ABSTRACT
The role model of the Stasi was the Cheka, the Soviet secret police founded by Felix Dzerzhinsky in 1917. However, the Stasi also saw itself as the heir to the secret apparatus of the German Communist Party (KPD), whose development before 1945 sheds light on some of the traditions which helped to shape the security doctrine and the working methods of the Stasi. The construction of a secret party apparatus was a compulsory condition of membership of the Communist International (Comintern), as set out in the '21 Conditions' of entry adopted by its Second World Congress in 1920. The secret underground structures were originally justified by the expectation that the period of legality enjoyed by foreign communist parties would end as the revolution in the developed western world approached. They also derived from the communists' belief that they belonged to a conspiratorial confraternity, an attitude which would be reinforced by their experiences in the Nazi period. The secret apparatus was initially subdivided into two sections, the Nachrichtendienst (Intelligence Service or N-Group) and the Militärdienst (Military Service or M-Group). The former was responsible for 'special political tasks' and the latter for the organisation of the movement's armed uprising. 1 Although formally subordinate to the KPD's German leadership, in practice they were financed and run by the Moscow-based Executive Committee of the Comintern (ECCI). The domination of Moscow's instructors is illustrated by their role in the preparations for the abortive revolution in October 1923. Soviet military advisers, who were present in force since the occupation of the Ruhr by French and Belgian troops in January 1923, took control of the crucial stages of preparations for the uprising.
