The KGB’s Big Brother: How Stasi Agents Spied on People and Drove Them Crazy
The history of special services goes deep into antiquity, and Ancient Egypt is considered to be the birthplace of espionage. However, such units reached their peak in the 20th century, which is directly related to the development of technology. The most terrible of them can rightly be considered the Gestapo, which in the post-war years successfully transformed into the Stasi.
It is the Stasi and its terrible methods of influencing dissidents that will be discussed in this article.
Stasi Agent Photo: The Last Changing of the Guard Harald Hauswald
Shadowing
The symbol of the post-war USSR is undoubtedly the KGB: the Committee for State Security. This intelligence service was almost the most influential and advanced in the world, and its methods of influencing dissidents were often adopted by other world intelligence services. But the Stasi can be considered the KGB’s big brother, not least because of its methods.
During its existence, the Stasi recruited about 620,000 people for surveillance and denunciation of undesirables. After the disbandment, tons of documents, dossiers and about 150 kilometers of film were found – this is the approximate length of the tapes on which there are recordings of conversations and microfilms with citizens of the GDR.
Archive photo: Stasi
There could be no question of any confidentiality of correspondence, let alone conversations. Letters were opened and checked, and telephone conversations were also carefully tapped. The Stasi agents had all the latest technology in their arsenal: microphones in sockets and other inconspicuous places, micro-cameras for filming, and much more. But the most interesting and terrifying thing is the psychological impact of the Stasi on alleged dissidents.
Methods of Combating Dissidents
The special method of psychological influence/violence developed by the Stasi was called “Biodegrodation“. For a brief understanding, it is worth quoting some of his methods:
• Systematic defamation by disseminating true, verifiable, and false, but plausible, defamatory statements.
• Systematically organizing failures in work and social life to destroy subjects’ self-confidence.
Creating an atmosphere of distrust, mutual suspicion and rivalry in groups and organizations by exploiting the weaknesses of some of their members.
Quote from the Instruction of the Ministry of State Security of the GDR No. 1/76
This is only a small part, but we will dwell on the psychological impact in more detail.
Archive photo: Stasi agents
Trained “snitches” and informers from among ordinary people made a psychological portrait of the suspect, revealing the weaknesses of his personality. One of the morbid traits of the Germans is pedantry, neatness and, to some extent, perfectionism. This is what the emphasis was. They infiltrated the victims’ homes and began to do all sorts of “dirty tricks”: Hanging towels, shifting spices from one jar to another, rearranging alarm clocks, moving furniture, opening windows, taps, and the like.
This was done with the aim of intimidating and putting pressure on a person. In this way, the Stasi agents showed their impunity and the fragile position of the suspect. At the same time, people were often poisoned, and then the wrong treatment was applied. Not only the food was poisoned, but also his life in general. At work, they spread rumors, endless calls and letters (which is used by modern debt collectors), and could make indecent photo collages.
Archive photo: Stasi leadership
We are not going to talk about the victims of outright torture, but according to the archives opened after 1990, about 10,000 people suffered from psychological influence. About half of them suffered irreversible damage to their health, and there were cases of voluntary death.