Prominent Foodstuffs

One of the sections of the State Security Corps was the Department of Party and Constitutional Officials Security, codenamed Directorate 5. It had a specific task – to provide security for the highest state and Communist Party officials. One of the units was tasked, besides others, with sanitary and toxicological security, aiming to protect the officials from, for example, potential poisoning by decayed food or by deliberate administering of poison. Sufficient quantities of high-quality and cleared foodstuffs were provided by an organisation called DSP (Delivery Service Prague), established by a decree of the Minister for Domestic Trade of 28 March 1957. The same year, Directorate 5 opened a subject file codenamed PRAMEN and maintained it until the end of 1990. State Security provided security checks of staff, guarded the DSP buildings and also carried out sanitary checks.

The downfall of communism made the DSP face a challenge how to survive under the new conditions. The organisation was understandably not very popular for the public, as can be seen in an anonymous filing from January 1990 in which the unknown author made more than critical statements on its current situation: “I’ve already been following the news for some time about special shops for the special class in our nation. They were formerly used by the communists to do their shopping, but whom are these shops going to serve now? How can you declare this is democracy when a part of the nation buys low-quality sausage because it’s cheap, tries to buy mediocre beef because it’s cheap, and gobbles on fat flick with potatoes in Sunday, the quality of which is only fine enough for pigs, while some others use abundant deliveries of foodstuffs from the West for low price. The difference is probably settled from the fees paid by ordinary working class.” As the author threatened with unspecified “actions” if the organisation isn’t closed down, the letter underwent extensive analysis. However, no author was found.

As early as January 1990, a new concept was proposed for the organisation, and effective as of 1 March 1990, it was renamed to Food Prague – Delivery Service Holesovice. The management of the new company intended to make the “delivery service continue supplying for state and constitutional bodies, social events, foreign delegations, and possibly also accredited diplomatic staff. Besides this, with the appropriate margin, it would provide supplies to ordinary consumers”. Their other intention was to increase its focus on commercial activities, over-the-counter sale for ordinary customers, and ideas were also voiced on the future transformation to a joint stock. At that time the Foodstuffs Catalogue printed in 1990 could be ordered and delivered by the reformed DSP. The pricelists show the aforementioned “appropriate margin” which was higher than the food prices, then still relatively uniform, by tens of per cent. A kilogram of butter, for instance, was 67 CZK in 1990 according to the Czech Statistical Office, while DSP offered it for 100 CZK. How big interest there was in these services unfortunately cannot be determined from the preserved archival materials.

Source: Collection Directorate 5 – Party and Constitutional Officials Security; Box I-169.