TY  - JOUR
AB  - The communist political system in Eastern Europe rested not upon consent but upon coercion. As an ‘important centre of administrative repression’, the secret police proved vital in ensuring the survival of the regimes which they served. In the earliest phase of communist rule, during the late 1940s and 50s, the secret police were primarily employed as instruments of political and social change. Their task was to intimidate the population as a whole into accepting the fact of communist party rule. Once the communists had consolidated their power, the task of the police altered and became one of ‘political maintenance’. In this second phase, which lasted right up until 1989, the secret police no longer acted as agents of change but, instead, as guardians of the status quo.
VL  - 3
IS  - 3
SN  - 0956-5698
DO  - 10.1108/eb027061
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/eb027061
AU  - Rady Martyn
PY  - 1991
Y1  - 1991/01/01
TI  - The management of secret Police files in Eastern Europe
T2  - Records Management Journal
PB  - MCB UP Ltd
SP  - 70
EP  - 77
Y2  - 2024/05/14
ER  -