The Intelligence Service of the Bulgarian army (official name: Intelligence Service of the General Staff of the Bulgarian People's Army) as such had existed already before the communists took power. But under their rule, it experienced severe ideologization of its work and became an instrument of Cold War espionage and domestic repression, manifest in the establishment of General Political Directorate of the National Army. In view of the installation of a new head of the arm's intelligence service on September 13, 1944, and because of the heavy influence of Soviet army advisors, 1944 can be seen as the founding year of the Military Intelligence Service as a tool of communist control (despite the fact that, of course, the pre-communist Bulgarian army had an intelligence service as well).

The Military Intelligence of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria was devided into Military Espionage, headed by the Ministry of Interior, and Military Intelligence which was under the Ministry of Defense. Although not structurally attached to the State Security, the Military Intelligence proved to be one of the elite and privileged structures of the communist secret services. One of the main reasons for this was the direct contact between the Military Intelligence and other military intelligence services from the Warsaw Pact countries, led by the Military Intelligence of the Soviet Union. Basically, the mode of operation of the Military Intelligence was similar to the State Security. Its central task was to ensure the political loyalty of the army members.

The Military Intelligence of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria continues to be one of the least elucidated institutions of the communit regime. While the role of the State Security was hotly debated after 1989, the Military Intelligence remained completely in the shadow of the State Security. Only recently, due to the efforts of the Commission on Dossiers, document collections about the Bulgarian Military Intelligence were published, such as the collection of records "Voennoto Razuznavane prez komunizma" [Military Intelligence During the Communist Era], edited by Ekaterina Boncheva and compiled by her, Hristo Hristov and Momchil Metodiev. This collection was published in 2012 as volume 9 of the series "Iz Arhivite na DS" [From the Archives of State Security]. See: http://comdos.bg/media/CD-09.pdf