Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů - Archiv bezpečnostních složek

The Archive of the Security Services currently has two reading rooms for public researchers.

ABS Research Centre Prague – Struha Address: Na Struze 3, Praha 1 At the Struha research centre, archival materials from all departments of the Archive of Security Services can be consulted.

ABS Research Centre Brno – Kanice Address: Kanice (Brno-Country District) The Kanice (Brno-Country District) research centre provides access to archival materials from all departments of the Archive of Security Services.

The reading room at Siwiecova Street is temporarily closed due to refurbishment. Until further notice all archival materials can be consulted in the reading room at Na Struze, Praha 1.

The Security Services Archive, pursuant to Act No. 181/2007 Coll. on the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes and the Security Services Archive and on amendments to some acts, administers the records that were created in the course of activities of the security services, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and organizations of the National Front working in these services, amounting to a total of almost 20,000 linear meters of material. The Archive currently administers over 550 archival collections from the periods of non-freedom and communist totalitarian power.

For researchers’ better orientation, we have created a classification scheme from these archival collections to provide comprehensive information. The classification scheme has been devised using a hierarchical jurisdiction model, divided into 14 subject groups. Concrete archival collections fall within the scope of individual subject groups. Herein the researcher obtains basic information about the relevant archival collection (title, name of collection, time range, scope of the collection and location).

In the event that an archival collection has already been processed, corresponding archival finding aids are available in electronic form for the researcher to review. These aids include indexes by name, subject, or location.

The researcher can use these finding aids to request archival materials for study at the following e-mail address: info@abscr.cz.

The Security Service Archive's collections can also be searched through the database "Archive Groups in the Czech Republic" administered by the Ministry of Interior:

https://aplikace.mvcr.cz/archivni-fondy-cr/default.aspx