Telephone tapping in the Eastern Bloc

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Telephone tapping in the countries of the Eastern Bloc was a widespread method of the total surveillance of the population by the secret police.

In some countries, this was open and legal. During martial law in Poland, official censorship was introduced, including open phone tapping. For example, the Polish comedy film Rozmowa kontrolowana capitalizes on this fact. The title is translated as "The talk is being monitored", a pre-recorded phrase a person repeatedly heard during a phone conversation. In fact, the Polish secret police didn't have resources to monitor all conversations, despite the introduction of the new censorship division.^[1]

In Romania, telephone tapping was conducted by the General Directorate for Technical Operations of the Securitate. Created with Soviet assistance in 1954, the outfit monitored all voice and electronic communications in and out of Romania. They bugged telephones and intercepted all telegraphs and telex messages, as well as placing microphones in both public and private buildings. Nearly all conversations conducted in Communist Romania would be listened to by this department.^[2]

The 2007 film The Lives of Others concerns a Stasi man who is telephone-tapping a dissident writer.

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