The Story of Laura. Eastern Bloc Surveillance of Spain in the Late Cold War (1967-1990)

ABSTRACT

Based on Spanish, German, Polish and Romanian archives, this article explores some aspects of the Cold War that have hardly been studied until now: the activities of the Eastern Bloc secret services in Spain; the surveillance of Spanish diplomats; and Eastern European spies in Spain. The article examines the history of East-West relationships but adds the perspective of everyday life, using oral history and the records of the security police. The focus is on the importance of the surveillance of Spain as a Cold War country, which has almost never been researched in its connection to the Eastern Bloc.

KEYWORDS:

• Spain
• everyday life
• secret police
• German Democratic Republic
• Eastern Bloc

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ See: Ricardo Martín de La Guardia and Guillermo A. Pérez Sánchez, ‘Bajo la influencia de Mercurio: España y la Europa del Este en los últimos años del franquismo’, Historia del Presente 6 (2005): 43–59.

² With particular reference to the USSR and Spain: A. A. Sagomonyan, Ispanskiy uzel ‘kholodnoy voyny’ (Moscow: AIROXX 2004), 209; A. A. Sagomonyan, ‘Ispanskiy vopros v politike SSSR v preddverii kholodnoy voyny’, Ispanskiy al’manakh 1 (2008): 290–1; Georgy Filatov, ‘La visita del grupo especial de “turistas soviéticos” a España en el año 1969, en el contexto de las relaciones URSS-España durante el tardofranquismo’, Cuadernos de Historia Contemporánea 38 (2016): 161–83. There have been some PhD dissertations in the last decades: Irina Yányshev Nésterova, Presencia de los intereses soviéticos en la Islas Canarias: Sovhispán: 1971–1991 (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 2019); Jesús Centenera Ulecia, Relaciones Hispano-Soviéticas De 1976 A 1986 (Madrid, 2007); Magdalena Garrido Caballero, Las relaciones entre España y la Unión Soviética a través de las Asociaciones de Amistad en el siglo XX (Murcia, 2006); and Yelena Andreyevna Groznaya, Politika Sovetskogo Soyuza v otnoshenii Ispanii v 1963–1991 gg (Yekaterinburg, 2004).

³ Pilar Urbano, Yo entré en el Cesid (Barcelona: Plaza y Janés 1997), 205.

⁴ MfS HA VII 4539, Bundesbeauftragter für die Unterlagen des Staatssicherheitsdienstes der ehemaligen Deutschen Demokratischen Republik (Berlin, Germany: Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the former German Democratic Republic, henceforth BSTU), 73–9.

⁵ Some examples: Nils Abraham, Die politische Auslandarbeit der DDR in Schweden: Zur Public Diplomacy der DDR gegenüber Schweden nach der diplomatischen Anerkennung (1972–1989) (Berlin: Lit Verlag, 2006); Gösta A. Eriksson, DDR, Stasi und Schweden (Berlin: BWV Berliner Wissenschaftsverlag, 2003); Anthony Glees, ‘The Stasi and UK-GDR Relations’, in The Other Germany: Perceptions and Influences in British-East German Relations, 1945–1990, ed. Stefan Berger and Norman LaPorte (Ausburg: Wissner-Verlag, 2005): 75–90; Jérôme aan de Wiel, East German Intelligence and Ireland, 1949–90: Espionage, Diplomacy & Terrorism (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2015); and Beatrice de Graaf, ‘West-Arbeit (Western Operations): Stasi Operations in the Netherlands, 1979–89’, Studies in Intelligence 52, no. 1 (2008): 1–16.

⁶ José M. Faraldo, Las redes del terror: Las policías secretas comunistas y su legado (Barcelona: Galaxia Gutenberg, 2018).

⁷ There has been specific investigation of its importance in the GDR: Arnold Krammer, ‘The Cult of the Spanish Civil War in East Germany’, Journal of Contemporary History 39, no. 4 (2004): 531–60; Josie McLellan, Antifascism and Memory in East Germany: Remembering the International Brigades 1945–1989 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

⁸ Nicholas Deakin, ed., Radiant Illusion?: Middle-class Recruits to Communism in the 1930s (Edenbridge: Eve Eden Valley Editions, 2016).

⁹ Andrea Görldt and Rudolf Herrnstadt, Wilhelm Zaisser: Ihre Konflikte in der SED-Führung im Kontext innerparteilicher Machtsicherung und sowjetischer Deutschlandpolitik (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2002).

¹⁰ Xosé Manoel Núñez and José M. Faraldo, ‘The First Great Patriotic War: Spanish Communists and Nationalism, 1936–1939’, Nationalities Papers 37, no. 4 (2009): 401–24.

¹¹ Lisa A. Kirschenbaum, International Communism and the Spanish Civil War: Solidarity and Suspicion (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015), 9.

¹² Paweł Chmielewski, Dyplomacja sowiecka w Radzie Bezpieczeństwa ONZ wobec zadań utrzymania pokoju i bezpiesczeństwa międzynarodowego u progu zimnej wojny (Łódż: UL, 2005), vol. II, 308–78.

¹³ See: Carrillo´s protest because Poland had begun to exchange consuls and trade delegates: ‘Carta de Santiago Carrillo, secretario general del PCE al CC del POUP, 28-julio-1969’, International Relations, Poland, box 142, folder 16.1, Historical Archive of the Spanish Communist Party (Madrid, Spain: henceforth AHPCE).

¹⁴ ‘Discurso de Santiago Carrillo, el 19 de abril, ante un grupo de militantes, en una reunión cerrada, no pública’, Dirigentes, box 6, folder 2, AHPCE.

¹⁵ See the exchange: MfS, SED-KL 4774, 4–16, BStU.

¹⁶ For example: MfS HA XVIII 5611, BStU, and MfS HA XX/9 1941, BStU. The latter contains a translation of some infamous articles published in the Soviet theoretical magazine Novoie Vremia, attacking Carillo´s book Eurocomunismo y Estado.

¹⁷ MfS HA II 28796, BStU.

¹⁸ For example, for Romania: D014323, vol. 5. 1, 2, 49, in: National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives (Bucarest, Romania: Consiliul Naţional pentru Studierea Arhivelor Securităţii, henceforth CNSAS) (regarding the United Left coalition foundation); for Poland BU 1585 1362, 322–41, in: Archive of the Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation (Warsaw, Poland: Instytut Pamięci Narodowej – Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, henceforth IPN). (Visit to Dolores Ibárruri, ‘Pasionaria’, Party President, on her 90^th birthday, 1985).

¹⁹ See: MfS HA II 34839, p. 13, BStU.

²⁰ Tim Haberstroh, Die DDR und das Franco-Regime: Außenpolitik zwischen Ideologie und Pragmatismus (Schkeuditz: Schkeuditzer Buchverlag, 2011).

²¹ MfS HA II 34839, p. 169, BStU.

²² MfS HA II 34839, p. 18, BStU.

²³ MfS BV Bln Abt II Nr. 497, Operative Sonderinformation Nr. 1/76, pp. 163–70, p. 166, BStU.

²⁴ See the information collected by the Stasi about the CESID in 1985: MfS HA II 41, 637, BStU.

²⁵ ‘Informator o siłach zbrojnych Hiszpanii i Portugalii’, BU 01521/1876, IPN.

²⁶ MfS HA VII 4539, 24–29, BStU.

²⁷ MfS HA VII 4539, 17–19, BStU.

²⁸ As an example, one of the secret newsletters from the Stasi informs in detail about Spain, citing sources ‘that cannot be revealed to keep them safe’: Militärpolitische Informationsübersicht Nr. 4/83 vom 11. März. 1983, pp. 276–7: ‘Einbeziehung Spaniens in das NATO-Nachrichtenverbindungssystem’.

²⁹ Rainer Rupp (with Karl Rehbaum and Klaus Eichner), Militärspionage: die DDR-Aufklärung in NATO und Bundeswehr (Berlin: Edition Ost, 2011); and Klaus Eichner and Karl Rehbaum, Deckname Topas: Der Spion Rainer Rupp in Selbstzeugnissen (Berlin: Edition Ost, 2013).

³⁰ On the subject of the moles in the RFG – although a bit sensationalist: Hubertus Knabe, Die unterwanderte Republik: Stasi im Westen (Berlin: Propyläen Verlag, 1999).

³¹ For example, from the point of view of the SB: BU 1585/3966, MSW II, Department I Hiszpania – Elementy sytuacji wewnętrznej i polityki zagranicznej, 1978, IPN.

³² See for example information about the Romanian-Spanish maritime agreement (1978), D014867, vol. 8, CNSAS, or the consular agreement D014867, vol. 13, pp. 114–19 (1979), CNSAS. A different report about the political situation (not only) in Spain: SRI 9915 vol. 28, (1972), CNSAS.

³³ Fond Informativ, D003424, vol. 33, CNSAS.

³⁴ Fond Informativ, D 124, vol. 8, par 1, CNSAS.

³⁵ MfS HA II 34839, BStU.

³⁶ On the problems surrounding emigration requests: Renate Hürtgen, Ausreise per Antrag: Der lange Weg nach drüben. Eine Studie über Herrschaft und Alltag in der DDR-Provinz (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2014).

³⁷ See different reports on this in: MfS HA II 34839, pp. 157–8, 161, 162, 165–7, BStU.

³⁸ MfS HA II 34839, p. 215, BStU.

³⁹ MfS HA II 34827, BstU.

⁴⁰ ‘Am 7.6.84 um 18.00 fand in der IMK/KW “Stock” die Werbung der IM Kandidatin’, MfS HA II 34827, pp. 31–2, BstU.

⁴¹ MfS HA II 34827, pp. 33–4, BStU. On ‘deconspiracy’ see: Jens Gieseke, The History of the Stasi (New York: Berghahn 2014), 194.

⁴² MSW, Tajne, MSW Department II Nr. 222/9/72, 8-5-1972), BU 0665/219, IPN.

⁴³ MSW, Tajne, MSW Department II Nr. 222/9/72, 8-5-1972), BU 0665/219, p. 2, IPN.

⁴⁴ BU 01216/21t. 2. IPN.

⁴⁵ In fact, in conversation with a former member of the diplomatic services, I learned that the man did not even return home, but went directly to the train station, took a train to West Berlin, and from there flew to Madrid. This is a point that I have not been able to confirm with documentation.

⁴⁶ MfS H II 34841, BStU.

⁴⁷ MfS H II 34841, quotes on pp. 23, 26, 27, BStU.

⁴⁸ Wr 053/2686, IPN.

⁴⁹ Photography – just like the use of hidden microphones – was an essential element in the work of the secret police. See: K. Hartewig, Das Auge der Partei: Fotografie und Staatssicherheit (Berlin: Ch. Links Verlag, 2004).

⁵⁰ MfS HA II 34973, BstU.

⁵¹ BU 01216/21t. 3, IPN.

⁵² Wr 053/2686, p. 8, IPN.

⁵³ Horst Kopp, Der Desinformant (Berlin: Das neue Berlin 2016) (e-book).

⁵⁴ Horst Kopp, Der Desinformant.

⁵⁵ Ibid.

⁵⁶ Ibid.

⁵⁷ MfS HA I 13771, pp. 16–19, BStU.

⁵⁸ See note 54.

⁵⁹ MfS AOibE 16605, pp. 70–1, BStU.

⁶⁰ MfS HA II 34839, p. 216, BStU.

⁶¹ MfS HA II 34839, p. 219, BStU.

⁶² MfS HA II 34839, p. 220, BStU.

⁶³ See: Vladimír Černý and Petr Suchý, ‘Spies and Peaceniks: Czechoslovak Intelligence Attempts to Thwart NATO’s Dual-Track’, Cold War History 20, no. 3 (2020): 273–91.

⁶⁴ As examples: Daniel G. Kressel, ‘The “Argentine Franco”?: The Regime of Juan Carlos Onganía and Its Ideological Dialogue with Francoist Spain (1966–1970)’, The Americas 78, no. 1 (2021): 89–117; Daniel Gunnar Kressel, ‘The Hispanic Community of Nations: The Spanish-Argentine Nexus and the Imagining of a Hispanic Cold War Bloc’, Cahiers des Amériques latines 79 (2015): 115–33; Kirsten Weld, ‘The Spanish Civil War and the Construction of a Reactionary Historical Consciousness in Augusto Pinochet’s Chile’, Hispanic American Historical Review 98, no. 1 (2018): 77–115; and Kirsten Weld, ‘The Other Door: Spain and the Guatemalan Counter-Revolution, 1944–54’, Journal of Latin American Studies 51, no. 2 (2019): 307–31.

⁶⁵ James Mark, “‘The Spanish Analogy’: Imagining the Future in State Socialist Hungary, 1948–1989”, Contemporary European History 26, no. 4 (2017): 600–62; Kim Christiaens, James Mark and José M. Faraldo, ‘Entangled Transitions: Eastern and Southern European Convergence or Alternative Europes? 1960s–2000s’, Contemporary European History 26, no. 4 (2017): 577–99; and Miguel Ángel Ruiz Carnicer, ‘Late Spanish Fascists in a Changing World: Latin American Communists and East European Reformism, 1956–1975’, Contemporary European History 28, no. 3 (2019): 358–7.

⁶⁶ Fond 2, opis 30, delo 9, p. 2; Archive KGB Moldavia [I thank Igor Casu for sharing with me this report].

⁶⁷ Pilar Urbano, Yo entré en el Cesid, 205.

⁶⁸ See: Putevoditel’ KGB po gorodam mira (Moscow: Sovershenno sekretno 1996); and Helen Womack, Undercover Lives: Soviet Spies in the Cities of the World (London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1998), specially 277–91.

⁶⁹ About the firm: Mariano Sánchez Soler, La familia Franco S.A. (Barcelona: Roca, 2019).

⁷⁰ Christian Domnitz, Kooperation und Kontrolle: Die Arbeit der Stasi-Operativgruppen im sozialistischen Ausland (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2016).

⁷¹ Apparat CK KPSS, Fond 5, Opis 61, Delo 591, p. 90, Rossiyskiy gosudarstvennyy arkhiv noveyshey istorii (Russian State Archives of Contemporary History, RGANI), quoted in: Georgy Filatov, La visita del grupo especial de ‘turistas soviéticos’ a España en el año 1969, 178.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the ‘Interacting Francoism: Entanglement, Comparison and Transfer between Dictatorships in the 20th Century’ project [Project: PGC2018-096492-B-I00-]; Spanish Ministry of Economy [Ramon & Cajal Funding 2009–2015].