowers that divided the "east" and "west". The Berlin Wall was also part of this physical barrier. The nations to the east of the Iron Curtain were Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operation Border Stone
Operation Border Stone, also known as Operation Kamen ( cs, Akce Kámen) 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 fortification ... [...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 '' Rozmowy kontrolowane'' (''Monitored Conversations'') capitalizes on this fact. The title alludes to the pre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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