Jaroslav Blahník – The courier who shot Cover Image

Jaroslav Blahník – kurýr, který střílel
Jaroslav Blahník – The courier who shot

Author(s): Ivo Pejčoch
Subject(s): History of Communism
Published by: Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů
Keywords: propaganda; communism; Jan Blahník; state border; Czechoslovakia

Summary/Abstract: Communist propaganda portrayed cross-border agents, the couriers of Western intelligence services, as cold-blooded killers who apparently crossed the border to murder Czech border guards and National Security Corps officers. The reality could hardly have been more different. There is not one recorded case from the area of the state border of the killing of a border guard or National Security Corps border unit officer by a cross-border agent. Rare cases in which couriers actually killed representatives of state power occurred exclusively in the interior and a high percentage involved self-defence under threat of arrest.

  • Issue Year: XII/2018
  • Issue No: 03
  • Page Range: 84-92
  • Page Count: 9
  • Language: Czech