Summarised information about the State Security Services and the Intelligence Services of the Bulgarian People's Army
In order to simply the use of the Register, it contains summarised information about the activity, structure and senior officers of the State Security Services, its main areas of operation, as well as information about the Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Bulgarian People's Army.
The Register also provides information about the agent structure of the totalitarian security services, staff collaborators, as well as other categories of secret collaborators.
The Register describes the process of the opening of the archives of the repressive system of the Bulgarian Communist Party, current legislation and a short history of the three Commissions on Files since 1997. The "Statistics" section will contain graphic representation of the statistical data connected with the archives of the communist totalitarian services and those who collaborated with them.
Unique capabilities to search for information
In addition to presenting accurate archive data and facts about collaborators revealed by the commissions, the Register also provides a number of unique capabilities to search for and select information using more than 40 filters.
The Register has a classic search engine which uses a key word or name, but also a number of other types of extended search functions:
- Alphabetical search. This search is based on the first letter of the personal name of the collaborator. For example, if Register users want to look for collaborators whose names begin with the letter A, you just have to click on the relevant letter from the Alphabetical list of collaborators;
- Search based on job description, institution and activity. This allow for a search based on a total of 22 filters defined in accordance with the main categories of public persons referred to in the Law on State Security Files. For example, when activating the "President" option, you will receive data about collaborators who were president, vice president or who were registered as candidates for these posts, and duly checked and declared by the Commission on Files. In the same way by activating the "Parliament" search, all collaborators who held positions in all parliaments from the 7th Greater National Assembly to the present day will be shown (at a later stage the profiles of electoral candidates who were not elected to parliament will also be shown).
- Search based on structures of the totalitarian services. This allows you to select collaborators in accordance with the functional area of the State Security Services and the Intelligence Services of the General Staff and the 10 most frequently encountered structures. For example, when by activating the "FMD" button, you will be shown a list of all collaborators with the First Main Directorate of the State Security Services, etc.
- Search based on category of agent. Here the search is based on the main categories of collaborators – agent, resident etc., as well as a number of categories typical of separate periods of the development of the SSS.
During preparatory work for the creation of the Register, the guiding principles and aims were presented to Alexander Kashamov, lawyer and director of the legal department of the foundation "Access to Information Programme". After preliminary legal consultations connected with legal compliance when publishing information about collaborators, he provided me with an argumented opinion which has guided my work.
The creation of the Register was made possible with the support of the "Freedom and Dignity" foundation, for which I am grateful. I would also like to thank the Commission on Files and its administration, for the professional way in which they processed my many applications for access to the archives.
I have been guided by the belief and conviction that the Register will be useful to society in the objective interpretation of their communist totalitarian past. I hope that the Register will contribute to achieving the final goal of releasing all files, in such a way that the archives of the communist totalitarian services will not only be opened and accessible, but will be objectively and professionally studied.
Hristo Hristov,
Founder of the specialised site desebg.com
and the Register of Collaborators with the State Security Services
and the Intelligence Services of the Bulgarian People's Army.
24th November, 2014
