The "Commission for Disclosure of Documents and Announcing Affiliation of Bulgarian Citizens with the State Security and the Intelligence Services of the Bulgarian National Armed Forces" (Bulgarian acronym: CRDOPBGDSRSBNA), commonly known as "Commission for Dossiers", was established in 2007 according to the "Law for Access and Disclosure of the Documents and Announcing Affiliation of Bulgarian Citizens to the State Security and the Intelligence Services of the Bulgarian National Army", which was adopted by the 40th National Assembly in December 2006.
One of the central questions of the transition from communist regime to democracy in Bulgaria was the question of what should be done with the archives of communist state security. In contrast to the countries of Central Europe, the initial energy was not sufficient to bring about their opening. In the 1990s this question disappeared from the political agenda. The demand for opening up the archives did not disappear completely; it was supported by non-governmental organizations and journalists. The public pressure, reinforced by the demands of the EU in the accession negotiations led at the end of 2006 to the adoption of a law decision on the use of archival materials, and in 2007 the Commission was established.
The Commission was quick to gain confidence by revealing the names of those who had worked for the State Security, beginning with the political elite of the transitional period, with influential social groups such as the media, churches and religious communities. Another important success of the Commission is that it has succeeded in gathering documents on the former structures of state security and bringing them together in a separate archive administered by the Commission.
The centralized archive of the Commission contains the documentation of the former State Security, the Sofia and the Regional Directorates of the Ministry of Interior, the intelligence services of the Bulgarian People's Army for the period from 9 September 1944 to 16 July 1991. The Commission collects the documents of the former secret services, protects and preserves them, gives citizens access to them, and develops dissemination activities, such as the publication of documents and the organization of events. A total of about 3.6 million documents (texts and film materials) are stored in the centralized archive.
The rich materials are processed and published in thematic documentary collections containing the facsimile of documents. Up to now (April 2018), 46 thematic collections have been issued, each of which can be defined as a collection of documents.
