Police Officers Having Fun

The 20 kilometres of archive materials that are lodged with the Security Services Archive sometimes contain something quite unexpected. One of such document sets is also the documentation of sports competitions and celebrations held by the National Security Corps officers from the District Department of the National Security Corps in Gottwaldov (now Zlin), dated 1967 – 1968 (part of the Regional Department Brno series, new acquisitions, box 19). Besides a collection of photographs from various events, it also contains several poems.

Although it is necessary to remember that the National Security Corps were primarily a repressive authority that helped to maintain the power of the communist dictatorship in Czechoslovakia, these snapshots and more or less funny rhymes present the officers from an unusual point of view. They commented the photographs in a witty way and some of their comments prove that their authors certainly did not lack the sense of humour and were capable of self-irony, while some of them also obviously reflect the times in which these comments were created. Needless to say that this, unfortunately, is a completely different face of the National Security Corps than that with which the opponents of the communist regime were confronted …