IJIC - Maddrell - Opening of State Security Archives.pdf (205.68 kB)
The opening of the state security archives of central and eastern Europe
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 CounterintelligenceVolume
27Issue
1Pages
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 FrancisVersion
- 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
2013Notes
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/10.1080/08850607.2014.842794ISSN
0885-0607eISSN
1521-0561Publisher version
Language
- en