Daniel Halčín: František Garay – Three Decades of Services in the State Security. From Protection of Economy to Intelligence

The study analyzes the career of František Garay, State Security officer who started his career as an administrative clerk at notarial offices in Nové Zámky district. After the Communist coup in 1948 he started to engage in changing social relations in his community Semerovo. As a clerk working with Local National Committee he supervised and monitored how the farmers met governmental requests to provide food supplies within the so-called collectivization. He was also a secretary of the Local Action Committee of the Slovak National Front and member of the People's Militias. In 1951 he joined the National Security Forces, in a position of a member subordinated to the Sector III of National Security Command in Prague, which carried out economic counter-intelligence activities. In the very same year, he was sent to Slovakia, where he worked in officer's positions till 1957 in the economic counter-intelligence units in Žilina and Nitra regions. In 1957 he was appointed Deputy Chief of the Regional Administration of the Ministry of Interior in Nitra. After the territorial structure was changed in 1960, he worked as Deputy Chief of the Regional Administration of the Ministry of Interior in Central Slovakia Region. Significant event in which Garay personally participated, was the investigation of former members of anti-partisan unit EDELWEISS, who in 1945 took part in the massacre of civilians in villages Kľak and Ostrý Grúň. After the invasion of Warsaw Pact armies to Czechoslovakia in 1968, Garay adopted a rigid pro-Soviet attitude. He had been in the position of the State Security Administration Chief till May 1969, when he was moved to the position of Deputy Chief of Intelligence Central Administration Branch in Bratislava. Later he was entrusted to lead the whole branch. At the end of January 1971, the branch was closed, and the employees were moved to newly established Area Section I of the Federal Ministry of Interior of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic Administration in Bratislava and Garay became the Chief. In 1982 he retired having the rank of colonel.