„Sachergate“: první lustrační aféra
“Sachergate” – the first record affair_Difficulties of the post-communist elite not only concerning the state security files

Summary/Abstract: The Communist security forces, especially State Security as the political police, bequeathed us a specific heritage at the end of 1989, consisting of incomplete file records both of monitoring of “unwanted” or “hostile” persons and of the collaborating informers, and a relatively complete record system which was the key to how these operative documents were used. Since the very first moment it acquired political and constitutional responsibility, the newly emerging power was confronted with information held by the old guard of officers of the Federal Ministry of Interior. The complicated process of renewing the security staff and the need to clear the top state officials and legislative bodies, actually carried out by the representatives of the old regime under the well established technology, resulted in a severe political conflict, to be seen at the highest levels as the pre-election conflict of the former OF (Citizens’ Forum) and CSL (Czechoslovak People’s Party). The political situation several months after 17 November 1989 prevented any pragmatic solution regarding the former State Security informers in the government or top leadership of political entities, some of which, to make it more complicated, were even actively involved in the democratisation process. The conflict actually led to a duel between Richard Sacher, appointed as the Minister of the Interior by Václav Havel, and the deputies Jaroslav Procházka and Viliam Ciklamini who backed their ex-communist colleagues from the UOUD (a predecessor of the intelligence services) including the director, Zdeněk Formánek. The re-activated officers of the former State Security Forces, appointed to a new intelligence service, checked various people’s records as requested by some constitutional officials, and this process collided with the check initiated in the middle of March 1990 by the Minister of the Interior (and probably also by the President), as it was actually performed by exactly the same officers of the old regime at the Statistical Evidence Department under the Organisational Division of the Federal Ministry. The conflict inside the Ministry culminated in the withdrawal of two deputies of the Minister, the director of the UOUD and the transformation of the Organisational Division into the Coordination and Management Office of the Federal Ministry. Concurrently the record checks on constitutional officials were halted, their operative materials were relocated to a special section of the Statistical Evidence Department’s archive fund (called “Fond Z”) and subsequently in the vault room under the control of the Minister of the Interior. At the political level, the conflict resulted in a controversy between the Chairman of the Security Committee at the Parliament Chamber, Ladislav Lis, and Minister Richard Sacher, who was backed by President Havel.

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