Alexander Sever. The Fifth (5th) Department of the KGB against dissidents

· Belarus, Persecution, Kazakhstan, KGB, Books, Latvia, Lithuania, Moscow, Nakhodka, Russia, Security Services, USSR, Tallinn, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine

In 1977, KGB Chairman Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov succinctly and laconically characterized the situation with the dissident movement in the Soviet Union: “It is no longer a secret for anyone that dissidence has become a sort of profession, generously paid with currency and other handouts, which essentially differs little from how imperialist intelligence services pay their agents.”[134]

Above, we have already detailed the punitive policy toward “enemies of Soviet power” in the 1960s, when the country was governed by Nikita Khrushchev. Under Leonid Brezhnev, the situation changed dramatically.

Six types of repressive measures applied by the official authorities against dissidents can be named:

Deprivation of liberty by imprisonment or corrective labor colony;
Suspended sentence to deprivation of liberty with mandatory labor of the convicted person;
Exile;
Expulsion from the country;
Correctional labor without deprivation of liberty — at one’s own enterprise or as assigned by the Ministry of Internal Affairs with a 20% deduction from wages;
Compulsory treatment in a psychiatric hospital.

It should be noted that, in most cases, the measure of punishment was chosen by the court, not by state security officers, as many human rights activists claim.

The method of preventing anti-state activities was also widely used — for example, the mechanism of “official warning.” This mechanism was introduced by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of December 25, 1972, “On the Use of Warnings by State Security Agencies as a Preventive Measure.” However, dissidents learned about it only after conversations with Chekists. For some hard-to-explain reason, it carried the classification “Not for Print,” which significantly reduced the effectiveness of its preventive impact. At Lubyanka, this document and the instructions for its application were promulgated by KGB Order No. 0150 of March 23, 1973.[135]

In practice, the “official warning” system worked as follows. A dissident was summoned to a KGB investigator and informed that their “undesirable activity” had to cease. This usually took place during a lengthy conversation. At the end of the meeting, the Lubyanka officer offered the summoned person to sign a document confirming receipt of the warning. If the dissident continued anti-Soviet activity, this warning was considered an aggravating circumstance in court.

According to journalist and historian Ilya Zemtsov, the warning procedure was devised by Yuri Andropov himself, who was “a master of manipulating fear without resorting to violence.”[136] Who the real author of the warning method is unknown, but it proved its effectiveness in preventing certain types of crimes.

To prove its effectiveness, let us cite one fact. In a memo from the head of the Fifth Directorate addressed to the KGB leadership in March 1977, it was reported that, in the context of détente, “prevention has become an important organic part of all counterintelligence work of state security agencies and one of the main methods of combating the enemy’s ideological sabotage, including such hostile manifestations as anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda. This is evidenced, for example, by the fact that out of 820 persons involved in operational records cases handled by local KGB agencies, 630 were subjected to prevention (a preventive conversation was held with them. — Ed.) and 104 were brought to criminal responsibility, while out of 1,200 persons checked by special sections of the KGB, only 4 were convicted.”

The tactic of preventive conversations indeed proved effective. For example, in 1979, out of 15,580 persons subjected to prevention in 1978, only 107 again manifested hostile activity.

To be completely objective, let us also cite other official statistics. For example, the number of those convicted under Article 70 (for anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda) from 1971 to 1975 decreased threefold. During the same period, courts examined cases against 396 persons. As a result, 73 people were convicted in 1973, 47 in 1974, and 22 in 1975.[137]

According to retired KGB Colonel Elena Kozeltseva, who was responsible for counterintelligence support at Moscow State University, using the warning procedure gave her “the opportunity to prophylactically influence certain young employees of the university, and they became worthy people.”[138]

Ten years after its creation, the KGB’s Fifth Directorate continued to tackle old tasks. Here, for example, is what KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov said at the All-Union Conference of the Heads of the Fifth Departments in March 1979:

“Whom is the enemy targeting today when carrying out ideological sabotage? After all, as is well known, our country has no social or class foundations that give rise to anti-Soviet activity. Yes, there are no such foundations. But there still remain former enemy agents from the post-war years, participants in the nationalist underground, unreformed anti-Soviet elements after serving their sentences. We have pro-Zionist elements, extremists from among Crimean Tatars and Germans. At the same time, the enemy is also seeking to draw new individuals into the sphere of its subversive influence…”

By “new individuals” were meant youth and representatives of various religious confessions.

With the above in mind, Yuri Andropov set priority tasks for the “Fifth Line.”

“Chekists working on nationalist lines must know their tactics and methods of using legal opportunities for propaganda of nationalism under the banner of the struggle for national identity and autonomy… While waging an irreconcilable struggle against such manifestations, state security officers must treat with respect and understanding the progressive national customs and traditions of the peoples of the Soviet Union, their culture, national in form and socialist in content, and must be able to distinguish the mistakes and misconceptions of individuals in the national question from the hostile activities of reactionary nationalist elements”

Speaking of counteraction on the religious front, the KGB chief named as the main adversaries certain representatives of the Catholic, Judaist, and Muslim clergy, as well as extremist-minded leaders of sects such as splinter Baptists, Seventh-day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Pentecostals. In this regard, the attention of the KGB’s fifth directorates was directed primarily at promptly suppressing such activities by emissaries from foreign representations of these sects.

Subversive activity also characterized the emissaries of the anti-Soviet organizations “Underground Evangelism” (USA), “Light in the East” (FRG), “Institute for the Study of Religion and Communism” (England), “Friedensstimme” (FRG), “Foreign Representation of the Council of Churches of Evangelical Christians-Baptists” (USA), similar representations of the “International Society for Krishna Consciousness” and the “White Brotherhood” organization. Emissaries from religious-propaganda centers — the “Slavic Mission,” “International Christian Solidarity,” “Stephanus Mission,” “Jehovah’s Witnesses” and others, closely linked to the special services of Western states and engaging, under the guise of the slogan “evangelization of Christ,” in ideological sabotage against the USSR and the countries of the socialist commonwealth, were not far behind them. It should be noted that some of the above-mentioned organizations are now recognized in our country as “totalitarian sects.”

Yuri Andropov paid special attention to studying the specifics of ideological sabotage using Zionism. He said that enemies of the USSR actively use the weapon of Zionism and specific pro-Zionist elements for subversive purposes.[139]

As we see, “dissidents” did not appear on the list of main tasks facing the Fifth Directorate. Let me explain that this refers to citizens of the USSR who criticized the existing system and human rights violations (which did exist, let’s not dissemble) but were not connected with foreign special services or religious centers. There were very few such people. And if it were not for the active support of the West, perhaps only their immediate circle would know about most of them.

In numerous addresses to his subordinates, Yuri Andropov constantly emphasized: “Dissidents exist thanks to Western support. Detach them from the West and there is no dissidence. Support and money come from there. It is extremely important to expose this…

We must continue the line of struggle against dissidents, because the enemy from abroad inspires their subversive activities.“

All of them were Westernizers, direct or unwitting accomplices of anti-Soviet forces abroad. And the “issue” of rights for Westernizers that they trumpeted was a demand for the freedom to conduct anti-Soviet work, which was usually carried out more in words than in deeds.

To confirm this thesis, one can mention the case of Pyotr Yakir. Here is what Yuri Andropov wrote about it: “Yakir himself, taking into account his belonging to the family of a hero of the civil war, was not initially prosecuted, but party and administrative bodies repeatedly explained to him the anti-social and illegal nature of his activities. In 1971, he was warned by the USSR Procuracy and the Committee for State Security about the intolerability of his behavior in our society. However, Yakir drew no conclusions for himself from all this.”

In practice, Yakir’s activity in those years amounted to the following:

a) constant contact with anti-Soviet foreign centers and receiving material aid from them;

b) publication of the “Chronicle of Current Events,” which was essentially the press organ of an association of opposition-minded like-minded individuals in a number of cities in the country (Kyiv, Leningrad, Vilnius, Novosibirsk, Sverdlovsk,

Gorky). There were correspondent points constantly engaged in collecting information for the “Chronicle”;

c) raising funds to provide aid to prisoners and their families, to pay for lawyers, and to cover expenses related to the production of slanderous materials.

On the basis of the material evidence of this kind obtained, the USSR Procuracy and the KGB submitted a proposal to the CPSU Central Committee to prosecute Yakir.[140]

The leadership of the Fifth Directorate of the KGB of the USSR regularly prepared a report for members of the CPSU Central Committee on the work done over the year. The document’s title, “On the Results of the Search for Authors of Anti-Soviet Documents,” perfectly reflected its content. Today, these documents are interesting not only for the information they contain about the number of authors of anonymous letters, leaflets, and slogans but also for the various repressive measures taken against dissidents.

Another interesting document is the annual reports on the work of the USSR KGB. Contrary to the widespread opinion of human rights activists, these reports devote very little attention to the struggle against dissidents and authors of anonymous letters, leaflets, and inscriptions. The Lubyanka had more important tasks than tracking down numerous anonymous writers. Besides, most of them posed no real threat to the country’s security. These “anonymous authors” wrote letters to various state institutions and media outlets with appeals and proposals to improve the situation in the country, criticized the actions of the authorities, reported on shortages, and so on. Their only fault was that it was impermissible at that time to criticize the existing system, and by their actions they stood out from the general mass of those who by day at party meetings unanimously shouted “approving, sir” to any initiatives of the party and government, and in the evening in the kitchen listened to Radio Liberty and told anti-Soviet jokes.

A brief chronicle of the confrontation between the KGB and the “troublemakers.”

“As a result of the active measures of the KGB organs, attempts to organizationally unite anti-Soviet elements and to inspire serious hostile manifestations inside the country under the banner of defending ‘human rights’ in the USSR were thwarted; the adversary’s actions, which attempted to speculatively exploit for hostile purposes the general principles of the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Helsinki, were compromised.

Among foreigners arriving in our country through cultural and scientific exchanges and as tourists, a significant number of emissaries of foreign, Zionist, and other anti-Soviet organizations were identified. For attempts to carry out ideological subversion, 114 foreigners were expelled from the USSR. Entry into the USSR was barred to 679 identified emissaries and functionaries of foreign anti-Soviet centers and other foreigners.

Over 290 thousand ideologically harmful materials sent into the country by foreign subversive centers were confiscated…

In 1975, preventive measures were applied to around 20 thousand persons who committed politically harmful acts not containing criminal intent. Over 25 active participants in Zionist manifestations and other inspirers of anti-Soviet actions were expelled from the country through emigration channels…

In Estonia, Moldavia, Armenia, Ukraine, and some other regions of the country, 53 nationalist groups were timely uncovered. Their ringleaders were brought to criminal responsibility, and ordinary participants were subjected to preventive measures.

The hostile activity of Jewish nationalists was significantly reduced. Anti-social provocative actions on their part were prevented, plans to spread their influence by inspiring nationalist sentiments under the slogan of creating a so-called ‘Jewish cultural autonomy’ in the USSR were thwarted, emigration sentiments were diminished, and discord was sown among active nationalists.

A number of group anti-social manifestations by certain citizens of German nationality and Crimean Tatar ‘autonomists’ were localized.

The subversive activity of a number of ringleaders of the so-called Council of Churches, reactionary-minded priests, bishops, and other similar individuals was localized. Plans to create new legal and illegal church-sectarian formations were thwarted. Several large communities of schismatic Baptists and 30 communities of Pentecostals were brought out of the underground and registered. Ten of their illegal printing sites were uncovered and eliminated…

The intentions of Sakharov and his like-minded associates to assume the role of a connecting link between various groups of hostile elements inside the country, as well as between them and subversive centers abroad, were thwarted.

In the course of work to shield Soviet youth from hostile influence in the Altai, Stavropol, and Khabarovsk territories, the Leningrad, Irkutsk, and Tomsk regions, the Tatar ASSR, and other areas of the country, the formation of 30 groups of ideologically harmful orientation among students was uncovered and prevented; persons engaged in producing anti-Soviet and slanderous materials with the aim of transmitting them abroad were identified…”[141]

Here is how the situation unfolded in the sphere of the “epistolary” genre.

“Over the course of the year, 1,629 authors produced and distributed on the territory of the country 10,206 copies of anti-Soviet, ideologically harmful, and slanderous anonymous documents (6,476 leaflets, 3,255 letters, and 475 inscriptions).

Compared to 1974, the number of identified authors decreased by 24%, and the quantity of anonymous documents they distributed also diminished somewhat. The most noticeable reduction in anonymous manifestations was noted in Ukraine, Byelorussia, Georgia, Lithuania, Estonia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, the Bashkir, Chechen-Ingush, and Chuvash ASSRs, in the Stavropol and Primorye territories, the Volgograd, Perm, Rostov, Saratov, Voronezh, Ivanovo, and other regions.

The number of persons who distributed anti-Soviet anonymous documents containing terrorist threats and intentions toward the leaders of the CPSU and the Soviet government decreased almost by half (by 41.4%) compared to 1974 (48 cases in 1975 versus 82 in 1974)…

As in previous years, in 1975, the overall mass of anonymous documents continued to see a growing number of anti-Soviet leaflets produced using duplication equipment (typographic type, photographic methods, clichés, etc.). Such cases occurred in Moscow, Leningrad, Riga, Sverdlovsk, and certain other major industrial and administrative centers…

Through measures taken by the state security organs, in 1975, 1,277 authors were identified and exposed, who distributed 6,602 anti-Soviet, politically harmful, and slanderous documents: 3,210 leaflets, 3,045 letters, 347 inscriptions. Among those tracked down were 37 authors who produced hostile documents with terrorist intentions toward the leaders of the CPSU and the Soviet government, and 126 who issued threats of physical violence against representatives of local party-Soviet activists and officials.”

In the course of operational-search measures in 1975, the criminal activity of 53 hostile nationalist and antisocial groups was exposed and suppressed, comprising 482 participants (in 1974, 74 groups with 222 participants were identified), primarily from among young people under the age of 30. The largest number of groups was uncovered in Ukraine (18 with 51 participants).

By social status, the identified authors and distributors of anonymous documents are characterized as follows: workers, mostly unskilled, 336 (26.3%); employees, including engineers and technicians, 244 (19.3%); collective farmers, 34 (2.6%); students (higher education), 63 (4.9%); pupils of schools, technical colleges, and vocational schools, 219 (17.1%); military personnel, 20 (1.5%); pensioners, 197 (15.4%); persons without definite occupation and convicts in corrective labor colonies and institutions of confinement, 164 (12.8%).

Of the total number of exposed authors, 143 persons (11.1%) had previously been convicted of especially dangerous state and other criminal offenses.

The traced anonymous persons have the following education: 534 primary, 531 secondary, and 212 higher.

Among those identified were 449 members and candidate members of the CPSU and 168 Komsomol members…

An analysis of the causes and motives for the production and dissemination of anti-Soviet anonymous documents shows that 332 persons, or 25.9%, embarked on a criminal path due to their political immaturity and delusions; 464 (12.8%) — for mercenary and other base purposes; 112 (8.7%) — out of hooligan and other immoral impulses; 36 (2.8%) due to material and other difficulties; 109 (8.5%) under the influence of anti-Soviet broadcasts from foreign radio stations and other forms of ideological sabotage; and 162 due to mental illness (12.6%).

At the same time, it was revealed that 59 persons, or 4.6%, embarked on the path of producing anti-Soviet anonymous documents because of their own hostile convictions, and 33 (2.5%) on the basis of nationalist sentiments.

After clarifying the goals and motives of the hostile manifestations committed by the anonymous persons, and also taking into account the degree of their public danger and personality, 715 persons were subjected to prophylactic measures, 135 were placed under operational verification or development, and 76 (in 1974 — 95) were brought to criminal liability…”[142]

“In Armenia, Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, and certain other republics, 28 nationalist groups were uncovered. In Leningrad, Rostov-on-Don, Ufa, Kuybyshev, and other cities, the formation of 47 youth groupings of an ideologically harmful orientation was prevented.

The designs of pro-Zionist-minded individuals to expand their hostile influence were thwarted; a number of group antisocial manifestations by Crimean Tatar ‘autonomists’ and emigration-minded Germans were suppressed and localized.

Several printing points of churchmen were uncovered and liquidated; 98 communities of schismatic Baptists and Pentecostals were brought out of the underground and registered; a number of anti-Soviet-minded sectarian leaders were compromised in the eyes of believers…

11 attempts to create politically harmful groups in the Soviet Army and Navy were cut short.

1,318 authors and distributors of anonymous documents with hostile content were traced; 69 of them were brought to criminal liability. The largest number of documents was disseminated in Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Armenia, Mordovia, the Moscow and Leningrad regions.

…In 1976, more than 18,000 persons who committed politically harmful acts were subjected to prophylactic measures.”[1]

“During the year, there were 4,673 instances on the territory of the country of the dissemination of 10,229 copies of leaflets, 2,150 anonymous letters, as well as the making of 540 inscriptions of anti-Soviet, politically harmful, and slanderous content.”

The document stated that in the reporting year, cases of “dissemination of anonymous documents by persons serving sentences in corrective-labor institutions” became more frequent. On the other hand, the number of “anti-Soviet anonymous manifestations” decreased in a number of Soviet republics, as well as in the Armed Forces of the USSR.

The state security organs in 1976 identified 1,318 authors “who disseminated in the reporting and preceding years 6,968 anti-Soviet, politically harmful, and slanderous documents.”

In 1976, the activities of 65 “hostile, nationalist, and antisocial groups” were suppressed. Among the “leaders,” the Chekists noted a group of five Lithuanian students who in 1975–1976 produced and distributed 600 leaflets of nationalist content. During searches, another 4,000 copies were seized from them. The leaders were brought to criminal liability.

The proportion of students among the identified persons was 25%. A similar indicator applied to workers (mostly unskilled), slightly less (19.8%) to employees. It was separately reported that “118 anonymous persons had previously been convicted for state and criminal offenses.” Also among those “identified were 104 members and candidate members of the CPSU” and 178 Komsomol members.

Further in the document it is reported that the majority of the authors of anonymous letters committed their deeds due to political immaturity, mercenary motives, or mental illness. And only 98 persons because of their hostile attitude toward Soviet power, of whom 52 persons because of nationalist convictions.

Therefore, it is not surprising that only 69 persons were brought to criminal liability. Relevant conversations were held with 784 people, and 286 persons were placed under operational development.[143]

“Decisive measures were taken against all manner of renegades who masqueraded as so-called ‘human rights defenders,’ ‘democrats,’ champions of civil liberties and human rights, and who attempted to conduct anti-Soviet activities under the cover of various ‘groups’ and ‘committees.’ Twenty-eight of them were brought to criminal liability.

In Ukraine, the Baltic republics, and Armenia, 32 nationalist groups were uncovered. In Moscow, Leningrad, and certain other cities, the formation of youth groups of an ideologically harmful orientation was prevented. A number of attempts to create such groups were detected in the troops…”

The schemes of Zionist elements to organize anti-social actions during important political events in the country were thwarted. The subversive activities of the leaders of the Crimean Tatar “autonomists,” emigration-minded Germans, and Meskhetian Turks, timed by them to coincide with the adoption of the new Constitution and the sixtieth anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, were localized.

1,309 authors and disseminators of anti-Soviet anonymous documents were tracked down…”[144]

Among the achievements of the staff of the Fifth Directorate of the USSR KGB and its subordinate regional structures, their active work against emissaries of foreign special services who specialized in ideological sabotage should be noted. For active anti-Soviet activities, four of them were arrested, more than a hundred were expelled from the Soviet Union, and many were banned from entering our country. The Chekists also sought to reduce the activity of “anti-Soviet, nationalistic, church-sectarian, and other anti-social elements” and to prevent their consolidation and unification, as well as the establishment of contacts with anti-Soviet foreign centers financed by Western special services.[145]

The KGB’s primary focus was not on repressing dissident citizens of the USSR but on countering the activities of foreign special services. Let us note that the state also actively opposed the emergence of nationalist and church-sectarian organizations.

This is something people prefer not to recall today, but in the 1970s, no one in the Soviet Union was killed because of their nationality or skin color. Moreover, police officers learned about skinheads from the television program “International Panorama” rather than from daily incident reports.

The numerous totalitarian sects that exist in our country today arose after the KGB ceased its activities and the Soviet Union disappeared from the political map of the world. Before that time, their leaders did not even try to organize anything on the territory of the USSR. The Chekists harshly and decisively suppressed any attempts to create organizations in which ordinary members were in unquestioning subordination to a leader and subjected to various consciousness-suppressing procedures.

It is enough to recall the “Aum Shinrikyo” sect, founded in Japan in 1987 and now banned in most countries of the world. The sect is built on a strictly centralized principle. The structure enforces absolute subordination of lower-level adepts to higher-level ones. Those who join transfer all their property to the sect. The organization’s activities are characterized by the use of narcotic substances and psycho-energetic means (audio cassettes) in the process of establishing and maintaining mind control over the adepts.

Although this sect went down in history not for its “religious” activity, but for its leaders’ “enthusiasm” for terrorism and the production of biological weapons. On March 20, 1995, on the personal order of its leader Shoko Asahara, the sect carried out a gas attack in Tokyo, resulting in the deaths of 12 people and injuries to about 5,000.

In Russia, the “Aum Shinrikyo” cult has been active since the summer of 1992. Its arrival was accompanied by a massive advertising campaign—over one million dollars were spent in the first few months (paying for a daily one-hour program on “Mayak” radio and a weekly half-hour program on the Moscow channel “2×2”). That same year, 1992, “Aum Shinrikyo” was registered by the Ministry of Justice. According to the estimates of “Aum Shinrikyo” leaders, in January 1994 the number of their adepts in Moscow was 35,000, and in Russia as a whole—slightly fewer than 50,000.

Formally, the activities of “Aum Shinrikyo” are now banned in our country, but in fact several numerous scattered groups operate. In the USSR such a thing was simply unthinkable. If the state imposed a ban, it was strictly observed…

Let us return to 1978. At the end of February, a regular report on the results of the search for authors of anti-Soviet anonymous documents was prepared at Lubyanka. Here are a few quotes from it: “During the reporting year, on the territory of the country there were 2,088 instances of distribution of 10,708 copies of leaflets, 4,764 anonymous letters, as well as 653 inscriptions of anti-Soviet, politically harmful, and slanderous content.

Compared to 1976, the number of instances of anonymous document distribution increased by 215, while the number of leaflets distributed increased by 479 copies, anonymous letters by 2,613, and hostile inscriptions by 113.”

The authors further noted an increase in the number of persons committing “utterances with signs of ‘central terror.’” However, the number of threats of physical reprisal against “representatives of the party-Soviet activist and officials” decreased. For example, 31 persons expressed terrorist intentions toward the leaders of the CPSU and the Soviet government, and 82 toward “victims” of lower rank.

…In March 1979, another report was prepared. “During the reporting year, 4,660 anonymous authors manifested themselves on the territory of the country, who in 2,150 instances distributed 11,445 leaflets, inscriptions, and letters of anti-Soviet, politically harmful, and slanderous content.

Compared to 1977, the number of identified authors decreased by 427 persons. At the same time, the number of anonymous documents decreased by 4,780 copies.

Thanks to measures taken by state security organs in 1978, 4,206 authors were identified and exposed. Among those tracked down were 26 authors who produced hostile documents containing terrorist intentions toward the leaders of the CPSUS and the Soviet government, and 77 who issued threats of physical reprisal against representatives of local party-Soviet activists and officials.

In the course of operational-search activities, the criminal activity of 38 hostile, nationalistic, and anti-social groups was uncovered and suppressed.”

Of the total number of identified authors, 27% are workers, mostly unskilled, 20.7% are students and pupils, 19.5% are white-collar employees, and 16.5% are pensioners. The remaining anonymous authors consist of mentally deficient individuals and those without definite occupations.

447 anonymous individuals had previously been tried for state and criminal offenses. Among those identified were 107 members and candidate members of the CPSU and 144 Komsomol members…

After appropriate checks, more than half of the identified anonymous authors have been given preventive warnings; some authors are undergoing operational verification, and 55 individuals have been prosecuted…』[146]

“Attempts to form anti-Soviet groups — the ‘Commission to Investigate the Use of Psychiatry for Political Purposes,’ the ‘Group to Assist the Implementation of the Helsinki Accords,’ the ‘Committee for the Defense of Believers’ Rights,’ the ‘Religious-Philosophical Seminar,’ ‘Free Trade Unions’ — were thwarted; as were attempts to revive organizational elements of renegade groups clustered around the illegal publications ‘Poiski,’ ‘Khronika tekushchikh sobytiy,’ and ‘Yevrei v SSSR.’

In Ukraine and the Baltic republics, actions by nationalist elements to conduct organized hostile activities were foiled, and four illegal publications they produced were liquidated. An attempt by extremist-minded individuals to create underground nationalist groups in Armenia was preempted. In Georgia, a grouping was eliminated whose members were engaged in producing and distributing anti-Soviet slanderous materials; the publication of the illegal periodical ‘Kolokolnya’ was paralyzed. The most active instigators of anti-social manifestations in Abkhazia were compromised. The creation of nationalist groups in the Central Asian republics and Kazakhstan was prevented at an early stage. The activity of pro-Zionist elements and hostile persons among Crimean Tatars, Meskhetian Turks, and Germans was dampened.

A palpable blow was dealt to the leadership structure and illegal printing base of the schismatic Baptists. Extremist groupings of the Jehovah’s Witnesses sect were eliminated. Six underground printing houses, 19 printing points, over 30 transshipment bases, warehouses, bookbinding and typesetting shops established by sectarians and churchmen were uncovered and liquidated…

One thousand five hundred twelve authors and distributors of anonymous anti-Soviet and slanderous documents were identified…』

And only afterward, in a single paragraph, was the enormous volume of work carried out during the preparation and staging of the 1980 Olympics in the sphere of ensuring “reliable security and preventing criminal actions by foreigners and hostile elements within the country” modestly mentioned…

(From the book by Alexander Sever, “History of the KGB,” Chapter Fifteen. The Fifth Chief Directorate versus Dissidents)

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