Z radiové korespondence čekistických skupin operujících v Protektorátu Čechy a Morava v dubnu a květnu 1945
rom the Radio Correspondence of Chekist Groups Operating in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in April and May 1945

Summary/Abstract: The text presents an edition of forty‑six radiograms exchanged between April 9 and May 16, 1945, documenting the operations of the IV Directorate of the NKGB USSR and its subordinate office in the Lvov region. These materials reveal the priorities of Soviet state security related to countering Russian—and to a lesser extent Ukrainian—opposition on the territory of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia during the final weeks of World War II and shortly thereafter. The IV Directorate, divided since 1943 into three specialized departments, conducted intelligence penetration, sabotage, terrorist activities, and radio communication with numerous operational‑chekist groups deployed behind German lines. By May 1945 the directorate had dropped more than 780 operatives in 53 groups and managed a vast radio‑communication network reaching from Ukraine into Czechoslovakia and Poland. The document highlights the scale of agent recruitment, totaling 759 individuals across Central and Eastern Europe, with the greatest concentration in Czechoslovakia. During April and May 1945, seven specialized groups operated around Prague, transmitting intelligence information to Kyiv, Lvov, Moscow, and the Red Army’s General Staff. The radiograms also illustrate the growing prestige of Soviet operatives among parts of the Czech population, symbolized by the renaming of a street in Dobříš in their honor. The edited messages include orders, situation reports, and intelligence relating to anti‑Soviet émigrés, especially units of the Russian Liberation Army and the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia. They document preparations for the physical liquidation of ROA leadership, the capture of senior figures such as General F. I. Trukhin, and observations of their movements in and around Prague during the uprising. Overall, the collection provides unique insight into Soviet intelligence activities in Central Europe at the end of the war.

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