E-reading room (eBadatelna) – latest update

Dear Researchers,

we are pleased to inform you about the next update of our E-reading room (eBadatelna). Digital reproductions of part of the archive collection Historical State Security Fund (H) have been added to the application.

The historical collection contains mainly operational and object volumes that have been assessed as particularly important and suitable for documenting the historical development and activities of the Czechoslovak counterintelligence. They generally contain documents, photographs, and other documents documenting the surveillance of a person, group of persons or objects, state and non-state institutions. This archival collection is important not only in terms of mapping historically significant cases, but also in terms of the wide range of areas in which the StB found opponents of the regime.

Researchers can study archival material relating to industrial, agricultural and financial issues, embassies and consulates, railway, air and water transport, churches and religious societies, various associations, educational and physical education and other non-state institutions in the Historical State Security Fund. A large part of the archival numbers is made up of so-called former people. The term “former people” originated with the StB during the 1950s and was related to the registration and monitoring of persons perceived by the regime as potentially dangerous. These included former factory owners, wholesalers and landlords, representatives of foreign companies and institutions in Czechoslovakia, as well as medium-sized and larger peasants and tradesmen, senior civil servants, army, police and gendarmerie officers, senior clergy and others.

A systematically digitized range of archive numbers from 1 to 250 has been added to the application. Researchers can now remotely study, for example, the reproduction of a volume relating to the YMCA youth organisation in 1949-1950 (archive no. H-109), the Oriental Institute in Prague (archive no. H-137), the British Council in Czechoslovakia in 1946-1955 (archive no. H-146) or the refugee camps in Bavaria in 1950 (archive no. H-104).

Among the operational volumes kept on individual persons, we can mention, for example, the volume of army general, World War I legionnaire and commander-in-chief of the Czechoslovak armed forces in 1938 Ludvík Krejčí kept in 1952-1961 (H-247) or the volume of social-democratic politician, journalist and prisoner of both totalitarian regimes Vladimír Görner from 1953-1954 (H-207).

In total, 250 inventory units with more than 166,000 scans have been newly added to eBadatelna.