Loughborough University
Browse
IJIC - Maddrell - Opening of State Security Archives.pdf (205.68 kB)

The opening of the state security archives of central and eastern Europe

Download (205.68 kB)
journal contribution
posted on 2018-07-26, 12:21 authored by Paul MaddrellPaul Maddrell
In laws passed since 19911 the state security archives of the former Communist states of Central and Eastern Europe have been opened. This paper examines why they have been opened and what the results have been (and are likely in future to be). It surveys the legislation in place throughout the former Soviet Bloc but focuses in particular on the opening of the archives in Germany and Romania. The reason for this is that the process is far advanced in Germany and much less advanced in Romania. The contrast between the two displays the issues involved very well. The paper argues that the opening of the archives has been an important tool of de-communization. It has been fullest in Germany because of the strength and self-confidence of the German legal system and because of the weakness of the Communists’ political position. It has been partial in Romania because the legal system lacks authority, independence and self-confidence and the Communists have remained strong.

History

School

  • Social Sciences

Department

  • Politics and International Studies

Published in

International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence

Volume

27

Issue

1

Pages

1 - 26 (26)

Citation

MADDRELL, P., 2013. The opening of the state security archives of central and eastern Europe. International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, 27(1), pp. 1-26.

Publisher

Taylor and Francis

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Publication date

2013

Notes

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence on 20 Nov 2013, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/08850607.2014.842794

ISSN

0885-0607

eISSN

1521-0561

Language

  • en

Usage metrics

    Loughborough Publications

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC