Editing Secret police (section)

=== Europe ===
[[Image:GDR Stasi Dep M 4.jpg|thumb|right|A machine used by the [[Stasi|East German Ministry for State Security]]  to re-glue envelopes after mail had been opened for examination]]

Secret police organizations originated in 18th-century Europe after the [[French Revolution]] and the [[Congress of Vienna]]. Such operations were established in an effort to detect any possible conspiracies or revolutionary subversion. The peak of secret-police operations in most of Europe was 1815 to 1860, "when restrictions on voting, assembly, association, unions and the press were so severe in most European countries that opposition groups were forced into conspiratorial activities."<ref name="Goldstein">Robert Justin Goldstein, ''Political Repression in 19th Century Europe'' (1983; Routledge 2013 ed.)</ref> The [[Geheime Staatspolizei (Austria)|''Geheime Staatspolizei'']] of [[Austrian Empire|Austria]] and the ''[[Prussian Secret Police|Geheimpolizei]]'' of [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussia]] were particularly notorious during this period.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Mathieu Deflem: International Policing in Nineteenth-Century Europe: The Police Union of German States, 1851-1866|url=https://deflem.blogspot.com/1996/09/international-policing-in-19th-century.html|access-date=2020-10-26|website=Mathieu Deflem}}</ref><ref name="Goldstein" /> After 1860, the use of secret police declined due to increasing liberalization, except in autocratic regimes such as [[Russian Empire|Tsarist Russia]].<ref name="Goldstein" />

==== Germany ====
In [[Nazi Germany]] from 1933 to 1945, the ''Geheime Staatspolizei'' (Secret State Police, [[Gestapo]]) and ''[[Geheime Feldpolizei]]'' (Secret Field Police, GFP) were a secret police organization used to identify and eliminate opposition, including suspected organized resistance. Its claimed main duty, according to a 1936 law, was "to investigate and suppress all anti-State tendencies".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Gellately|first=Robert|date=1988|title=The Gestapo and German Society: Political Denunciation in the Gestapo Case Files|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1881013|journal=The Journal of Modern History|volume=60|issue=4|pages=654–694|doi=10.1086/600440|jstor=1881013|s2cid=154408648|issn=0022-2801}}</ref> One method used to spy on citizens was to intercept letters or telephone calls. They encouraged ordinary Germans to inform on each other.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Introduction - Control and opposition in Nazi Germany - CCEA - GCSE History Revision - CCEA|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z2p3k2p/revision/1|access-date=2021-02-09|website=BBC Bitesize|language=en-GB}}</ref> As part of the [[Reich Security Main Office]], it was also a key organizer of [[the Holocaust]]. Although the Gestapo had a relatively small number of personnel (32,000 in 1944), "it maximized these small resources through informants and a large number of denunciations from the local population".<ref>[https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/gestapo Gestapo] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220130185223/https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/gestapo |date=2022-01-30 }}, ''Holocaust Encyclopedia'', [[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]].</ref>

After the defeat of the Nazis in [[World War II]], Germany was split into West and [[East Germany]]. East Germany became a [[socialist]] state and ruled by the [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany]]. It was closely aligned with [[communist]] Russia and the [[Soviet Union]]. It had secret police, commonly referred to as the [[Stasi]], which made use of an extensive network of civilian informers.<ref>Gary Bruce, ''The Firm: The Inside Story of the Stasi'' (Oxford University Press, 2010), pp. 81-83.</ref> From the 1970's, the main form of political, cultural and religious repression practiced by the Stasi, was a form of 'silent repression'<ref name="Dennis">{{cite book |last1=Mike Dennis |first1=Norman LaPorte |title=State and Minorities in Communist East Germany |date=2011 |publisher=Berghahn Books |isbn=978-0-857-45-195-8 |page=8 |chapter=The Stasi and Operational Subversion}}</ref> called [[Zersetzung]] ("Decomposition"). This involved the sustained use of covert psychological harassment methods against people, which were designed to cause mental and emotional health problems, and thereby debilitate them and cause them to become socially isolated.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dennis |first1=Mike |title=The Stasi: Myth and Reality |date=2003 |publisher=Pearson Education Limited |isbn=0582414229 |page=112 |chapter=Tackling the enemy: quiet repression and preventive decomposition}}</ref> [[Directed-energy weapons]] are considered by some survivors and analysts to have also been used as a constituent part of Zersetzung methods, although this is not definitely proven.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Krishnan |first1=Armin |title=Military Neuroscience and the Coming Age of Neurowarfare |date=2017 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=978-1-315-59542-9 |page=205}}</ref>

==== Hungary ====
The [[House of Terror]] museum in [[Budapest]] displays the headquarters for the [[Arrow Cross Party]], which killed hundreds of Jews in its basement, among other targets considered "enemies of the race-based state".<ref>{{Cite web|title=A History Lesson in Budapest|url=https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/history-lesson-budapest|access-date=2021-02-09|website=Pulitzer Center|language=en}}</ref> The same building was used by the [[State Protection Authority]] (or ÁVH) secret police. The Soviet-aligned ÁVH moved into the former fascist police headquarters and used it to torture and execute state opponents.<ref>{{Cite web|last=McKay|first=Barry|date=|editor-last=Hairsine|editor-first=Kate|title=House of Terror explores Hungarian secret police methods {{!}} DW {{!}} 31.10.2009|url=https://www.dw.com/en/house-of-terror-explores-hungarian-secret-police-methods/a-4834253|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2021-02-09|website=DW.COM|language=en-GB}}</ref>

==== Italy ====

In the [[Fascist Italy (1922-1943)]] and the [[Italian Social Republic]] (RSI), [[OVRA]] were a fascist Italian secret police organization.

==== Russia ====
{{See also|Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies}}

[[Ivan the Terrible]] implemented [[Oprichnina]] in Russia between 1565 and 1572. In the [[Russian Empire]], the secret police forces were the [[Third Section]] of the Imperial Chancery and then the [[Okhrana]]. Agents of the Okhrana were vital in identifying and suppressing opponents of the Tsar. The Okhrana engaged in torture and infiltration of opponents.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Tsarist methods of control - state infrastructure - Security of the Tsarist state before 1905 - Higher History Revision|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z9qnsbk/revision/3|access-date=2021-02-09|website=BBC Bitesize|language=en-GB}}</ref> They infiltrated labor unions, political parties, and newspapers.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Okhranka {{!}} Russian police organization|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Okhranka|access-date=2021-02-09|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref> After the [[Russian Revolution]], the [[Soviet Union]] established the [[Cheka]], [[OGPU]], [[NKVD]], [[NKGB]], and [[Ministry of Internal Affairs (Soviet Union)|MVD]].<ref>Stephen J. Lee, ''Russia and the USSR, 1855-1991: Autocracy and Dictatorship'' (Routledge, 2006), ''passim''.</ref> Cheka, as an authorized secret police force under the rule of the Bolsheviks, [[Political repression in the Soviet Union|suppressed political opponents]] during the [[Red Terror]]. It also enacted counterintelligence operations such as [[Operation Trust]], in which it set up a fake anti-Bolshevik organization to identify opponents. It was the temporary forerunner to the [[KGB]], a later secret police agency used for similar purposes.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cheka {{!}} Soviet secret police|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Cheka|access-date=2021-02-09|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref> The NKVD participated in the [[Great Purge]] under Stalin.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Secret Police|url=https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/secr.html|access-date=2021-02-09|website=www.loc.gov}}</ref>