ESTABLISHMENT OR STRENGTHENING OF ILLEGAL APPARATS BY FREE WORLD COMMUNIST PARTIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-00915R001200040004-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 1, 1998
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: January 1, 1960
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 2000/05/05: CIA-RDP78-00915R001200040004-0
ESTAI4L1ISHMENT OR STRENGTHENING OF, ILLEGAL. APPARATS
BY FREE WORLD COMMUNIST PARTIES
IL
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00 1401 REMOVE FROM FV1
January 1960
Approved For Release 2000/05/05: CIA-RDP78-00915R001200040004-0
 Approved For Release 2000/05/05: CIA-RDP78-00915R001200040004-0
ESTABLISHMENT OR STRENTHENING OF ILLEGAL APPARATS
BY FREE WORLD COMMUNIST PARTIES
Preparations for the establishment. of a clandestine Communist
party organization or illegal apparat parallel to the party's legal
overt organization have recently been reported in several Free
World Communist parties. * There are. also indications that legally
operating. Communist parties in countries where previous
conditions of suppression prompted the.establishment of illegal
apparats are taking steps to strengthen their apparats. There
is some evidence to show that the emphasis on illegal organi-
zation may go hand in hand with an increased effort by each
Communist party to penetrate its country's police and military
forces. Finally, there are indications that Communist parties
It should be noted-that clandestine activity in some form
is always a part of the Communist party operations in a
.Free World country regardless of whether the party is
legal or illegal. For example, a Communist party may
set up a special clandestine mechanism or apparat to
facilitate the channeling of funds. Such an apparat may
or may not be illegal in the sense of being against the
laws of the country, but is frequently referred to by the
Communists themselves as an "illegal apparat". As used
in this paper, the term "illegal apparat" refers to a
clandestine party organization compartmented from the
party's conventional organization, whose members are
not generally known as Communists; whose primary
purpose is the continuance of party operations under
conditions of severe repression; and which may include
organizational provision for violent action up'to the
level of paramilitary forces.
Approved For Release 2000/05/05: CIA-RDP78-00915R001200040004-0
 Approved For Release 2000/05/05: CIA-RDP78-00915R001200040004-0
in several countries have either eatablished.a capability.fo.r
armed action, such as a paramilitary force, or de;xonstrated.
an interest in such a capability. Whether this capability is
party and parcel of the existing (or planned, as the case may
be) illegal organization or a compartmented mechanism of
the party is as yet undetermined.
While this pattern has been observed primarily in legal
parties, there are some indications that it also may apply
to illegal CP's., In such a case there would be a move to
improve and strengthen the illegal organization of the party
and/or establish a paramilitary capability.
Evidence of the above trend has been observed in a
number of Free World CP's. For many of these parties
the pressure of local events made the question of establishing
an illegal apparat an immediate problem. However, the
reported attention to illegal apparats by those parties may
be, indicative of similar attention by other parties of the
International Communist Movement: (ICM).
Although a CP normally works with both overt and
clandestine methods, it tends to stress one or the other based
on local political conditions and the prevailing tactical line
of the ICM. Since the 20th Party Congress of the CPSU in
February 1956, the tactical line for the ICM has emphasized
for the CP's in. the Free World the employment of legal
methods, coupled with the penetration, exploitation, and
manipulation of nationalist and amenable leftist and trade
union forces in a massive offensive.
There are indications that some CP's, particularly in
Free World countries where political conditions are favorable
to legal parliamentary tactics, emphasize