The KGB and the Stasi: The History of the Eastern Bloc’s Most Infamous Intelligence Agencies by Charles River Editors

Author:Charles River Editors
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Charles River Editors
Published: 2018-05-11T00:00:00+00:00

The Stasi - or Ministry for State Security (MfS) - was formed on February 8, 1950, after a law was passed by the DDR’s parliament, the Volkskammer, effectively a rubberstamp chamber for the SED. The Stasi’s motto became the SED’s “shield and sword.” The Ministry was sold to the East German population as a defensive measure, in order to repel Western subversion. The Soviet authorities had a genuine (and justified) fear that Allied agents were operating in the communist zone during the late 1940s and this was one stimulus for the new institution. What is perhaps surprising, however, is that it took so long for the DDR authorities to form a secret police. This may have been due to the reluctance the Soviets had in granting East Germany its own institutions; the USSR was suspicious both of the West, as 1950 was a particularly tense moment in the fledgling Cold War, and more generally of the Germans, even communist ones.[32]

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