The Main Aspects of Cooperation between the Citizens’ Militia and the Security Service in the Seventies and Eighties of the Twentieth Century

Abstract

The article concerns the poorly described issue of cooperation between theCitizens’ Militia and the Security Service in the 1970s and 1980s, especially the mainaspects of this cooperation. Based on an analysis of archival materials, the author triesto answer the question of the extent to which the goals, methods and competences of theCitizens’ Militia and the Security Service were similar and how they intertwined. Basedon the sources, it is possible to trace the similarities and differences in the operation ofboth services. Using the example of departmental studies and operational matters, examplesof cooperation between the Citizens’ Militia and the Security Service are shownin terms of information exchange, protection of the economy and combating politicalopposition. Their areas of interest often overlapped, especially in matters of an economicnature, and the Citizens’ Militia and the Security Service often dealt with the sameissues. Despite the fact that the importance of cooperation was repeatedly emphasized ininternal documents, the analysis determined that it did not have real priority significance.