Discovering your Cold War Czechoslovak Secret Police file (280)

Discovering your Cold War Czechoslovak Secret Police file (280)

Mark Baker was featured in episode 9 where he told us about working in Czechoslovakia in the 1980s as a journalist for a small publishing company called Business International (BI). He was the company’s Czechoslovakia expert and with his Czech minder Arnold he travelled to Prague and other cities to report on significant economic and political developments. In 2021, he published “Čas Proměn” (“Time of Changes”), written in Czech, it is a collection of stories about Central and Eastern Europe in the 1980s and early ‘90s. Over the Christmas 2021 holidays, as he was visiting family in Ohio, he received a surprise email from a Czech academic. He was writing to Mark that he had finished reading the book and that he liked it. But then he added, cryptically, that Mark might want to revise part of it for future editions as he had found Mark’s Czechoslovak secret police surveillance file… We hear about the plans the Czechoslovak secret police had for Mark and the secret of Operation Oheň, aka Operation Fire. 0:00 Introduction to Mark Baker's story 2:40 Mark's journey as a journalist in Czechoslovakia 5:59 Discovering Arnold's collaboration with the secret police and Mark's own surveillance file 14:14 Reflection on the photographs from Mark's surveillance file 19:45 Decoding the secret language and understanding the code names in the file 24:01 Unveiling Mark's first appearance on the secret police radar 44:15 Mark Baker: Operation Ohen and the infiltration of US Embassies 45:00 Changes after the fall of the Berlin Wall and end of STB operations 48:59 Ian Sanders: Closing remarks, reminders and invitation to join the discussion group Table of contents powered by PodcastAI✨ Now if you think there is a vast army of research assistants, audio engineers and producers putting together this podcast you’d be wrong. This podcast relies on your support to enable me to continue to capture these incredible stories and make them available to everyone for free. If you’d like to help to preserve Cold War history and enable me to continue to produce this podcast you can via one off or monthly donations. Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/for more details. Listen to mark's previous episode here https://pod.fo/e/f83f Mark's blog is available here. https://markbakerprague.com/part-1-introducing-our-man-inter Support the project! https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/coldwarpod/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/coldwarconversations/ Youtube https://youtube.com/@ColdWarConversations Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Avsnitt(447)

Planning an Escape for 13 Years: How One Family Outsmarted the Iron Curtain (439)

Planning an Escape for 13 Years: How One Family Outsmarted the Iron Curtain (439)

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Why did the USA invade Grenada in 1983? (438)

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When Terrorism Went Global: Plane Hijackings and Violence in the 1970s (437)

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3 Jan 1h

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27 Dec 20251h 14min

Cold War Kid to Space Age Engineer via President Kennedy's last flight alive & RAF Upper Heyford (435)

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Eyes at the Edge of the Iron Curtain - Life in a 1960s British Reconnaissance Regiment (434)

Eyes at the Edge of the Iron Curtain - Life in a 1960s British Reconnaissance Regiment (434)

This is the 2nd part of the story of Miles, a British National Service conscript during his military service in the late 1950s. I’d like to give special thanks for the Norfolk Tank Museum for highli...

13 Dec 20251h 3min

What was Cold War British Army Conscription really like?  (433)

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We hear the fascinating story of Miles, a British National Service conscript during his military service in the late 1950s. I’d like to give special thanks for the Norfolk Tank Museum for highlighti...

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The Berlin Blockade was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War when the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road, and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under Wes...

27 Nov 20251h 8min

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