ZABUDNUTÝ ÚTVAR. KRÁTKE DEJINY 73. PEŠIEHO PLUKU (1949 – 1954)

• Authors: Matej Medvecký

Title variants

EN

Forgotten unit. A short history of the 73rd Infantry (1949 – 1954)

• Languages of publication: SK

Abstracts

EN

The study is aimed at introducing the short, less than 5 years lasting existence of the 73rd Infantry. This is a unit existing from 1949 to 1954, which has been almost forgotten. The author describes the task of the Infantry, in particular to prepare a sufficient cadre of soldiers who were to be assigned the intelligence and preparatory tasks in the rear of the enemy troops after the outbreak of armed conflict in Europe. He also outlined its structure, pointing out to the complications and conflict of competencies between the intelligence and counterintelligence, which had a negative impact on the very functioning of the unit. In the first period, the soldiers were also suffering due to poor material equipment and the fact that the applicants for service could have been chosen only from among the trainees of exploratory courses may be considered as a great disadvantage of the unit. Later on, the unit was no longer subject only to the Intelligence Department of the General Staff and thereby its background, security and replenishment have improved. Even in spite of that, its members, including the commanders, were not able to meet the expectations and the soldiers, in some cases, had troubles with demonstrating basic skills. Probably due to poor results of inspections, the unit was cancelled in 1954. Later on, similar units were established within the Czechoslovak People’s Army. The study itself works only as a more comprehensive probe into the issue. Its incompleteness is obvious from the documentation studied, which is apparently caused by relatively extensive shredding of documents of the General Staff Intelligence Department during its whole existence as well as insufficient interest in the archival records of the former military intelligence after 1989.

Keywords

EN

MILITARY HISTORY; CZECHOSLOVAKIA; 73RD INFANTRY UNIT; ARMY; MILITARY INTELLIGENCE; CZECHOSLOVAK PEOPLE’S ARMY

• Publisher: Vojenský historický ústav Bratislava
• Journal: Vojenská história
• Year: 2016
• Volume: 20
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 86 - 110

Contributors

author

Matej Medvecký

• Vojenský historický ústav, Krajná 27, 821 04 Bratislava, Slovak Republic