From 3 to 5 November 2026, historians and researchers from across Europe and beyond will meet at the Liechtenstein Palace in Prague to discuss the history of intelligence services during the Second World War and the Cold War. ENRS is one of the partners of the conference and is responsible for its second panel, a debate on intelligence behind the Iron Curtain.
The international conference “For the Homeland, or the Party? East-West Intelligence Rivalry During World War II and the Cold War” is organised by the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes (ÚSTR) in cooperation with several partner institutions, including the European Network Remembrance and Solidarity (ENRS). Over three days, participants will examine how intelligence services operated, competed and cooperated, from the eve of the Second World War to the end of the Cold War, and how they were shaped by loyalty to the state and by the demands of the ruling party.
The conference opens on 3 November at 12.30 with speeches by Ladislav Kudrna, Director of ÚSTR, Bartosz Dziewanowski-Stefańczyk on behalf of ENRS, Petr Blažek, Director of the Museum of the 20th Century, and Daniel Povolný, the academic guarantor of the conference. The opening is followed by a documentary on Czechoslovak military intelligence and the first panel, devoted to the years 1938 to 1939.
ENRS panel: Intelligence Behind the Iron Curtain: Conflict, Competition and Cooperation
3 November 2026, 15.00 to 16.30
The panel organised by ENRS takes the form of a debate on the relations between the intelligence and security services of the Eastern Bloc, and on the rivalry and cooperation between them and with their Western counterparts. It is chaired by Dr Sylwia Szyc of the Historical Research Office of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) in Warsaw. Her research covers the history of the Cold War, Polish diplomacy and the social history of post-war Poland.
The panellists are:
Prof. Florin Abraham is Director of the National Institute for the Study of Totalitarianism of the Romanian Academy and Associate Professor of Political Science at the National University of Political Science and Public Administration (SNSPA) in Bucharest. He is Deputy Chairman of the ENRS Steering Committee and has coordinated the Romanian party in ENRS since 2014.
Dieter Bacher has been a pre-doctoral researcher at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research on the Consequences of War and the Department of History at the University of Graz since 2006. His research focuses on the activities of intelligence and secret services in Austria during the Cold War.
Dr Elena Grossfeld is a postdoctoral researcher at the Swedish Defence University and holds a PhD in War Studies from King’s College London. Her research focuses on Soviet and Russian strategic culture and Cold War KGB operations, among other topics.
Dr Tomasz Kozłowski is an assistant professor at the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences and a researcher at the IPN Historical Research Office. His work concerns Solidarity, the intelligence and security services, and the political transformation of 1989. He is the author of Koniec imperium MSW. Transformacja organów bezpieczeństwa państwa 1989-1990.
The wider programme
On 4 November, panels turn to wartime resistance and foreign intelligence, the early communist period, and the Czechoslovak military intelligence services of the 1950s and 1960s. On 5 November, the final panels cover intelligence operations in a bipolar world, from Ghana and Albania to Romania, and include perspectives from former intelligence officers. The conference closes with a summary by Daniel Povolný at 16.00.
The conference takes place at the Liechtenstein Palace in Prague. The programme is subject to change. Click here for the full programme.