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With the launch of this new service – an aggregator of on-line record data of the security forces of the former Czechoslovak (Socialist) Republic (1948 –1989) compiled by the portal communiststatesecurity.eu – we offer users an integrated system for searching information about persons and buildings from the publicly available databases related to the Communist totalitarian era. The general public will therefore finally have a single and easy-to-use service that will solve the problem of the current fragmentation of these sources of information. In a transparent and simple form, users will be able to access all relevant outputs from available links and through them the files of persons of interest to the former State Security (StB) and members of security forces (specific archival materials are available in the relevant archives, i.e. the State Security Archives in Prague and the Archives of the National Memory Institute in Bratislava). Individual records partially overlap and the displayed results thus give the user complete outputs from individual databases.
The system searches all records according to the following parameters by default: first name, surname and date of birth. For other parameters, such as code name, registration number or archive number of the dossier (file), the search engine displays data only from those databases that allow such a search (more details below). We recommend that users not turn off popups in their browsers, as the link may not be displayed correctly (e.g. in Safari).
The system searches and displays data from eight databases:
Administration and Department of Internal Protection of Correctional Corps of the Ministry of Justice of Czechoslovakia) published under Section 7 of Act No. 107/2002 Coll.A/ Archival aids of the State Security Archive (registers of names)
An online database from 2008 – 2010, created for the State Security Archive by the former Department of Informatics and Digitisation of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes (ÚSTR). It contains links to digitised original registration and archival records of federal intelligence and counterintelligence units of State Security, including territorial units from the Czech lands, selected investigative units of State Security, intelligence and counterintelligence units of Border Guards, and archival records of the Intelligence Administration of the General Staff of the Czechoslovak People's Army (ZS/GŠ). The registration and archival records of the former State Security and ZS/GŠ aggregates data about persons and buildings of interest primarily from 1954 – 1989, and in several cases from as early as 1951.
The search engine also contains cadre orders from the chief of the central intelligence administration from 1955 – 1989, with the real and code names of members of the First Directorate of the Federal Ministry of Interior (FMV) / National Security Corps (SNB), in addition to illegal intelligence gathering agents planted abroad and living under a foreign identity. Members of the Intelligence Administration of the General Staff of the Czechoslovak People's Army can be identified in the archival records by the fact that in the "code name" column they only have a number (never a code name like collaborators do). Besides entering the registration numbers of dossiers (files), the database can be searched by keywords (e.g. Charter, Vatican, emigration, terror, defamation, etc.), either in the "surname" or the "code name" column.
B/ Records of collaborators of the former State Security (including the Central Intelligence Administration, Central Military Counterintelligence Administration and Department of Internal Protection of Correctional Corps of the Ministry of Justice of Czechoslovakia) published under Section 7 of Act No. 107/2002 Coll.
An online database of the State Security Archive, taken over in 2008 from the Ministries of the Interior, Defence and Justice. The original form of the list published by the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic under the law in 2003 is available here.
C/ Personal files of members and employees of security forces and units of the Ministry of the Interior of Czechoslovakia
A database of the State Security Archive, containing the first names, surnames and dates of birth of all members of National Security Corps (i.e. units of State and Public Security), Correctional Corps (until the end of 1968) or civilian employees of the Ministry of the Interior of Czechoslovakia, born since 1910, whose service or employment relationship began before 15 February 1990, and whose personal files are stored in the depository of the 3rd department of the Security Forces Archive.
D/ Registration records of agency-operative dossiers and files of Slovak units of State Security
In 2004 – 2006, the National Memory Institute in Bratislava published a digital copy of registration records of the former Slovak State Security unit (Twelfth Directorate of the Federal Ministry of Interior / National Security Corps (SNB), administration of the State Security of Regional Administrations SNB). Their preserved file agenda is stored in the Archive of the National Memory Institute in Bratislava.
E/ Registration records of units of State Security with federal authority
The Slovak National Memory Institute also published an electronic copy of registration records of State Security units with national authority. The Institute's search engine offers an "identical" copy of the record of the central register of files, which the Security Forces Archive subsequently published on its website in 2008.
are highlighted when searching. The relevant files can be accessed by researchers in the State Security Archive.
F/ Lists of members of Slovak units of State Security and Border Guards
The National Memory Institute also published online lists of members of Slovak State Security units and Border Guards, including members of the Central Intelligence Administration FMV from 1969 – 1971 and regional departments of the First Directorate of the Federal Ministry of Interior (National Security Corps).
G/ Cibulka's lists
The oldest available search engine www.cibulka.com dating from the year 2000 contains an almost complete transcription of the registration records of the central counterintelligence and territorial units of the State Security implemented by workers of the Federal Ministry of Interior for the parliamentary committee of inquiry to clarify the events of 17 November 1989. Its printed form was first published on 4 June 1992 in uncensored newspapers published by Petr Cibulka.
Despite later additions, the transcription is incomplete. For example, it is missing the records of secret collaborators of the Regional Administration of the Ministry of the Interior in Ostrava from the late 1950s and early 60s. Furthermore, when transcribing the registration record the category "KI" (candidate informant) was for unknown reasons marked completely incorrectly as "D" (confidant). The list nevertheless contains a transcription of the registration records of Slovak units of the State Security as well as all persons deleted from the records of the Security Forces Archive (see Archival aids of the State Security Archive) by decision of the court.
Furthermore, when converting the data some of the registration numbers of selected agency-operative files were damaged. For example, the registration number 12345 Regional Administration MV/SNB Prague, which has the code 01, is displayed in the search engine twice: once as 12345 and then in a garbled form as 234501, which is missing the first digit and ends with the regional code. Unlike the numbers of the archival records, the numbers of registration records of units of State Security may have at most five digits.
In 1999, Petr Cibulka extended his published list of members of the State Security serving as at 17 November 1989. The database nevertheless is missing members of the Passport and Visa Administration (SNB), Automation Development Administration (FMV) and several other units of the State Security. It also contains several thousand names of members of the State Security who left the Federal Ministry of Interior department prior to 1989.
H/ Records of persons of interest of State Security
The online system Registry of Persons of Interest (EZO) is the electronic version of the manual card index of the statistical-registration department of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, which was developed by the Automation Development Administration FMV at the end of the 1980s. It was part of the central registration system of Czechoslovak counterintelligence units of State Security, including the Central Intelligence Administration and the Border Guards and State Border Protection Administration. Through the registration system of the Central Military Counterintelligence Administration (Third Directorate SNB) it was connected to the Intelligence Administration of the General Staff of the Czechoslovak People's Army.
The Registry of Persons of Interest served to provide coordination (preventing double blocking), information (reference) and an overview of agency-operative dossiers and files by name of blocked persons or buildings. A directive from 1978 stipulated the obligation of members of State Security to register "all persons of interest for state security" (→ person of interest) at the statistical-registration unit.
Current and archived agency-operative dossiers and files for persons of interest for the counterintelligence units of the State Security were recorded in the system, including persons verified in connection with the protection of classified information and relational links – so-called signals – referring to the registration systems of the Central Intelligence Administration (First Directorate SNB) and the Intelligence Administration of the General Staff of the Czechoslovak People's Army. The statistical-registration department of the Internal and Organisational Administration FMV was in 1989 located at the headquarters of counterintelligence in Thákurová Street in Prague 6.
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