Archival documents of the Soviet KGB, taken from Estonia to Russia
Archival documents of the Soviet KGB, removed from Estonia to Russia, pose a certain threat to the security of the republic. This was stated by the Supreme Commissioner of the Security Police (the Estonian intelligence service) Martin Arpo, as reported by Postimees.
The intelligence representative lamented that attempts to return the documents, which were taken away before the collapse of the USSR, have yielded no results.
Arpo did not specify exactly how the documents held by Russia could threaten Estonia. At the same time, he stated that “adequate measures” had been taken to protect against the threats. The measures, as a Security Police officer previously noted, consisted in “registering and making public the names of employees of the agencies of the states that occupied Estonia (the Soviet authorities are also considered occupation forces in Estonia), as well as the names of people who collaborated with them.”
The Security Police representative raised this topic in connection with the publication of Harri Mägi’s book “The End of the KGB of the Estonian SSR.” The author, as noted, previously worked as an adviser to parliamentary commissions that studied the process of liquidating the KGB in Estonia. In the book, he recalls, in particular, how in the autumn of 1991, materials discovered by former dissidents in the building of the Tartu branch of the KGB were subsequently returned to representatives of the intelligence service. The author criticizes the actions of the commission that was then responsible for resolving such issues, believing that it was not worth making concessions to the KGB.
The then head of the commission for the liquidation of the KGB of the Estonian SSR, Hardo Aasmäe, for his part, noted that at that time in Estonia there were “partisan sentiments” regarding the KGB documents (“let’s try to seize whatever we can”). However, according to him, a rational approach ultimately prevailed, in accordance with which both the Estonian side and the KGB representatives adhered to certain agreements. Although some of the State Security Committee’s materials were removed from Estonia, several tons of documents concerning Estonians were nevertheless delivered to the republic from the central archive of the intelligence service.
The government of the republic issued an order to terminate the activities of the KGB in the Estonian SSR at the end of August 1991. A government commission was formed to resolve issues related to the liquidation of the intelligence service. The liquidation protocol was signed by the then Prime Minister of Estonia, Edgar Savisaar, and the Chairman of the KGB of the USSR, Vadim Bakatin. As for the KGB of the USSR, it was officially abolished in December 1991.
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