The KGB in Eastern Europe during the Cold War: on agents and confidential contacts

Ben de Jong from the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, discusses the ways in which the KGB collected information about political developments in Eastern Europe during the Cold War and tries to shed some light on the question whether Soviet intelligence services recruited full-fledged agents to acquire the necessary information in the same way as they did in the West. De Jong concentrates on Poland but also tries to grasp the bigger picture and focusses on the distinction between fully-fledged agents and so-called "confidential contacts". Records from the KGB archives on this topic are completely absent from the public domain but this article tries to elucidate this interesting question with the help of the writings of several former KGB officers and other materials.