The Stasi of the GDP, East German Students, and the 'Friendly Agency': Temptations and Boundaries of the Transnational 'Intelligence History' of the Socialist Block


	History magazine - researches Reference: Nagornaya O.S. The Stasi of the GDP, East German Students, and the "Friendly Agency": Temptations and Boundaries of the Transnational "Intelligence History" of the Socialist Block // History magazine - researches. 2016. № 1. P. 72-82. URL: https://en.nbpublish.com/library_read_article.php?id=67653 Nagornaya O.S. The Stasi of the GDP, East German Students, and the "Friendly Agency": Temptations and Boundaries of the Transnational "Intelligence History" of the Socialist Block Abstract: The subject of the author's research is the yet unstudied aspects of the transnational history of the intelligence services of the USSR and the GDR in the sphere of controlling the educational system of the East German students in the Soviet Union: their mutual collaboration, the area of operation of the Stasi, the methods of recruitment and mobilisation of unofficial informers, and the conflict areas of the Socialist integration. On the basis of material from Russian and German archives, the author reconstructs the strategies of assessing reality and behavioural practice of the students, the reasons for collaborating with intelligence services, and the attempts to use uncontrolled niches for private benefit. On the methodological plan the article presents an interdisciplinary study, created at the intersection of new political, transnational, and social history, historical anthropology, and sociology of international relations. The student delegation became a Stasi channel, securing the effect of having a limited presence on the territory of the governing country, as well as a possibility to have an indirect influence on the internal affairs of the Soviet Union: the organisation of the educational process and control over Soviet and international students, and also over representatives of West Germany (entrepreneurs, scholars, tourists). The author notes the pragmatic flexibility of the intelligence services' discourse on interagency with respect to official propaganda words, and also confirms the fruitfulness of the refusal to universally consider all the agents of the Stasi as ingrained servants of dictatorship in favour of a differentiated approach to analysing the motives for collaborating with secret services. Keywords: East German students, Stasi, Comecon, Socialist bloc, history of the German Democratic Republic, intelligence history, transnational history, social group resistance, mobilisation practices, Cold War culture This article can be downloaded freely in PDF format for reading. Download article References 1. Prause A. Parallelwelt Mode – Mehrdimensionale Erosionsprozesse in der späten DDR am Beispiel einer Alternativkultur // Das letzte Jahrzehnt des Sozialismus: Transformationsprozesse in der UdSSR und DDR. – Moskau, 2015. (im Druck) 2. Michels E. Guillaume, der Spion. Eine deutsch-deutsche Karriere. – Berlin, 2013 3. Krüger D., Wagner A. (Hrsg.), Konspiration als Beruf. Deutsche Geheimdienstchefs im Kalten Krieg. –Berlin, 2003. 4. Krieger W. (Hrsg.), Geheimdienste in der Weltgeschichte. Spionage und verdeckte Aktionen von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. – München, 2003. 5. Kowalczuk I.-S., Stasi konkret. Überwachung und Repression in der DDR. – München, 2013 6. Kellerhoff S. F. Die Stasi und der Westen. Der Fall Kurras. – Hamburg, 2010. 7. Kaminski L., Persak K., Gieseke J. (Hrsg.), Handbuch der kommunistischen Geheimdienste in Osteuropa 1944–1991. – Göttingen, 2008. 8. Hoffmann R. Stasi-Kinder. Aufwachsen im Überwachungsstaat. – Berlin, 2012. 9. Herbstritt G. Bundesbürger im Dienst der DDR-Spionage. Eine analytische Studie. – Göttingen, 2007. 10. Gieseke, J. (Hrsg.), Staatssicherheit und Gesellschaft. Studien zum Herrschaftsalltag in der DDR. – Göttingen, 2007. 11. Halbrock Chr. Unterwegs im Land des “Bruderorgans“. Transitabweicher und Reisegruppenfluechtige im Spiegel der MfS-Akten // Unerkannt durch Freundesland. Illegale Reise durch das Sowjetreich. – Berlin, 2012. – S. 360–390 12. Gieseke J. Mielke-Konzern. Die Geschichte der Stasi 1945–1990. – München, 2001. 13. Foitzik J., Petrow N. Die sowjetischen Geheimdienste in der SBZ/DDR von 1945 bis 1953. – Berlin, 2009. 14. Bundesarchiv Berlin. DR 3. Schicht 1. Nr. 5936. Diskussionsbeitrag der Studentenabteilung, 4.5.1962. 15. Bundesbeauftragten für die Unterlagen des Staatssicherheitsdienstes der ehemaligen DDR (BStU) 16. Reichert S., Unter Kontrolle. Die Martin-Luther-Universität und das Ministerium für Staatssicherheit 1968–1989. – 2 Bd. – Halle (Saale), 2007. 17. Stiller W. Der Agent. Mein Leben in drei Geheimdiensten. – Berlin, 2010. 18. Nagornaya O.S. Vostochnogermanskie studenty v SSSR 1950-60-kh gg.: transnatsional'nye prostranstva i sotsialisticheskie «seti» // Istoricheskiy zhurnal: nauchnye issledovaniya. – 2013. – № 5. – S.531–540. DOI: 10.7256/2222-1972.2013.5.9267

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Nagornaya O.S. The Stasi of the GDP, East German Students, and the "Friendly Agency": Temptations and Boundaries of the Transnational "Intelligence History" of the Socialist Block