Sending Couriers to Czechoslovakia as Part of Anticommunist Resistance in the First Half of the 1950s

Abstract

The anticommunist resistance in Czechoslovakia, organized from abroad, was led primarily by groups of experienced Czechoslovak intelligence officers who fled to the West after the coup d'état in February 1948. Financed and organized by the intelligence services of France, Great Britain, and the United States, and in isolated cases by the Czechoslovak exile organizations, these groups sent hundreds of couriers to Czechoslovakia to carry out various intelligence tasks. Recruited mainly from young individuals placed in refugee camps, these people faced a perilous mission. The State Security Service apprehended many of them. Those deemed unsuitable for intelligence use by the communist security apparatus faced years of imprisonment or even execution. A few years after the communist coup d'etat in Czechoslovakia, when it became clear that World War III would not break out, activities of the Western intelligence services that previously sent couriers dramatically changed. Risks when crossing the national border and working in Czechoslovakia became enormous. The state borders with Western countries were heavily guarded. Czechoslovak society was overcome by fear, and it was difficult to find people willing to cooperate with patriots in exile. In the middle of the 1950s, Western intelligence services stopped sending couriers to Czechoslovakia. They began to focus more on the use of legal channels and tried to recruit collaborators from among Czechoslovak citizens who regularly visited Western countries for business or cultural purposes.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

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

Notes

1 Libor Svoboda, Operations and Activities of the So-Called “Couriers” as one of the Forms of Foreign Anti-Communist Resistance in the First Half of the 1950s in Czechoslovakia (Praha: Acta humanitarica universitatis Saulensis, 2013), pp. 122 − 132.

2 Ibid.

3 See, for example, Francis D. Raška, Opuštění bojovníci: Historie Rady svobodného Československa 1949–1961 (Praha: Academia, 2009); Jožka Pejskar, Památník na zemřelé československé exulanty 1948–1981 (Curych: Konfrontace, 1982).

4 For example, František Moravec, Špion, jemuž nevěřili (Praha: Leda, 2014).

5 Prokop Tomek, Československý zpravodajský úřad 1949–1956, Historie a Vojenství č. 3 (Praha: 2004), pp. 74 − 90.

6 Eduard Stehlík, MEASURE: Příspěvek k historii Czechoslovak Intelligence Organization—CIO, Studentské listy 25 (Praha: 1991), p. 16.

7 Libor Svoboda and Martin Tichý (eds.), Cesty za svobodou: Kurýři a převaděči v padesátých letech 20. století (Praha: ÚSTR, 2014).

8 Prokop Tomek, Tajná operativní věznice Státní bezpečnosti ve Wintrově ulici v Praze v letech 1951–1955, Securitas Imperii č. 7 (Praha: ÚDV 2001), pp. 286–318.

9 Ivo Pejčoch and Prokop Tomek, Agenti—Chodci na popravišti: Kurýři západních zpravodajských služeb, popravení v letech 1949–1958 (Praha: Svět křídel, 2010).

10 The communist party expected the pilots to flee. Therefore, “politically unreliable” pilots were withdrawn from long-haul to domestic flights, and an order was issued that their family members were not allowed to fly with the crew members. The organizers of the triple Dakota flight solved this problem. During the two-month planning period, they agreed that the pilots’ wives would travel under their maiden names or fly on another of the three planes. “The Triple Hijack to Erding—65th Anniversary,” Free Czechoslovak Air Force Associates, 24 March 2014, https://fcafa.com/2015/03/24/the-triple-hijack-to-erding-65th-anniversary/

11 Ibid.

12 “Vlak svobody,” http://www.fofifo.wz.cz/vlak_svobody.htm

13 Ibid.

14 Prokop Tomek, Vysílání kurýrů do ČSR pomocí balonů v době studené války. Historie a Vojenství č. 2 (Praha: 2007), pp. 76–84.

15 Ibid.

16 File No. V-2461 MV, record group Vyšetřovací spisy, Archiv bezpečnostních složek (ABS).

17 File No. 10036/100, record group Hlavní správa rozvědky, ABS.

18 File No. V-2463 MV, record group Vyšetřovací spisy, ABS.

19 File No. V-2685 MV, record group Vyšetřovací spisy, ABS.

20 Pavel Vaněk, K vývoji ženijnětechnického zabezpečení státní hranice v letech 1951–1955 (Praha: Sborník AMV, 2/2004), pp. 183–196.

21 Martin Pulec, Organizace a činnost ozbrojených pohraničních složek. Seznamy osob usmrcených na státních hranicích 1945–1989 (Praha: Sešity ÚDV č. 13, 2006), p. 172.

22 The most valuable intelligence source that the CIO managed to recruit inside the country was the director of the First Czechoslovak Insurance Company, Josef Potoček. He was recruited during his business trip to London by his friend Josef Kosina, editor in the BBC. Karel Pacner, Československo ve zvláštních službách, díl III (Praha: Themis, 2002), pp. 387 − 423.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Daniel Běloušek

Daniel Běloušek is affiliated with the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic. The author can be contacted at [email protected].