13. Recruitment
The year 1979 was, in my view, the most productive year of my entire activity. I wrote several articles exposing the legislation on religious cults, took part in drafting and distributing the appeal “30 Years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” and wrote a statement, based on documents, addressed to the government and public of the United States, Canada, Australia, England, the Federal Republic of Germany, France, and Italy. That statement was entitled “A Cry for Help.” I made several statements for foreign journalists. My single theme was: the situation of believers in the Soviet Union. By this time, the KGB in Nakhodka had begun applying the experience they had gained in the struggle against Adventists. Attempts at mass recruitment of believers began. For that purpose, according to Klimov, the staff of the 5th department of the KGB was increased.
- We recruit many not with the goal of actually recruiting them, but in order to sow distrust among you toward one another, to create the impression that any of you could be our agent, and so that behind this distrust and suspicion our real agents can hide. Klimov did not deceive this time either. They recruited everyone indiscriminately.
We had a good rule in the church: each of us had the obligation, if he had contact with the KGB, to declare it openly in church and to recount everything that was said to him and what he answered, thereby exposing the actions of the KGB, because the main condition that the KGB agents demanded was to keep silent and tell no one about the meeting.
And if someone concealed his meeting with a KGB agent once, they would certainly approach him a second time, because after the first and even after the second time they did not always directly propose collaboration. If someone concealed these contacts, they understood that they were dealing with a coward, that he feared them. Then they would actively work on him, try to frighten him even more and openly force him to work. Some, only after such processing, found the courage to confess their contacts with KGB agents.
The KGB’s 5th department tried to organize the work so that each of us would inform on one another, so that everyone would be stained by ties with the KGB. As a rule, for this they promised emigration; they understood perfectly well that no one would voluntarily cooperate with them. — Your man works for us only, — Klimov explained to me, — if he is indebted to us and depends on us. We create such situations ourselves. According to the new method of working against you, the head of the KGB directorate issued an instruction to the prosecutor’s office and the militia to keep close watch on believers and their family members, especially those seeking immigration. If anyone is caught committing any crime, any offense, or in a situation where a crime can be fabricated, they are to report it immediately to the KGB and not touch such people without his instruction. That’s the kind of people we really work on and process. Most often, such people become our agents. We call them to the KGB, but not to a safe house, because in the KGB building the atmosphere intimidates them. First, we use the method of intimidation and blackmail. We show such people a picture of what will happen to them if we put them in prison on criminal charges, and what a disgrace it will be if we expose them before their fellow believers. If the person resists, takes a defiant stance, then we show him photographs where he is photographed in company that compromises him — and there’s no lack of things you can gather on a person. When we’ve driven fear into him, we offer our service, that is, to save him from disgrace and from the militia. To such people we offer a service in return for a service. And the service begins with trifles. First we ask him: “At whose place was the meeting last week?” Some hesitate at first, don’t want to tell. We say ourselves: “Well, why are you hesitating? The meeting was at Burlachenko’s, wasn’t it? Right?” He confirms: “Right.” After a while, he already tells when and at whose place a meeting will be. Gradually, he tells who gave sermons. After a time, he tells who says what in sermons, then what is happening at the brethren’s meetings, and then we decide what to make of this agent. For example, an agent of influence, so that he stirs up scandals at meetings, helps isolate undesirables, spreads rumors that are advantageous to us. Besides that, in such people we cultivate a sense of impunity, a feeling of high protection over them, and they themselves can no longer do without us. They simply get a taste for it. Those are the most valuable agents. They work no longer under coercion. In April 1979, an attempt was also made with regard to me to entice me to cooperate with the
KGB.
One day I was standing at a bus stop. A black Volga screeched to a halt near me. In the front seat next to the driver sat Rudnitsky, and in the back, Klimov. They both got out of the car. - Hello, Boris Georgievich, you’ll have to come with us, we have some business, — said Rudnitsky.
I have my own business too.
You can drop your own business right now, there are more important things.
I myself decide what business is more important for me. - Enough polemics, I have to deliver you to a certain place. A very important person wants to talk to you.
I have no time, and I don’t wish to talk with your important person.
Well, are you going to fight with us? We’ll help you into the car right now, I’m just carrying out orders, — said Rudnitsky, growing irritated. Klimov was silent all this time; he seemed somehow ill at ease.
I had no choice but to get into the car. I was taken to the Nakhodka Hotel. - In room 88, a very important person is waiting for you, — Rudnitsky said to me as we entered the elevator. Rudnitsky opened the door in front of me, letting me go in first. As soon as I stepped into the room, the door slammed shut behind me. I turned around; Rudnitsky was not there. Klimov hadn’t even come up; he remained on the ground floor.
In the room, a man was sitting on the table. He invited me to sit down in an armchair. When I sat, he got off the table and began pacing around the room. Then he said:
We won’t talk for long. I’ll be direct with you. Before you there are two paths; in your situation there is no third.
Excuse me, who are you? I don’t talk with incognitos.
Colonel Vyalkov, — he introduced himself and continued, — The first path is to work for us. Wait, wait, — he hastened, — hear me out to the end. We’re not suggesting you betray anyone, we don’t need your secrets, we know them anyway, we have others for that. We’ve had our eye on you for a long time. You are young, intelligent enough, and promising. You have authority. You’ll have everything. We won’t promise you bird’s milk, of course, but you will have everything; all we need is for you to say what we need, and where we need it. You’ll travel abroad, if necessary; you’ll be ordained a bishop; we’ll help, we have that capability.
Don’t you have enough people like Pyotr Klimentievich Shatrov from the AUCECB and Viktor Ivanovich Belykh who say what you need and where you need it? Do I really look like them, or have I ever given you the slightest reason that you offer me such a thing? You insult me with your proposal.
Then you have chosen your own path — the gate to the camp.
That very week, the same thing happened with my wife. - You, Zinaida Ivanovna, must help your husband. Right now he has two paths: either to stop, or the path to the camp. If you don’t want your husband to end up in the camp, then warn us about all his intentions. We will thwart all his intentions and thus save him from prison. Think well and don’t rush to say “No.” — No, — answered Zina.
The KGB did not stop. They even began recruiting children, so that they would inform on their own parents. This came to light after some children refused to go to school. When the parents insisted on knowing the reason, it turned out that the children were both afraid to go to school and afraid to tell. They had been intimidated, but still, we managed to find out. At school, right during class, children were called to the principal’s office. There sat some man unknown to them, whom they had never seen at school before. This man asked them the most innocent questions at first: “How are you? Where does your dad work?” At the next meeting he asked: “Do your mom and dad force you to go to church? If so, it will go very badly for them.”
The children were being trained to inform on their parents, corrupted from childhood. Parents were indignant. It was decided to invite the children to write down themselves what had happened to them. Within a few days, about a hundred such letters had been collected. Parents brought both the letters and photographs of the children. It was decided to make this public. I realized that information about this could leak to the KGB, so we prepared for this operation very carefully. None of us who could do something had almost any possibility of breaking through to Moscow. We decided to send Brother Vasily
Patrushev, Innokenty, without the children’s statements. Innokenty traveled openly, so as to draw all the attention of KGB agents onto himself. And they took the bait. Innokenty was immediately detained at the Vladivostok airport as he was heading to board the plane. He was searched for a long time under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel Bykov, and they were surprised that he had nothing, that agents had given false information. And then an idea dawned on Bykov. His attention was drawn to a bag of candies in paper wrappers. With his own hands he began unwrapping all the candies, holding the paper wrappers up to the light, and stacking them in a neat pile. He put the candy wrappers into his briefcase and said: “The expert analysis will check this further.” While the KGB was busying itself with Innokenty, I was already in Khabarovsk, heading to board a plane with someone else’s documents in my pocket and a ticket in the name of a total stranger. I also carried nothing with me, because I needed, at all costs, to get to Moscow. Besides, I could not let down the person who had given me his documents. And at the same time, my wife with our eight-year-old son was boarding the express train “Vladivostok–Moscow.” She was carrying the children’s statements.
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