Publication details
Agenturní centrála Státní bezpečnosti a její vedoucí Erich Mach. Poznámky k fungování sítě tajných spolupracovníků v letech 1948–1950
| Title in English | Agency central of the State Security and its head Erich Mach. Notes on the work of the network of secret collaborators in the years 1948–1950 |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2014 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Securitas Imperii |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | History |
| Keywords | State security; secret collaborators; Czechoslovakia; communist regime; 1948; 1949; 1950; Erich Mach |
| Attached files | |
| Description | The study looks into actions of the network of secret collaborators of the Czechoslovak secret political police - the State Security in the first years of the regime controlled by the communist party (1948-1950). The topic is narrated through a "story" of the so called agency central - a department which existed at the Prague headquarters of the State Security. The agency was established in February 1948 upon the initiative of Štěpán Plaček, the head of the home intelligence. Its task was to provide assistance for other counter-intelligence departments (to carry out shadowing, detection and arrests), to control their activities and carry out extraordinary intelligence tasks. But before the agency central fully undertook its activities, its tasks had been divided due to a mass reorganization of security organs at the end of 1948. The task of the new agency central was to keep a registry of secret collaborators, assess reports obtained, submit reports on the state and development of the agency network and participate in its improvement and control. Erich Mach (1910-1991), an ambitious and active member of the State Security, was appointed its head. He tried in vain to improve the unsatisfactory state of the agency network – there were too few collaborators, their selection was not according to the new requirements (they were mostly active supporters of the regime who were not able to provide information about its adversaries) and the intelligence workers were not able to control them in the corresponding way due to lack of experience and clear instructions. In October 1950, the agency central was dissolved – it did not correspond to the recommendations of the Soviet advisors. A few months later (February 1951), the central registry of secret collaborators was destroyed (for fears of deconspiracy), which caused enormous problems to intelligence workers which were only done away with after it was re-established in 1954. |
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