STB: Prísne tajné

The power of communism was built on an invisible parallel structure. State security was the political police of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia throughout its existence. Since the creation of its structures in 1945, it persecuted the opponents of the communist regime, imprisoned them, destroyed their lives, and prepared staged trials. After the attempt at a revival process and the invasion of Warsaw Pact troops in 1968 during normalization, it suppressed any signs of oppositional views, followed critics of the regime, expelled them from the country, closed them down, members and agents of the StB collected information, all with the sole aim of keeping the communist party in power. Significant anniversaries were strictly guarded so that the opposition could not use them for manifestations of resistance. At the end of the 1980s, however, the all-powerful State Security was trapped by the apparatus of the Communist Party, the tightening of repression did not help, and it failed to foresee November 17, 1989. It fell together with the Communist regime. How is it possible that this happened just after the arrival of the supposedly pro-reform leadership of the StB, led by the legendary Alojz Lorenc, who still arouses the interest of the public today.