The Brabec case an attempt to recall a “collaborator of the soviets”  Cover Image

Případ Brabec – pokus o oživení „spolupracovníka Sovětů“
The Brabec case an attempt to recall a “collaborator of the soviets”

Author(s): Pavel Žáček
Subject(s): History
Published by: Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů

Summary/Abstract: The Czechoslovak State Security (StB) service, just like other power components of the communist regime, was closely linked with Soviet political police, either the NKVD or the KGB. The “Brabec case” is worth mentioning in this connection. The life of Eduard Brabec must have been interesting and it could be possibly characterized as rather exciting. A Czechoslovak citizen went to search for a living in the Soviet union, to be recruited to the Soviet intelligence service at the beginning of the 1930s. At that time he was working as a driver at the Polish embassy. His importance rose sharply when he moved to the German embassy, where he could be found at the start of World War II. He then became one of the informers working for the Soviet side. The last meeting with him was recorded by the NKVD on the eve of the German invasion of the USSR. The collaboration was then discontinued, and Brabec stayed in German services throughout the war. Aft er its end he left for the United States where he tried to lead an ordinary life. When Czechoslovak intelligence service came across materials proving Brabec’s former collaboration with their “Soviet friends” in the archives, they made an attempt to restore it, this time against the American side. However, due to Brabec’s limited potential usability and particularly due his absolute lack of interest in any kind of collaboration, the matter ended up as a failure and the “Brabec case” was placed ad acta.

  • Issue Year: II/2008
  • Issue No: 03
  • Page Range: 36-43
  • Page Count: 8
  • Language: Czech