Название: Secret Services, 1918-1939: Their Development in Britain, Germany, and Russia
Автор: Andrew Sangster
Издательство: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Год: 2020
Страниц: 205
Язык: английский
Формат: pdf (true)
Размер: 10.2 MB

This book examines the nature of the secret services and the role of the secret police in Britain, Russia, and Germany during the interwar years. It traces the growth of the secret services and police in these countries, indicating how they differed in their development. The SIS (MI6), MI5 and Special Branch in England appeared more like a Gentlemans Club from Eton and Oxbridge, especially when compared to the German Gestapo, SS-SD, and Abwehr in Germany, and the Cheka, GPU, NKVD and KGB in Stalinist Russia. The British were short of money and resources, while the Germans were interested in establishing their services, and the Soviet Union poured in money, but with the emphasis on internal repression. It was the emerging signals of another World War which defined the shapes of their secret services, which later had long-term consequences for the Cold War.

The initial impetus behind this study of the Russian, German and British intelligent agencies was to try and discover how soon they became aware of the impending 1939-45 conflict. It led to some curious results, but as the research continued it also became apparent that these interwar years were important, because they were the years which formed the modern intelligence system ready for the next global war, and helped shape the intelligence services during the Cold War and to this day, and their shapes and functions stemmed from the work of the 1920s and 1930s when hard lessons were learnt. The study also demanded that the work of the secret police had to be involved because although they were often but not always a separate organisation, they were frequently used by the intelligence services.

Another theme emerged as the study was underway, namely the lack of similarity between the three selected national systems. In a matter of comparing the three national organisations it was immediately clear that although there were common features between and the Soviet and Nazi systems, they were two distinctive bodies and both very remote from the British system; it became more a matter of contrast than comparison. This had much to do with the national governments under which they operated. Often their objectives were similar, but the methods and morality of each national organisation diverged in vast and significant ways; it could be argued from the text that the Soviet and Nazi systems had some common features, but they were diverse, and both very different from the British services. This aspect therefore demanded brief incursions into the politics of the three countries studied, one communist, one fascist, and the last democratic. Although other countries intelligence agencies are mentioned in passing, these three were selected because of their sheer prominence during this period. This is not a nationalistic history but sought to be as objective as possible on the scant information available.