Exhibition and Book: Orwell in Photographs, Prague Through the Lens of the Secret Police
Exhibition and Book: Orwell in Photographs, Prague Through the Lens of the Secret Police

Author(s): Pavel Žáček, Anna Pavlíková
Subject(s): Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Security and defense, Post-War period (1950 - 1989), History of Communism, Book-Review
Published by: Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů
Keywords: Exhibition; Book; presentation; Orwell; photographs; Prague; secret police;
Summary/Abstract: One of the most interesting bodies of the Czechoslovak Communist political police – the State Security Service (Státní bezpečnost – StB) – was the Surveillance Directorate and its predecessors. Its founding nucleus, numbering 14 men, came into being on March 1, 1948, shortly aft er the Communist putsch. From small, specialized State Security units within the Ministry of the Interior, an independent and comparatively well staff ed body – the Surveillance Directorate – developed, cooperating closely with other constituent parts of the political police. Until 1956, in addition to surveillance, this division had the authority to place people under arrest or carry out house searches.

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