First Class Comrades: The Stasi in the Cold War, 1945-1961

No country in history has been more deeply penetrated by spies than divided Germany after the Second World War. Among them were the 'first class comrades' of the Stasi the East German Ministry for State Security. The early Cold War saw the Stasi establish itself as one of the world's most notorious spy and secret police agencies. Drawing on previously unexamined files from the Stasi archives, First Class Comrades tells the Stasi story from a fresh perspective: how it helped to create a new European state, how its foreign intelligence service became one of the most successful ever, and how its spy-catchers tackled vigorous attempts by the West to infiltrate East Germany attempts that influenced the decision to build the Berlin Wall. Full of new insights and little-known facts about the Stasi and Cold War espionage, and featuring newly discovered details of the Stasi's operational methods, First Class Comrades shines a light on this lesser-known period of Stasi history, and why its stories and lessons still matter today. 'Boulter's thorough research provides an excellent reference for understanding how the Stasi began and how it fulfilled its responsibilities' Kevin Riehle, author of The Russian FSB 'A fascinating deep dive into the murky waters of Cold War espionage and the early days of East Germany's notorious secret police' - Nick Rennison 'An impressive work...Boulter really widens the perspective on the Stasi' Dieter Bacher, Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for War Studies

Table of Contents:
Contents Abbreviations Prologue Introduction Part I Death to Spies: The Descent of Eastern Germany 1. Stunde Null 2. Circles of Hell: Postwar Germany 3. SMERSH 4. Anti-fascist Unity: The New Politics 5. The Police Reborn 6. Ordering the Occupation Zone 7. Denazification 8. The German Administration of the Interior 9. New Cloaks and Daggers 10. Germany’ s New Political Police: K5 11. Order No. 201 12. Developments in the Zone 13. The Cold War Hits New Depths 14. Clean and Dirty Spying 15. The Murder that Wasn’ t 16. The Final Steps towards the Stasi Part II United at birth: The GDR and the Stasi 17. The Firm 18. Party, Partners, and the Law 19. A New European Country Interlude: The DNA of the Stasi 20. Conspiracy 21. Chekists: the OGPU and NKVD 22. RU 23. The Comintern and the OMS 24. Stasi Creation Myths 25. First Class Comrades: the Stasi’ s early leaders Part III Stalinism in Action 26. Rostock, 1950 27. Cleansing the SED 28. Neutering the National Front 29. Enemies 30. Re-ordering the Stasi 31. Ulbricht’ s Acceleration of Socialism 32. Spy Wars 33. Gehlen 34. Sabotage and Kidnappings 35. The Institute: The Birth of East German Foreign Intelligence 36. ‘ A Fascist Putsch’ : The Uprising of 1953 37. Main Department XV: Foreign Intelligence Joins the Stasi Part IV Grossaktionen: Spy-catching with the Stasi 38. A Crisis of Spies 39. ‘ Concentrated Blows’ 40. The First Grossaktion: Feuerwerk, October-December 1953 41. An Outbreak of Kidnapping 42. The Second Grossaktion: Pfeil, August 1954 43. New Friends: The KGB 44. The Third Grossaktion: Blitz, December 1954-April 1955 45. The Holes and Corners of Blitz 46. Wrath 47. Liquidating the Mü ller Network in Aktion Frü hling 48. Treacherous Trials 49. ‘ His Trench Coat Was Splattered with blood’ 50. The Stasi of the Grossaktionen Years 51. Investigations, Observations, Arrests 52. Reflections on the Grossaktionen Part V Up to the Wall 53. Spies, Again 54. Special Tasks 55. Changing Times 56. Mielke Wins 57. More Dirty Operations 58. The Informer Age: The 1958 Guideline on Collaborators and Stasi Reporting 59. Enlightenment: The Growth of East German Foreign Intelligence 60. Tradecraft and Technologies 61. Love Rats 62. A Torrent of Spies 63. Exposing Nazis 64. Securing the Border 65. The Western Powers Prepare 66. A Decision is Made 67. Old Tricks 68. ‘ The Anti-fascist Protective Barrier’ 69. Spies, Still Conclusions Appendices Selected bibliography Notes Index

About the Author :
Born in London, J. Boulter has spent many years living and working in continental Europe. Boulter's articles on espionage history and literature have been published in the Journal for Intelligence, Propaganda and Security Studies, the American Intelligence Journal, and Crime Time magazine, among others.

Review :
It is the definitive account, a compelling exploration of a mind-bending ideological experiment, its secret servants and the lives they defined Essential for all whose libraries contain an espionage section This is an intricately researched and truly comprehensive survey from the end of WWII and the Stasi's origins to the Berlin Wall... An important addition to the canon of Cold War European history and espionage Masterful... Whenever we think we know all about the Cold War, we find there's more to discover. Boulter's comprehensive and insightful account of the Stasi in the early rough-and-tumble years of that confrontation is unprecedented Boulter's thorough research provides an excellent reference for understanding how the Stasi began and how it fulfilled its responsibilities