Chekists

The book represents the first ever historiographical survey summarising basic information about the activities of communist security forces in Central and Eastern Europe. The publication brings together comprehensive studies by an international collective of authors who describe the genesis, organisation and methods of the security apparatus in individual countries of the Eastern Bloc whose Secret police followed the Soviet pattern and hosted Soviet advisors. The practices, methods and mentality of the Soviet political police were transplanted into the organisation of the state security forces forming the so-called “outer empire”; their officers often took pride in calling themselves “Chekists”, and revered Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky, the founder of the Bolshevic Cheka