First Class Comrades

Abbreviations

ACC  Allied Control Council

ADN  East German news agency (Allgemeiner Deutscher Nachrichten- dienst)

APN  Early name for East German foreign intelligence (Aussenpolitischer Nachrichtendienst)

BDJ  Nationalist youth organisation in West Germany (Bund Deutscher Jugend)

BfV  Federal security service (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz)

BND  Federal foreign intelligence service (Bundesnachrichtendienst)

BOB  Berlin Operations Base - US intelligence office

BV  Stasi regional office (Bezirksverwaltung)

CDU  Christian Democratic Union (Christlich-Demokratische Union)

Cheka  The first Soviet secret police - term remained in use thereafter

CIA  Central Intelligence Agency

CIC  Counter Intelligence Corps of the US army

Comintern  Moscow-led confederation of national communist parties (Communist International)

DBD  Democratic Farmers' Party of Germany (Demokratische Bauernpartei Deutschlands)

DDR  German abbreviation for East Germany (Deutsche Demokratische Republik)

DGB  Federal trade union federation (Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund)

DP  West German nationalist party (Deutsche Partei)

DST  French domestic security service (Direction de la surveillance du territoire)

DVdI  German Administration of the Interior (Deutsche Verwaltung des Innern)

FDGB  East German trade union federation (Freier Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund)

FDJ  East German youth organisation (Freie Deutsche Jugend)

FDP  Free Democratic Party (Freie Demokratische Partei)

GDR  German Democratic Republic - East Germany

GI  Stasi secret informer (Geheimer Informator)

GM  Stasi secret co-worker (Geheimer Mitarbeiter)

GPU  Soviet state security service 1922-23 - term remained in international use thereafter

GRU  Soviet military intelligence service

GST  Society for Sport and Technology (Gesellschaft für Sport und Technik)

Gulag  Directorate of Soviet penal labour camps

HA  Prefix for a Main Department of the Stasi (Hauptabteilung)

HUMINT  Human intelligence

HVA  Stasi foreign intelligence service (Hauptverwaltung A)

IRD  Information Research Department

IWF  Cover name for GDR foreign intelligence (Institut für wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Forschung)

K5  Secret police in Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany

KD  Stasi district office (Kreisdienststelle)

KGB  Committee of State Security - Soviet intelligence and security service

KgF  League of Struggle Against Fascism (Kampfgemeinschaft gegen den Faschismus)

KgU  Combat Group Against Inhumanity (Kampfgruppe gegen Unmenschlichkeit)

KI  Soviet foreign intelligence service 1947-1951

KJVD  Youth wing of the KPD 1920s-30s (Kommunistische Jugendverband Deutschlands)

KPD  German Communist Party (Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands)

Kripo  Slang term for German police criminal investigation department (Kriminalpolizei)

KVP  East German paramilitary police (Kasernierte Volkspolizei)

LDPD  Liberal Democratic Party of Germany (Liberal-demokratische Partei Deutschlands)

MfS  East German Ministry for State Security; the Stasi (Ministerium für Staatssicherheit)

MGB  Soviet state security service 1946-1953

MI5  British state security service

MI6  British foreign intelligence service

MID  Military Intelligence Department of US army

MVD  Soviet interior ministry (from 1946)

NATO  North Atlantic Treaty Organization

NDPD  National Democratic Party of Germany (National-Demokratische Partei Deutschlands)

NKGB  Soviet state security service 1943-1946

NKVD  Soviet interior ministry ('people's commissariat') and term for state security from 1934-1943

NSA  National Security Agency; US SIGINT organisation

NSDAP  Nazi party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

NTS  Anti-communist Russian émigré organisation

NVA  East German army (Nationale Volksarmee)

NWDR  Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk - radio station based in Hamburg

OG  West German foreign intelligence service (Organisation Gehlen)

OGPU  Soviet state security service 1923-1934 - term remained in international use thereafter

OMGUS  US Office of Military Government

OMS  Secret service of the Comintern

OPC  Office of Policy Coordination - branch of CIA

Ostbüro  The 'eastern office' of a West German political party, focused on work in the GDR

PET  Danish intelligence and security service (Politiets Efterretningst- jeneste)

PiD  Political deviance (Politisch-ideologische Diversion)

POZW  Cooperation between the Stasi and other agencies (politisch-operatives Zusammenwirken)

Profintern  Interwar communist trade union organisation

RFB  Interwar German communist paramilitary organisation (Rotfrontkämpferbund)

RGO  Communist trade union organisation (Revolutionäre Gewerkschafts-Opposition)

RIAS  Radio in the American Sector

RU  Interwar Soviet military intelligence service

SA  Nazi paramilitary organisation - the Brownshirts (Sturmabteilung)

SBONR  Anti-communist Russian émigré organisation

SBZ  Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany (Sowjetische Besatzungszone)

SD  Intelligence and security service of the Nazi party (Sicherheitsdienst)

SDECE  French intelligence service (Service de documentation extérieure et de contre-espionnage)

SED  East German communist party (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands)

SfS   Name for the Stasi from 1953-55 (Staatssekretariat für Staatssicherheit)

SIGINT  Signals intelligence

SIS  Secret Intelligence Service, aka MI6

SMAD  Soviet Military Administration (Sowjetische Militäradministration in Deutschland)

SMERSH  Soviet military counter-intelligence service 1943-1946

SPD  Social Democratic Party (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands)

SSD  German term for the Stasi - State Security Service (Staatssicherheitsdienst)

TBK  Stasi term for a dead letter box (tote Briefkasten)

UfJ  Investigative Committee of Free Jurists (Untersuchungsausschuss Freiheitlicher Juristen)

VEB  State-owned company in the GDR (Volkseigener Betrieb)

VEG  State-owned agricultural concern in the GDR (Volkseigene Güter)

VOS  Association for the Victims of Stalinism (Vereinigung der Opfer des Stalinismus)

VPO  Association of Political Refugees from the East (Vereinigung Politischer Ostflüchtlinge)

WU  Western Union - postwar west European military alliance

Note on the text

Selected German and Russian terms, such as Grossaktionen ('big operations') and razvedka ('reconnaissance'), are in italic font for the sake of emphasis. For the sake of less cluttered pages, most text in German and other languages is in ordinary font. The term 'spy' usually refers to a gatherer of information, the term 'agent' to a person performing other intelligence tasks, such as a courier or observer. 'Agents' is used as the umbrella term. Terms such as 'social democrats' are not usually capitalised because, in the context of this book, such people were not necessarily members of a Social Democratic Party. The term 'eastern Germany' refers to the territory of the GDR before 1949, when the GDR was founded; after that date, it is East Germany. Wherever they are known, translators of text have been credited in the notes. Other translations are the...