'Abbot' gets in touch. 'Arguments and Facts' 1992
P. VASILIEV: A parliamentary commission of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation is currently working with the KGB archives. Our correspondent P. VASILIEV met with a member of this commission, priest G. YAKUNIN.
P. VASILIEV: What do the documents you are working with look like?
G. YAKUNIN: These are sealed volumes of a light-green color, classified as “Secret” and “Top Secret.” They contain monthly reports on the results of agent-operational activities of the departments of the Fifth Directorate (later the “Z” Directorate), submitted to the KGB leadership. As a clergyman, I have been tasked with studying the activities of the 4th, so-called church, department of this directorate. Since the KGB leadership recently dissolved it as having engaged in unconstitutional activities — control over the spiritual life of society — I believe I have the right to acquaint your readers with the contents of secret documents prepared within the bowels of the church department.
- “At the sessions of the Executive and Central Committees of the World Council of Churches in September of this year on the island of Crete, agents ‘Svyatoslav,’ ‘Voronov,’ ‘Antonov,’ and others spoke out condemning the aggressive actions of the USA in Vietnam and Israel in the Middle East. The delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church voted against the resolutions on Vietnam and the Middle East proposed by representatives of the Western churches, and demanded a discussion of the situation of Negroes in the USA.”
August 1969. “Our agent network succeeded in advancing agent ‘Kuznetsov’ to a leadership position in the World Council of Churches.”
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“The active Baptist schismatic Khaylo was convicted under Article 190, paragraph 1 of the RSFSR Criminal Code and sent to a psychiatric hospital for compulsory treatment. Agent ‘Pavel’ has been promoted to a leadership position in the Russian Orthodox Church and assigned to Irkutsk.”
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“Currently throughout the country… 229 churchmen and sectarians are serving sentences (in 1981, there were 220). In addition, 18 persons are in exile (in 1981 – 24). The KGB organs are maintaining over 2,500 operational files on hostile elements from this category of citizens (in 1981 – 2,225).
The most significant results are as follows: Through leading agents, the Russian Orthodox, Georgian, and Armenian Churches are firmly kept in loyal positions… During the 1982 period, 1,809 meetings were held, and 704 reports were obtained. To work with agents, 13 safe houses and 2 clandestine apartments are used. Deputy Head of the 4th Department, Colonel Romanov.”
- “A meeting of representatives of the church press took place in Moscow from September 28 to October 3 of this year at the Publishing Department of the Moscow Patriarchate, with the participation of 12 foreigners…
Through agents ‘Abbat’ and ‘Grigory,’ a politically advantageous influence was exerted on the foreigners. Head of the 4th Department, Colonel Romanov.”
- “Agent ‘Potemkin’ took part in the Central Committee meeting of the World Council of Churches held in the FRG. He obtained data on the situation at the organization’s headquarters, on upcoming personnel changes in the leadership of its subdivisions…
To provide counterintelligence support for the meeting of the Committee for the Continuation of the Work of the Christian Peace Conference and to carry out agent-operational measures together with friends (PRB, HPR, GDR, Cuba, CSSR), Comrades V. N. Shirokopoyas and A. M. Spiridonov were dispatched to the GDR. Twelve agents of the state security organs were also routed there. In the course of the event, attempts at provocative outbursts against the churches of the socialist countries were neutralized, unfavorable personnel changes were averted, and politically advantageous final documents were adopted…
Head of the 4th Department, Colonel Timoshevsky.”
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“For the first time, agent ‘Adamant’ from among the hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church took part in the General Conference of UNESCO as part of the Soviet delegation… Five personal and work files on agents from territorial organs, recommended for advancement to the leadership echelon of the Russian Orthodox Church, were reviewed. Head of the 4th Department, Colonel Timoshevsky.”
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“At the serviced facility (the Publishing Department of the Moscow Patriarchate), agent ‘Vily’ has been installed…
A new issue of the journal ‘Slovo,’ published under the control of our agent network, has been issued and is being distributed in church and near-church circles. Head of the 4th Department, Colonel Timoshevsky.”
P. VASILIEV: Father Gleb, judging by these documents, was the activity of “agents in cassocks” limited only to eavesdropping and spying, and pushing through people and decisions favorable to the KGB and the Central Committee of the CPSU?
G. YAKUNIN: Not only. Here are lines from Colonel Timoshevsky’s August (1988) report: “Under the DOR (operational development case – Ed.) ‘Aptekar,’ measures were undertaken aimed at further compromising the target before his like-minded associates and contacts in the West… Through our agents and other means, we succeeded in inducing ‘Aptekar’s’ wife to file for divorce in court….” Moreover, on KGB assignment, the agent network carried out “special measures” using special preparations that “loosen tongues.”
P. VASILIEV: And who, for example, is behind the codenames “Abbat” and “Adamant”? And what about “Aptekar”?
G. YAKUNIN: “Abbat” and “Adamant” are two currently active hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church. Now regarding “Aptekar.” For the sake of conspiracy, the KGB gave codenames not only to its agents, but also to persons against whom it struggled — in Chekist jargon they were called “targets of operational observation, registry, or development.” “Aptekar” is the religious dissident layman A. Ogorodnikov. The “religious extremist” priest A. Men, for instance, had the codename “Missioner,” V. Lapkovsky — “Irod,” A. Bessmertny — “Kloun,” etc. By the way, do you know what codenames the writer A. Solzhenitsyn and the academician A. Sakharov had? “Pauk” and “Asket.” Sakharov’s wife, E. Bonner, appeared in KGB operational reports as “Lisa.”
P. VASILIEV: Were the agents paid for their work?
G. YAKUNIN: The reports of the 4th Department do not reflect this. However, I know that it was not so much the KGB that paid the agents as the agents themselves who “gave” to the leadership of the 4th Department in exchange for arranging their own career matters. At the same time, the reports mention that in 1983, one of the leaders of the Buddhist church, agent “Sayan,” was awarded a certificate of the KGB of the USSR “for long-term cooperation and active assistance to the state security organs.” The most active agents among the leaders of the ROC were also encouraged, for example, agent “Adamant.” According to the KGB’s own assessment, the “leading agents” included “Abbat,” “Adamant,” “Antonov,” “Kuznetsov,” “Nesterovich,” “Skala,” and “Altar.”
P. VASILIEV: Thank God, all that is in the past.
G. YAKUNIN: Alas, it is not so. I have learned that the leadership of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate is being arm-twisted into taking on one of the officers from the KGB active reserve.
P. VASILIEV: To be honest, don’t you feel sorry for these people? After all, they became victims of the system…
G. YAKUNIN: It is not they who became victims of the system, but the honest pastors who experienced the full force of the repressive apparatus—those are the Orthodox priests D. Dudko, G. Edelshtein, and the layman V. Popkov, the Baptist preacher G. Kryuchkov, the Catholic priests S. Tankyavichyus and A. Svarinskas, the Pentecostals N. Goritoy, B. Perchatkin, and hundreds of others.
And the “agents in cassocks,” who zealously served the KGB, must, according to ancient church custom, offer public repentance and be cleansed from the sin of Judas. Without repentance and cleansing, a true spiritual rebirth of the Church is impossible. May the Lord God help us in this!
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