confidant

Confidants were a category of secret collaborator who were citizens of Czechoslovakia who cooperated with Czechoslovak intelligence service and were fully devoted to the socialist system, had the skills and abilities to explain the various issues and problems, to give characteristics, evaluate reports and documents obtained by the intelligence service. As a rule, confidants were highly qualified experts who could be used specifically for the needs of scientific and technical intelligence. The relationship of the intelligence service with the confidant was hidden from the public. Only those methods and forms of intelligence work that were indispensable to meet the required task were revealed to the confidant. If a confidant had the opportunity to work continuously among citizens of foreign states of interest or to be sent abroad, he could be recruited as an ideological collaborator or, in exceptional cases, as an agent.

Also see: categories of secret collaborators, Section 69 of Directorate I, Section 74 of Directorate I