The KGB and the Stasi: The History of the Eastern Bloc’s Most Infamous Intelligence Agencies

by Charles River Editors

*Includes pictures *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents “[T]he Stasi often used a method which was really diabolic. It was called Zersetzung, and it's described in another guideline. The word is difficult to translate because it means originally "biodegradation". But actually, it's a quite accurate description. The goal was to destroy secretly the self-confidence of people, for example by damaging their reputation, by organizing failures in their work, and by destroying their personal relationships. Considering this, East Germany was a very modern dictatorship. The Stasi didn't try to arrest every dissident. It preferred to paralyze them, and it could do so because it had access to so much personal information and to so many institutions.” - Hubertus Knabe, German historian The KGB is one of the most famous abbreviations of the 20th century, and it has become synonymous with the shadowy and often violent actions of the Soviet Union’s secret police and internal security agencies. In fact, it is often used to refer to the Soviet state security agencies throughout its history, from the inception of the inception of the Cheka (Extraordinary Commission) in 1917 to the official elimination of the KGB in 1992. Whether it’s associated with the Russian Civil War’s excesses, Stalin’s purges, and even Vladimir Putin, the KGB has long been viewed as the West’s biggest bogeyman during the second half of the 20th century. Aside from the KGB, the 20th century’s most notorious spy agency was the Stasi, which was instrumental in the history of East Germany. In an era of totalitarian countries dominated by repressive state agencies, the Stasi stood out for its size, and the sheer breadth and depth of its surveillance. Films such as Das Leben der Anderen (“The Lives of Others”) encapsulated post-unification attitudes and conceptions of both life in East Germany and the activities of the Stasi. Despite its notoriety, the legacy of the Stasi is contested in modern Germany. Former West Germans, and Westerners more generally, closely align the East German state and the Stasi, framing a “Stasi State.” Those in the former East Germany, however, resent the patronizing attitudes and conflation of the two institutions, preferring to focus on the social elements of the East German state. Uwe Spiekermann, of the German Historical Institute, succinctly sets out the impressions of many when considering East Germany and its culture of “In retrospect, the Stasi has become a symbol for the GDR [East Germany].” The East German State Security Service, or Staatssicherheitsdienst in German (abbreviated to Stasi) was formed in 1950. It purported to be the state’s “shield and sword” and closely monitored much of the population for the next 40 years. Some of the figures are startling. By the end of the 1980s, Stasi files were kept on six million out of 18 million inhabitants. When the Stasi archives were opened in the 1990s, files were discovered that stretched for 178 kilometers. Over the course of East Germany’s existence, up to two million people acted as spies, and 90,000 people worked at the Ministry, not to mention the numerous “unofficial” informers. East Germany also had a much-feared foreign intelligence arm of its intelligence services, the HV A ( Hauptverwaltung A or central department), which proved expert at infiltrating West German society and running operations in numerous other countries. But why did the Stasi form, and how did it prove so effective? Answering those questions requires understanding the unique circumstances in which East Germany was formed, as well as politics in Germany at the end of Wo

Genres: Nonfiction, History

198 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 11, 2018

About the author

Charles River Editors is an independent publisher of thousands of ebooks on Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and Apple iBookstore & provider of original content for third parties.

Reviews

[Bruce T Ridinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

The communists developed a knack for intelligence-for-intelligence-sake and relentless spying on citizens etc.. Even so, the Soviet KGB & E. German Stasi intelligence branches had some lessons worth learning for highly-effective surveillance methods, skullduggery and human/technical infiltration of selected enemy regimes.

Nevertheless, the ultimate aim of controlling evolving human populations with staid and encapsulated economic plans proved only the manic-working of power hungry and the usual greedy fools. The brevity of the human lifespan always provides unseen degrees political and personal checkmate. Time indeed marches on; and the fashions within it fade without constant innovation and renewal. Hard lessons not easily learned by the KGB or Stasi secret services.

Both fallen Eastern Bloc countries also learned via painful hindsight that intelligence expertise and penetration for cabinet filling bragging was not enough without taking due care of their citizens wants and needs during rapidly changing times worldwide. And communism already had enough stagnant stink and corruption within it to disintegrate all guarded territory walls - regardless of the overarching stranglehold of ephemeral political gadflies. A political regime has long-term merit only when refugees seeks to enter, not sneak out fast under the barbed wire.

[Alexandria Avona · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good work in the content but it is disturbing the Stasi and the Eastern Germans are funding the IRA etc. as taking out "the Western imperialist". Get control of yourselves. It's just pathetic sometimes. Just motivated by sheer sabotage. What a miserable motive. Then once they get their way, what do they think to do? Turn educated Ukrainians into strippers and can't even transition from a natural resource economy while complaining about poverty. Oh I wonder why. Maybe the "Western" thing has at least a developed economy and not using educated women who can raise the economy for strippers under its belt. It's just embarrassing to read about by Ulbricht was probably the only way Germany was going to restructure after another massive attack by the European collective unable to get its crap together to just competently support one member of the unit out of whatever grandiosity was happening there again and again. Russia did help it restructure but the residual anti-Westernism and Aryan fetishism that is then expressed as fetishizing an Aryan look without any of the actual ethnic origin is just embarrassing. And the envy that came with such things. At least the transcendence of German racialism allowed for someone like Angela Merkel, who had a large Polish ethnic background, to be able to ascend and genuinely help Germany to a good degree.

[Ameya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great beginning but lost steam in the second half. The book gives insights into pre war agreements, immediate post war situation and the formation of KGB and Stasi.
Could have gone a little deeper into both the organizations