Durzhavna Sigurnost
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Komitet za Durzhavna Sigurnost (Bulgarian: Комитет за държавна сигурност, English: Committee for State Security), often simply referred to as DS (ДС) was Bulgaria's secret service and one of the Cold War's most notorious spy networks.
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[edit] Activities
The agency is often incriminated with the ill-famed murder of dissident writer Georgi Markov using a "Bulgarian umbrella" on London's Waterloo Bridge and was formerly accused of the 1981 attempt on Pope John Paul II's life. The latter allegation has always been sharply criticised and denied by Bulgaria, and the country was officially cleared of any involvement by the Pontiff himself duiring a 2002 visit.
[edit] Structure
- Department One - foreign intelligence.
- Department Two - counter-intelligence.
- Department Three - military counter-intelligence.
- Department Four - technical services.
- Department Five - personal protection of government officials.
- Department Six - political police, consisting of seven sub-divisions:
- Section One - infiltration of the country's intellectual circles;
- Section Two - infiltarion among universities and students;
- Section Three - infiltarion among the clergy, the Jewish and Armenian minorities;
- Section Four - infiltarion among pro-Turkish and pro-Macedonian nationalism groups;
- Section Five - infiltration of agents among "political enemies";
- Section Six - watchdog fot activities against the Communist Party;
- Section Seven - information analysis and anonymous activities.
- Department Seven - information analysis.
[edit] Legacy
The secret files of the DS have been a source of great controversy in the country. After the communist regime in the country collapsed, newly established democratic forces accused the former communist elite of secretly removing DS files that could compromise its members. In 2002, former Interior Minister Gen. Atanas Semerdzhiev was found guilty of razing 144,235 files from the Durzhavna Sigurnost archives. Others have accused the DS of infiltrating the young opposition
