KGB Material Released By Cold War Project, Available Online

pha7boy writes "The Cold War International History Project just released the 'Vassiliev Notebooks.' The notebooks are an important new source of information on Soviet intelligence operations in the United States from 1930 to 1950. Though the KGB's archive remains closed, former KGB officer turned journalist Alexander Vassiliev was given the unique opportunity to spend two years poring over materials from the KGB archive taking detailed notes — including extended verbatim quotes — on some of the KGB's most sensitive files. Though Vassiliev's access was not unfettered, the 1,115 pages of densely handwritten notes that he was able to take shed new and important light on such critical individuals and topics as Alger Hiss, the Rosenberg case, and 'Enormous,' the massive Soviet effort to gather intelligence on the Anglo-American atomic bomb project. Alexander Vassiliev has donated his original copies of the handwritten notebooks to the Library of Congress with no restriction on access. They are available to researchers in the Manuscript Division."

And...?

[Colin Smith]

The executive summary please.

 

Re:Article about Vassiliev's credibility

[daknapp]

And we all know what a neutral, unbiased source The Nation is!

Great work of fiction - sorry but I call bullshit.

[Phizzle]

Considering Alexander Vassiliev's (not sure where the double "s" came from in )rep and lack of any verifiable evidence to the validity of the data, I see this nothing more than a lengthy and uninspiring work of fiction. He is just using his ex-KGB cred to prop up his book business.

Re:How redacted is it?

[Phizzle]

These days, it is a lot easier to publish freely in Russia than in USA - the stuff on the shelves in Moscow and Piter is way more unshackled than the things you will find at your average American Barnes and Noble. Plus, why would KGB bother redacting a work of fiction? They didn't bother with Vasiliev's prior work.

Re:KGB Defector On Politcal Subversion

[Alex Belits]

This contradicts everything else that is known about KGB, however it is consistent with American propaganda that pretty much projected their own image on propaganda efforts of others -- real or imaginary.

Re:KGB Defector On Politcal Subversion

[lawpoop]

No, he's wrong because his story is a supernatural story. It's a fairy tale, a story with a moral. These super-powerful spies ( spies! ) are able to perform a kind of mind-control by 'programming' college students by exposing them to certain professors. These spies have supernatural abilities -- the ability to program -- not convince, not indoctrinate, but program people because they took World History 101 with Professor Finkelstein. Never mind all of the television and movies that these American kids watch, never mind all the advertising they're exposed to, never mind all the songs they hear, never mind all the ideas of their parents, friends, families, co-workers, fellow church-goers -- their whole worldview in *installed in their heads* by reading Das Kapital in their sophomore year at college.

Boy, isn't that scary? How superpowerful these mind control techniques are! Why anybody around you could be 'infected'! You never know if your co-worker is one of "them". How could we ever hope to fight back?

Fortuneately, there is hope. We can fight back. We need to fight these advanced brainwashing techniques with our own counter-programming. We need kids reading Adam Smith's _Wealth of Nations_. We need them saying the pledge at the beginning of each school day. We need them going to church and believing in God. We can fight back against those commie memes, with our own mind programming.

That, my friend, is a Phillip K. Dick science fiction plot. It's something straight out of Videodrome. Brainwashing is a complete fiction.