KGB Material Released By Cold War Project, Available Online 94
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."
Call me paranoid (Score:4, Interesting)
Given the personal history of the powers that be [wikipedia.org] in Russia, I find hard to believe that this guy is given the "unique opportunity" to access or publish "some of the KGB's most sensitive files".
Where's the skepticism? (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Where's the skepticism? (Score:4, Interesting)
These notes help corroborate other facts that have been revealed, such as the massive archive that Vasili Mitrokhin brought over with him at the end of the Cold War.
While they may not be 100% accurate, I'm expecting they'll likely be 90% or better. His previous writings have mostly dovetailed with the Mitrokhin Archive.
Yes, Vassiliev is prone to exaggeration and self-aggrandizement, (men of power frequently are) but these notes are not the only glimpse into the KGB's archives.
Re:Yes but... (Score:5, Interesting)
because it turns out that there were quite a number of spies in the U.S. government and other key institutions of American society.
True. But they were mostly useless. One of the more amusing Soviet documents to surface from that era was a grumbling memo from KGB Moscow Central. They were complaining that too many useless agents had been recruited in places like the State Department, and not enough in atomic and other defense programs.
Some well-known items:
For an good background on that era from the Soviet side, read Anatoly Dobrynin [wikipedia.org]'s memoirs. He was Soviet ambassador to the US from 1962 to 1986, and after the Cold War wound down, wrote it all up. Dobrynin became an ambassador due to a whim of Stalin's. One day, Stalin was frustrated with his diplomats, who were mostly old guys left over from the Revolution. He said something like "We need new Soviet men in this job, like young aircraft designers." The next day, Anatoly Dobrynin, young aircraft designer, was taken from his drawing board (literally) by KGB agents and shipped to Moscow, to attend the Higher Diplomatic Academy. And no, he wasn't told why at the time.
The Sword and the Shield (Score:4, Interesting)
KGB Defector On Politcal Subversion (Score:5, Interesting)
Former KGB operative and defector Yuri Bezmenov said most KGB agents were not involved in "James Bond" type espionage over atmioc secrets etc. Ideological subversion was the primary focus:
On Demoralization & Destabilization
"YURI BEZMENOV: Ideological subversion is the process which is legitimate and open. You can see it with your own eyes.... It has nothing to do with espionage.
I know that intelligence gathering looks more romantic.... That's probably why your Hollywood producers are so crazy about James Bond types of films. But in reality the main emphasis of the KGB is NOT in the area of intelligence at all. According to my opinion, and the opinions of many defectors of my caliber, only about 15% of time, money, and manpower is spent on espionage as such. The other 85% is a slow process which we call either ideological subversion, active measures, or psychological warfare. What it basically means is: to change the perception of reality of every American that despite of the abundance of information no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interest of defending themselves, their families, their community, and their country.
It's a great brainwashing process which goes very slow and is divided into four basic stages. The first one being "demoralization". It takes from 15 to 20 years to demoralize a nation. Why that many years? Because this is the minimum number of years required to educate one generation of students in the country of your enemy exposed to the ideology of [their] enemy. In other words, Marxism-Leninism ideology is being pumped into the soft heads of at least three generation of American students without being challenged or counterbalanced by the basic values of Americanism; American patriotism....
The result? The result you can see ... the people who graduated in the 60's, dropouts or half-baked intellectuals, are now occupying the positions of power in the government, civil service, business, mass media, and educational systems. You are stuck with them. You can't get through to them. They are contaminated. They are programmed to think and react to certain stimuli in a certain pattern [alluding to Pavlov]. You cannot change their mind even if you expose them to authentic information. Even if you prove that white is white and black is black, you still can not change the basic perception and the logic of behavior."
Excellent series of videos with Yuri on YouTube. These should be required viewing in schools.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHgYPDvQFU8&feature=related [youtube.com]
http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:dW8vp_7B-00J:brianakira.wordpress.com/2008/10/25/videosyuri-bezmenov-on-soviet-subversion-of-the-free-world/+A+person+who+is+demoralized+bezmenov&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=us [74.125.47.132]
Re:The Sword and the Shield (Score:1, Interesting)
So in lieu of mod points, anyone who enjoys the story will also enjoy Stephen Coonts' (of "Flight of the Intruder" fame) fictionalized version of the story in his novel Liars and Thieves [victoria.tc.ca].
Re:KGB Defector On Politcal Subversion (Score:4, Interesting)
Nice unsourced statement. You are conveniently attempting to ignore, much like the early leftist fans of Stalin, the reality of the situation. Our institutions of learning and higher learning *were* purposefully infiltrated by the Soviets in order to take us out from within. It's the same modus operandi that the Scientology folk have used on a larger scale, and like Scientology they also targeted Hollywood. Unfortunately for us, they were more successful.
Our popular culture is filled with people who are devoid of independent thought. Some, like Pete Seeger, eventually disowned Stalin, but many didn't, and a lot of damage was done. Seeger still sells the communist line, and look who he works with: School Children. Upstate New York's public radio is headed by a man who could sing you all the old "Labor songs" without reading them off a sheet.
You can show them revenue figures from the 1980's that showed tax revenue almost doubled, and they will still claim that the tax cuts caused the increase in the deficit, and that the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. The truth of course is that both groups got richer. If confronted with facts and figures, they will retreat into the rich got disproportionately richer than the poor, so it's "not fair". It's complete class warfare, and it's been pounded into them their whole lives.