Counterintelligence residentura of the Federal ministry of interior

Residentura is a term which is commonly used to denote an intelligence service base in another country. For the pre-1989 period, Czechoslovak residenturas are mostly only mentioned in relation to the activity of the Communist foreing intelligence (code name 1st Directorate). From the beginning of the 1950s, it created a vast network of residenturas associated with embassies in countries outside the Soviet bloc.

As a matter of fact, from the beginning of the 1970s, there were residenturas active also in several Communist countries (Soviet Union, East Germany, Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria). Their operative activities were steered by counterintelligence forces of the secret police. Gradually, similarly directed residenturas were created in further pro-Soviet oriented countries so that in 1989, next to the countries mentioned there were residenturas also in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Irak, Cuba, Libya, Nikaragua and Vietnam. Next to respective internal directives, their position was regulated also by international treaties which were concluded with the foreign partners by the Federal ministry of interior.   

The operative activities of the counterintelligence residenturas of the Federal ministry of interior (FMV) can be divided into three areas. The first was the “line of the external enemy“ which meant first of all ascertaining the activities of the employees of the embassies and the citizens of “enemy“ countries (especially the USA, FRG, Iran and China), the second was the “fight against the internal enemy“, and the final the counterintelligence protection of the economy. 

The largest residentura with a “counterintelligence“ orientation was the residentura of the FMV in the Soviet Union. Its staff developed activities especially in Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev where there were Czechoslovak embassies. The Moscow residentura which had altogether 9 operative agents was very important because it maintained and mediated direct contacts with the leadership of the Committee for state security of the USSR (KGB). At the same time, there were several thousand Czechoslovak citizens in the Soviet Union acting in different roles, and their “counterintelligence“ monitoring was one of the residenturas‘ main tasks. 

The activity of the residenturas of the FMV in the member states of the Warsaw pact was regulated for the first time by a special directive approved by Minister of interior Radko Kaska on 16 December 1970. The directive delimited the general powers, tasks and relationships of the representative of the FMV and the staff of the residenturas in the USSR, the Polish People’s Republic, the German Democratic Republic, the Hungarian People’s Republic and the Bulgarian People’s Republic. The territorial authority of the representative of the FMV and the establishment and activity of the residenturas were then regulated by international treaties at the ministerial level.

The representative of the FMV was appointed by the Minister of interior of the ČSSR upon a proposal by the chief of the Section for international relations who however first consulted his choice with the chiefs of the operative forces of the FMV. The representative was directly responsible to the federal minister of interior for the fulfilment of his tasks, however the “operative agency“ tasks were given to him by the corresponding chief of the operative Directorate through the Section for international relations. The representative was responsible for the activity of the entire residentura and he coordinated the work in the “operative agency“ tasks of its individual staff members who were subordinated to him irrespective of their original rank. He was also the representative of all sections of the FMV toward the respective partners in the country where he was active. At the same time, he fulfilled tasks ensuing from his legalisation position and he discussed all questions connected with the defence and protection regime of the Czechoslovak embassy with the official title bearer.  

The residentura was an organisational unit of the FMV composed of the representative, the staff of the residentura, the code maker and possibly further technical assistance staff from the ranks of the National security corps. Although mostof the staff of the residentura worked at the embassy, the directive also expected the possibility of acting outside the diplomatic space. The selection, training and legalisation of the residentura staff who dealt with “operative agency activities“, coding and communication services, was carried out by the respective chief. A staff member of the residentura therefore carried out both tasks ensuing from his or her legalisation position and tasks of “operative agency character“ entrusted to him or her by the representative and the respective part of the FMV. The concrete tasks of the staff members followed from the annual plan of work and from the plans for concrete actions. They mostly dealt with intercepting and verifying the contacts of Czechoslovak citizens with Western foreigners. According to the directive mentioned, the residentura was to be “established based on strict conspiracy especially toward the capitalist foreign intelligence“.

In the following twenty years, the position of the residenturas in the Communist countries did not change much. At the end of the eighties, the representative of the FMV and other staff of the residentura were transferred to the active reserve of the office of the Minister of interior of the ČSSR, to whose chief they were subordinated. On the administrative side, the residenturas were directed based upon his motions by the Section on international relations of the office of the Minister of interior. At the end of the eighties, the chief was lt. col. František Kubánek. After the reorganisation of the secret police in August 1988 the Main Directorate of the counterintelligence of the State security was created (code name 2nd Directorate of the National security corps). The preparation and steering of the operative activities of the residenturas in the Communist countries were also transferrred under its authority.

Several staff members of the 3rd department of the analytical section of the 2nd Directorate of the National security corps were entrusted with preparing plans for the residenturas in twelve countries, with helping in selecting suitable persons for collaboration upon their subsequent arrival abroad and they doing the administrative keeping of their files. As of 31 October 1988 the section had 90 secret collaborators, 9 candidates for secret collaboration and 206 confidentes, about half of which were directed by staff members of the residentura in the Soviet Union. They were also responsible for the material operation of the residentura, preparing contractual documents with the host country and securing the training of newly deployed staff of the residenturas. The listing of activities might seem overwhelming at first sight, however the reality was surely much more prosaic. At the end of October 1988, staff member of the 3rd department of the analytical section of the 2nd Directorate lt. col. František Pitra complained that he could not fulfil all the given tasks because he had only four operative staff members. A number of tasks thus remained only on paper and other were fulfilled only mechanically. 

Overview of operative staff members of the residenturas in the Communist countries and of files of collaborators (October 1988)