REMEMBRANCE IN TIME - Index of

244
Remembrance in Time
establishing the political system in Bulgaria was strongly influenced by Stalin's thesis of
aggravation of the class struggle in the period of transition from capitalism to socialism.
That required the improvement of revolutionary vigilance, not only again the class
enemy, but the enemy with a "party membership card".
In a strictly confidential decree of the Politburo of the Communist Party, Case "B", №15
from August 1, 1950, apart from the success of State Security in detecting and exposing
the "enemies of the Party and the people, especially in 1949 and the first half of 1950", a
number of serious mistakes in investigation work were reported. Among them were those
associated with providing documents. "The investigations have been conducted without
any documentation, not any search of documents confirming any criminal activity of the
arrested. The examinations and the search for witnesses haven’t been made, so the
testimonies were very doubtful and not supporting by evidence. As a part of the
investigative system the existing special service documentation bureau was dealing with
minor issues and has left its work apart from the investigators" 3 . Among the measures to
ensure "the successful implementation of the tasks set by the Party and government to
prosecuting authorities of State Security, prosecution and judicial authorities against the
imperialist agents and counterrevolutionary organizations in the country" was the
expansion of the "Card indexes and Archive" department of the SS 4 .
Information about the activities of the Communist Party on collecting, storing, using
and studying of police, court and prison records of members of the Communist Party and
the Workers' Youth League (YCL) before September 9 1944 was contained in the report
of the Minister of Interior February 21, 1951 5 . A draft decision of the Politburo of the
Central Committee for order in their organization aiming its adequate use was attached to
the report 6 . The report reveals that in 1951 all the documents were spread to different
parts of the country. 90 000 of the police dossiers from all the country, about 1000 prison
dossiers from Pleven municipality and 107 folders with reports of police agents were in
CC of BCP. 4000 file (individual and group) taken from the regional courts about trials
against members of the Communist Party and its Youth League, that were prosecuted
under the Law for Protection of the State were held in the Courthouse of Sofia. 16,835
prison dossiers of political prisoners – members of the Communist Party and YCL
collected in November 1950, and police reports archive of the former regional and district
police chiefs and other important documents were piled up in the warehouse of State
Security 7 . The Minister of the Interior submitted to the Central Committee legal
documents about maintenance of the records. His motives were the lack of the necessary
facilities for the proper storage of these documents "that made it difficult for the efforts of
the Party and the State Security to detect the former provocateurs in the Communist Party
and secret police and makes it possible for enemies that worked for the secret police" and
that "Some documents might be destroyed by interested persons" 8 .
On March 6, 1951 the Politburo of the Central Committee adopted Decision "A", №
75 9 . It pointed out that according to the Politburo the lack of accountability and order in
the use and storage of materials of the police, prison and lawsuits before September 9,
1944 "preclude the revealing of persons associated with the fascist police in the past and
who are now into the party or work for the state". To ensure protection, accountability,
research and development of these documents it was decided "all police records, court
and prison documents and all materials of the fascist intelligence agencies and authorities,
no matter where they are located (including police records that are in the BCP) were to be
collected in the Ministry of Interior – State Security, Sofia". A special unit of the