POWERS OF THE SECRET POLICE IN COMMUNIST EAST CENTRAL EUROPE

This research paper discusses the powers of the secret police in the communist-controlled nations of East Central Europe--East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary--and their role in controlling the populations of these countries during the Cold War.

In his speech of March 4, 1946 in Fulton, Missouri, Winston Churchill said the following:

From Stettin on the Baltic to Trieste on the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line all the capitals of the ancient States of Central and Eastern Europe -East Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia. All these famous cities and the populations around them lie in the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and increasing measure of control from Moscow (Gelb, 1986, p. ix).

All these countries, except for Yugoslavia, were conquered from the Nazis by the Red Army in 1944-1945. At first content to exercise control through coalition governments, except in East Germany and the Soviet zone of East Berlin, which was under direct Russian military control, Djilas (1963) says that the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin by the fall of 1947 "sought solutions and forms for the East European countries that would solidify and secure Moscow's domination and hegemony for a long time to come" (p. 177).

Germany had experienced totalitarian rule unde

. . .
anish Civil War, Jews, the Catholic Church, Home Army partisan leaders and others. UB played a key role in developing the phony dossier which was used to purge veteran communist leader and Deputy Party Leader Wladyslaw Gomulka in 1949. In 1954, Lt. Col. Jozef Swiatlo, a senior member of the 10th Department, defected to the West and broadcast on Radio Free Europe "revelations of torture and blackmail, and the extent to which Soviet officials interfered in Polish affairs" (Aschenson, 1987, p. 155). In 1956, Curtis (1994) says that UB "crushed the Poznan workers ruthlessly" (p. 239) after they went on strike, which led to Gomulka's return to power with the consent of Soviet Premiere Nikita Khrushchev. Checinski (1982) said that "Gomulka, himself a victim of the secret police, never underrated the importance of the secret police as an instrument for the consolidation of Communist rule" (p. 147). By 1957, repression began again against intellectuals and other opponents of the regime. During the late 1950s, SB under Deputy Minister in Charge of Security Services General Mieczslaw Mozcar tightened its grip on the nation. Mozcar, who, Checinski (1982) said, was a "veritable power behind the throne," was regarded as Khruschev's man
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Edward Gierek, According Hoensch, Erich Mielcke, Ernst Wollweber, Ministry Defence, Poland Hungary, Eastern Germany, Erich Honecker, According Aschenson, AVO-AVH Hungary, secret police, hoensch 1984, dornberg 1968, checinski 1982, burant 1990, szulc 1971, security police, east germany, communist party, gelb 1986, security police , 1990 march 31, german secret police, washington dc library, study washington dc,
Approximate Word count = 3177
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)

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