Mobilisation File Filming

Last year, extensive acquisition of archival materials created by the former Czechoslovak Foreign Intelligence continued. These materials are reassessed and transferred to the Security Services Archive from the Office for Foreign Relations and Information according to Sect. 14 Par. 2 of Act 181/2007 Coll. In 2021 the Archive received a vast collection of so-called mobilisation copies of operative files.[1]

As a part of so-called mobilisation filming of files, copies of “live” files were taken, consisting of the main file and exceptionally important auxiliary files, for the purposes of protection in case of extraordinary events. In most cases these microfiches and their permanent copies are the fifth micrographic copy of the files that had been transferred to the Security Services Archive earlier and are accessible to the researchers. Nonetheless, very rarely these films are the only preserved copy of the materials that were later discarded. This is also the case of this Archival Document of the Month.[2]

The subject file no. 12613, cover name “Slovan”, is thematically focused on the journal “Listy/Sheets”, published in exile, and has been held by the Security Services Archive since 2007. Until last year, however, the auxiliary file no. 12613/300, with the cover name “Fox”, was missing. It was the file focused on the publisher of Listy, Jiří Pelikán, and the original was discarded on 3 December 1989. The Archive now has its micrographic copy which was taken in 1982 as a part of the “mobilisation filming”.

All six parts of the auxiliary file, consisting of 30 permanent micrographic copies, have now been handed over to the digitisation department of the Archive where they will be digitised for research purposes. We hope that this file will serve as a valuable source for research about Jiří Pelikán and many related topics.

[1] Until today, more the 900 new signatures were received.

[2] For more see the Directive for Keeping Registries, Statistics and Administration, [online], 6. 1. 1988, část II, čl. 9, s. 35–36 [cit. 2022-02-14]. Accessed from: https://www.ustrcr.cz/data/pdf/rozkazy/1sprava/rozkaz2-1988.pdf;

NAVRÁTIL, Pavel. Průvodce operativními svazky Hlavní správy rozvědky. In: Sborník Archivu bezpečnostních složek, č. 8. Praha: ABS, 2010, s. 253–263.

K filmování operativních svazků blíže viz DVOŘÁKOVÁ, Jiřina. Historie a vývoj československého civilního zpravodajství 1919–1990, Praha: ÚZSI 2015, s. 177–180.