Active reserve (KGB) officers with a military rank who worked undercover in the Soviet Union. "Trusted contacts" were high placed civilians who collaborated with the KGB without signing any official working agreements, such as directors of personnel departments at various institutions, academics, deans, or writers and actors. Informers were citizens secretly recruited by the KGB, sometimes using forceful recruitment methods, such as blackmail. The precise number of people from various categories remains unknown, but one of the estimates was 11 million "informers" in the Soviet Union, or one out of every eighteen adult citizens The active reserve was established by Yuri Andropov in
KGB Prison, Potsdam KGB Prison, Potsdam The KGB Prison at "Leistikowstraße 1" in the German city of Potsdam was a detention centre run by the Soviet counter-intelligence organisation, SMERSH. The building was originally built in 1916–18 by the Evangelical Ecclesiastical Benevolent Society ("Evangelisch Kirchlichen Hilfsverein") or EKH. After the Potsdam Conference in August 1945 about 100 houses in the "Nauener Vorstadt" quarter, which bordered on the New Garden, were cordoned off and renamed as Military Camp No. 7 ("Militärstädtchen No.7"). In this area were located the command centre of the KGB for Germany, which was housed in the former boarding school attended by