Author(s): Pavel Žáček / Language(s): Czech
Issue: 01/2008
From the autumn of 1947 the top officials of the Ministry of the
Interior, led by the communist Vaclav Nosek, reorganised their
machinery. The headquarters of the executive security forces
were unified under the “Security Group” (Skupina bezpecnostni),
commanded by colonel F. Janda and his deputy, department
counsel J. Vesely, at a time when the intelligence and state security
units in the Ministry already played an important role in the
political struggle and persecution of the political opponents of
the Czechoslovak Communist Party. In mid-December 1947 the
“Security Group” was transformed into the “Department III: Security”
(Odbor III. Bezpecnost), under the continuing command of
colonel Janda. His deputy and also the chief of Group III/A was
again J. Vesely. Besides the High Command of the National Security
Forces (Hlavni velitelstvi Sboru narodni bezpecnosti) and the
Crime Investigation Headquarters (Kriminalni ustredna), Department
III also commanded the executive body of the state security
service – State Security Headquarters (Ustredna statni bezpecnosti),
headed by J. Hora. On 1 January 1948 the state security
services had a total of 1535 employees and the political intelligence
had 738 employees. Altogether, including units in Slovakia,
this made a total of 2804 employees. Early on 20 February
1948 J. Vesely, the chief of Group III/A, received a communication
from the Plzen branch of the intelligence service stating that the
Minister of Justice, Prokop Drtina, had met several officials and
supporters of the National Socialist Party in the apartment of
B. Barcal in Plzen on the previous day. Those were to include the
Chief of the Plzen National Security Directorate (Reditelstvi Narodni
bezpecnosti) J. Meiner, the journalist F. Naxera, and K. Rehor.
Moreover, the alleged meeting was indirectly linked with
another passage in the communication reporting the opinions
of a Canadian officer, McKenzie, who thought that riots would
break out in Plzen if the Communists tried to seize power in
Czechoslovakia. After midday on the same day, the chief of
Sector III-Aa, Stefan Placek, received an informer’s report
processed on the basis of a ciphered message from the Regional
Office of State Security (Oblastni uradovna statni bezpecnosti,
Ostb) in Plzen claiming, from the very title, that Drtina
was trying to organise a plot to seize power in Plzen. J. Vesely,
the chief of Group A, made an agreement with J. Hora to immediately
send several officers, led by dr. Vaclav Pisecky, to Plzen to
investigate the case. Pisecky, in his secret letter on the checks
upon these reports, reflected the chaos in the security forces,
apparently in line with the culminating national political crisis.
More...