The KGB (Russian Secret Police): Its Composition, Aims and Methods Lt Cdr H.G

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Scientia Militaria, South African Journal of Military Studies, Vol 14, Nr 2, 1984. http://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za The KGB (Russian Secret Police): Its composition, aims and methods Lt Cdr H.G. Graser*

Introduction phants' careers to take a dive. Still, fear and greed make a formidable combination that keep Any discussion of the Russian Secret Police, or even the grossest of opportunists in line. As a KGB ('Committee for State Security') must of self-contained unit with its own schools, shops, necessity be preceded by a brief outline of the holiday resorts, agricultural production centres USSR's true political set-up. and training camps, the KGB has virtually no contact with the people outside of its official There are two primary governing bodies in the function which include surveillance, interroga- Soviet Union: one is the Supreme Soviet and its tion, prison administration (although nominally Presidium - the other the Communist Party and under the Minister of the Interior or the MVD, the its Central Committee and Politburo. Put into their Gulag - acronym for prison administration - is proper perspective, this emerges: the Supreme under KGB supervision), border control, pass- Soviet, which appoints Ministerial staff and runs port and emigration, political and economic as the USSR's 'government', is in fact no more than well as censorship investigations, in addition to a rubber stamping body of men who see to it that the guarding of the Kremlin and its bosses. Con- the decisions of the Communist Party are duly tact is strictly discouraged in order to maintain a ratified and implemented. closed-shop atmosphere among personnel. The KGB has a legal right to demand of anyone that To ensure that its directives are properly ad- he or she inform on suspected 'anti-Soviet' ele- hered to, and to prevent counter-revolutionary ments: Soviet statutory law makes it a criminal activity against the Party, the KGB controls the offence to refuse to do so. USSR security apparatus. Lenin What Lenin said sixty-five years ago, still applies: The KGB occupies a central position in the a good communist is at the same time also a USSR's organigram of executive, legislative and good Chekist (derived from 'Cheka', the first se- judicial dispensation. More to the point: it is the cret police organisation after the Russian Revo- coercive arm of the Communist Party's Politburo lution). To enable the modern descendants of - which happens to combine all three moments the Cheka to perform their function of total politi- of authority inside Russia, and a good deal out- cal control, roughly 500 000 people are em- side of it in Soviet satellite and client states. The ployed - of which a hard core of about 110 000 single authority to which the KGB is beholden permanent KGB officers form the 'Sword and the inside the Politburo and its Central Committee Shield' (their emblem). In addition to its own exercises command over it directly. Conse- internal troops, the KGB has at its disposal five quently, KGB officers of relatively low rank can divisions of security troops, as well as some ignore or overrule orders inside the military, mili- 2 000 Kremlin Guards. tia (normal police) or any other regulative body, given by senior officers or officials. A single attri- World's largest bute counts for everything: unquestioning loyalty For duty abroad, the KGB has at least five times and obedience. In return, KGB officers are re- as many agents as the CIA and all the Western warded lavishly with generous salaries, perks European countries can field. At least half of and goods in kind of which the ordinary Russian USSR ambassadorial staff, as well as members can only dream. of the Russian Aeroflot airline and trade-officials, military attaches, cultural commissars, technical This does not mean, however, that the KGB itself and agricultural advisers are KGB and occasion- is not under continuous and relentless scrutiny ally GRU (military intelligence) agents. Their itself. Members of this fraternity can never be never-ending task: to gather information about sure who is spying on whom, and how long their sensitive Western installations, to monitor and sinecure may last: the death of a Soviet supremo (where possible) to manipulate politicat trends, may precipitate massive upheavals, and the dis- to infiltrate trade-unions, teaching establish- missal of a commander may cause his syco- ments, churches and youth organisations and, of

9 Scientia Militaria, South African Journal of Military Studies, Vol 14, Nr 2, 1984. http://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za course, to promote communist revolutionary cli- A KGB manual titled 'Organisation of KGB mates. counter-espionage work' states that 'the deter- mining factor in the espionage activity of the Before detailing some of the principal functions KGB is the foreign po/icy of the Soviet Govern- of the KGB, a look at the Soviet Union's political ment (emphasis supplied). Any doubt about the structure: origin and purpose of Soviet subversion is put to

I I 'GOVERNMENT OFTHE USSR COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE USSR

President of Chairman of the the USSR & Presidium

Central Committee of the Communist Party of the USSR

Supreme Soviets

International Dept. Internal Affairs (MVD) Political Corps GRU of the Armed Forces (Military of the USSR Intel!.

KGB (State Security)

______actual and direct __ ------Nominal and indirect

Subversion as policy rest for good (Myagkov p. 31). Other specific As can be seen from the above, the KGB is Soviet Secret Police tasks include these: 'To set responsible to the General Secretary of the up secret control over both international and CPSU - whose ultimate sanction it requires for internal postal and telegraphic communications foreign operations involving governments or in- (and) to fabricate cover documents.' This direc- ternationally sensitive issues. The 'Statute of the tive is of importance to South Africa on at least Committee of State Security' attached to the two major counts: the recently founded PANA Council of Ministers of the USSR' explicitly en- (Pan-African News Agency) and NWIO (New joins the KGB to 'carry out espionage work in World Information Order) are obviously either capitalist countries' ... and that its agents shall 'useful idiots' or active fronts for the communists. 'penetrate the state, political, scientific, technical Secondly, when French police uncovered a and espionage centres of imperialist states ... massive Soviet forging operation in the northern with the aim of aggravating contradictions and Paris suburb of Ivry (Sunday Times 29.6.80) it difficulties occurring in their activities ... to give became evident that Henri Curiel, founder of the the enemy misinformation for political and opera- communist organisation 'Solidarite', had long tional purposes ... ' Another directive: 'KGB or- produced fake passports and documents that gans are to carry out individual tasks entrusted discredited South Africa. Not only had he trained to them by the Central Committee and the Soviet Breyten Breytenbach in the use of secret codes Government. ' and provided travel documents for him under the

10 Scientia Militaria, South African Journal of Military Studies, Vol 14, Nr 2, 1984. http://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za name of 'Christian Galewska'; he also churned mation and Executive Action' of Chief Directorate out great numbers of fake pass books for South Number 1. African Blacks, maintained contact with Barend Schuitema, founder of the Dutch anti-apartheid It is well-nigh impossible to enumerate detailed movement and (just by the way) also counted KGB actions here. However, some indication of Carlos the Jackal among his clients. The arrest of the massive scope of their subversive KGB oper- Curiel and his 6 'cobblers' (spy jargon for pro- ations can be gained by an analysis of the prime ducers of fake documents) was, moreover, a functions of the various Chief- and Sub Sections heavy blow for the ANC, who had depended on and Departments of the KGB, whose former them for defamatory and disinformationary boss was none other than Yuri Andropov, former 'documents' with which to discredit South Africa. General Secretary of the CPSU as well as Presi- All these underhanded shenannigans were ini- dent of the USSR and Chairman of the Presidium tiated by SA Kondratchev, head of the KGB's - and whose present head is V. Chebrikov: department of disinformation - Dezinformatsiya - which was founded in 1959 as part of 'Disinfor- KGB Organigram:

I COUNCIL OF MINISTERS I CENTRAL COMMITIEE OF THE POUTB. I I I L KGB. headed by V. Chebrikov

Collegium

Secretariat

Chief Directorates

Two Border guards

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The above chart is neither complete nor static: compiled largely from Western intelligence sources and information received from KGB defectors, it is nevertheless a generally accurate reflection of status and structure of the various components.

Changes occur regularly inside the apparatus itself (since the days of the Cheka, the Russian secret police has been known as GPU, OGPU, NKVD, etc.) but its ultimate aims remain the same: the subversion, by any and all means, of the West and the world-wide communist dictatorship.

Some of the principal tasks assigned to:

Chief Directorate NO.1: This directorate is sub-divided into 6 sections:

(i) Section'S' ('Sleepers') Here selected, capable and intelligent officers are chosen to undergo rigorous and specialised training which may last as long as 10 years. About 300-400 kilometres south-east of Mos- Yuri Loginov, a Soviet KGB agent captured in South cow the KGB has fenced off several thousand Africa in 1967. He was later exchanged for 10 West hectares of isolated countryside. No one, not German agents in East Germany even top government officials, is permitted access to the area - unless specifically authorised profession. Well-known examples of this type of directly by NO.2 Dzerzinsky Square in Moscow. operative are YN. Loginov (arrested in South This forbidden zone is subdivided into several Africa and freed in exchange for ten West Ger- units, each of which contains an exact replica of mans held in East Germany in 1968), Rudolf Abel a typical Western 'town' containing a business- (alias William Fisher) and, of course, Gordon centre, school, library, city-hall, police station Lonsdale (real name Conon Molody) arrested in and all the other official or social amenities one is Britain on evidence supplied by an East German likely to encounter in, say, a British or American defector in 1961. set-up. It is not known just how many Western 'training facilities' are situated there (since each (ii) Section 'T one is sealed off from contact with all the others) but it is likely that at least Western European Highly-trained technical and professional KGB countries, Britain and the USA are represented. personnel undertake data theft in the West. A Possibly other, non-European centres are also recent example of their activity came to light provided for. when sophisticated computers were secured by a West German who had established domicile in South Africa, bought what was needed by the 'Sleepers' - so-called because such trained Soviets (in this case missile-tracking systems) agents are infiltrated into target-countries, or- had it transshipped through the RSA to a Scandi- dered to establish a local presence by becoming navian country for eventual delivery to the Rus- assimilated inconspicuously as professional or sians. Fortunately the operation was uncovered businessmen for a number of years, before the and stopped in time, KGB-defector Myagkov, order comes from Moscow to 'awaken' them for who visited South Africa a few years ago, sus- specific tasks of espionage or sabotage - are pects that West Germans are being used by the given exhaustive instruction in the language, Russians in this country in preference to other customs, religious practices, sporting preferen- nations. Obviously it would be a relatively simple ces and at least two different types of trade or matter for a hardened East German communist

12 Scientia Militaria, South African Journal of Military Studies, Vol 14, Nr 2, 1984. http://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za to pose as a West German after obtaining fake title and on whatever mission to Russia. Student, papers. businessman, technician, politician, diplomat or scientist - all are taken into personal custody by (iii) Section '/' 'Intourist', whose 'guides' (invariably KGB personnel) see to it that foreigners are not only kept Analyses data stolen (or legitimately obtained) away from sensitive installations, but also that from the West to determine its value and applic- they are kept strictly apart from ordinary Rus- ability to Soviet needs. sians. In the interests of the latter, it is just as well that this stipulation be adhered to; otherwise (iv) Section Information and Counter-Intelligence such citizens are immediately confronted and investigated for 'slanderous' or 'un-Russian' ac- This section serves a two-fold purpose: in co- tivities. At the same time visitors to Russia run a operation with the GRU ('Glavnoya Razvedyva- grave risk of being compromised by blackmail. telnoye Upravlenye') - USSR armed forces intel- Sexual enticement of the normal as well as the ligence service - military and other strategic perverse variety are arranged by, among others, information is sought in the West through espio- intourist hotel staff. Illicit adventures are likely to nage and under cover of front organisations. be recorded and kept on file - sometimes for The second major task entrusted to this section years, in case a victim attains the requisite status subsumes the total surveillance and control of which renders him suitable for blackmail at a Soviet nationals abroad, irrespective of rank or later stage. It is the explicit task of the infamous title. Its activities are mirrored in the USSR armed 'Soviet Index' department of the KGB to obtain forces' Political Corps, which in turn is controlled information of this kind on as many Westerners by GLAVPUR (Main Political Directorate). The as possible, and it is thought to contain bio- latter is sanctioned by the Defence Council, graphical, statistical and deviant details of mil- which gets its directives from the KGB itself. This lions of people considered to be either 'enemies intricate and inter-linked network of check, of the State' or amenable to blackmail on behalf counter-check and cross-check has so far very of the USSR. There is tremendous pressure on effectively prevented the formation of anti-Party KGB personnel at work in this connection to cells in the armed forces. As we shall see, politi- 'produce'; which means that the sheer volume of cal control extends from cradle to grave at home, often manufactured 'evidence' is more of a re- place of work and even leisure-time of every flection of the obsession with padding files, than single Soviet citizen. No-one, but no-one, coun- it is of factual reportage. Nevertheless, this termands a KGB order that has been issued from source for the subversion of likely espionage HQ in Moscow. If the title 'Counter Intelligence' agents is unmatched by anything else anywhere. sounds unusual for the kind of work it here subsumes, it should be remembered that Soviet citi- Smersh zens, too, could be 'enemies of the people', i.e. The 'Executive Action' part of this sub-section of of the communist party, and therefore require Chief Directorate No. 1 is also known as 'Dept. pre-emptive and 'corrective' treatment ... just in Vee', continues the work of what used to be case! called 'SMERSH' (acronym for 'Death to Spies') during WW II. Apart from political assassination, (v) Section Disinformation and Executive Action KGB officers employed here are responsible for the infiltration, and in times of war or the immi- This is no doubt one of those undertakings the nent outbreak of hostilities, the destruction of KGB would like to conceal from as many people critically important Western communications net- as possible - not for reasons of moral niceties, works. The identification of transportation and but because its dirty tricks and bloody 'wet af- control facilities, likewise - as well as their pre- fairs' (assassination and ordinary murder) are emptive targeting and disruption - also form part not conducive to the KGB's 'good image' as of Dept. Vee's duties. KGB defectors have 'guardian of the people'. assisted Britain's MI.5 and Secret Service (MI.6) in the location of buried and constantly main- This section also has two main tasks - as sug- tained communications equipment in various gested by the title: The 'disinformation' aspect parts of England. encompasses domestic surveillance and control of foreign visitors. Among other functions - the 90000 die systematic, co-ordinated and unremitting chan- Other, very costly (in terms of human life) and nelling of all non-Russians of whatever rank or very nearly successful disinformation and assas-

13 Scientia Militaria, South African Journal of Military Studies, Vol 14, Nr 2, 1984. http://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za sination programmes include the Indonesian ex- major language groups, and over 100 dialects perience during the 1960's (when about 90 000 are spoken) dissidents are, as exemplified by people were slaughtered by anti-communists Afghanistanis, not uncommon and require strict who discovered the Soviet Union's attempt to and frequently harsh control to keep them in line install a Marxist government in Sukarno's place with official Marxist doctrine and communist only just in time), as well as the Russian's attempt party directives. Such political suppression spills at overthrowing the Mexican government a few over into purely domestic matters as well: unre- years later. Readers may recall the 'Yankee-go- ported or little-known internal uprisings have home' hysteria that swept these countries at the taken place inside Russia and have been blood- time: all of it originated in this department. ily suppressed by troops firing into crowds at Alexandrov (1960); Novocherkassk (1962); Rya- (iv) The last sub-section of note in Chief Directorate zan (1964); Chimkent (1967); Khorol (1968); No. 1 is known as the 'Normal Dept' Dneprozherzinsk (1972) as well as at Ivanov not long thereafter. Everyone of these 'provocative Divided into 10 so-called 'cultural zones' of geo- riots' which precipitated action against 'anti- graphic areas of the Western world such as State elements' had to do with crowds who pro- Western Europe, Britain, the US, for example, tested about food shortages. each area is ministered to by suitably-trained KGB officers who operate through a bewildering Non-Russian army array of front-organisations: South Africa falls It is clear that people who feel hatred and resent- under area NO.5, and is the recipient of the ment against the Russian communist dictator- unwelcome attentions of no less than 76 United ship inside that country are seething with frustra- Nations organisations, committees and councils tion. The numerical preponderance of non-Rus- who either directly or indirectly seek to under- sians will be an indisputable fact by the year mine the RSA. For the record, UNESCO (one of 2000 - which means that the recruits drafted into the major organisations among the 76) is totally the USSR's armed forces are already close to infiltrated by the KGB - hence the decision of the 50% of the total now. Resisting forcible assimila- United States to withdraw its support from tion, non-Russians are proving to be possibly the UNESCO altogether by the end of 1984: this is gravest headache the USSR's Politburo must hardly surprising since the West pays the lion's come to terms with: consequently harsh repres- share of that organisation's budget - for the priv- sion is the order of the day the moment national- ilege of being undermined by it. istic or religious sentiments manifest themselves. The danger of all this is, of course, that the The KGB also makes its presence felt in the Soviets not only continuously foment revolution World Council of Churches. The Russian Ortho- abroad in order to detract from their home-grown dox (in Russia) member church's primate Niko- problems - but, even more ominous, the realis- diem is a KGB appointee - in addition to which ation that time is running out for them may force the Russians vetted the top posts of the WCC their hand and precipitate hasty and potentially itself. More than one personal assistant of the catastrophic pre-emptive measures. (Indeed, UNO has been a known KGB agent into the quite apart from the growing communist Chinese bargain. threat, many other factors add up to an expand- ing compendium of intractable issues: national- A final task of this subsection concerns the ism - just mentioned, diminishing energy re- manufacture of fake and defamatory documents, sources, growing Western perception of Soviet as well as the development and use of lethal subversion, geo-strategic disadvantages, the chemicals and other instruments of murder. likely refusal of Warsaw-Pact allies to commit themselves fully to their Moscow masters in time of war, the eroding credibility of communism So much for the activities of a single directorate among Asiatic nations - plus a few others). One of the KGB! way or another the Russians only resort, viz. further lies, violence and suppression, cannot be maintained indefinitely as a viable option against Chief Directorate NO.2 human desires for self-determination and free- Here we have to do mainly with the control of dom. Hence, the vicious circle of increasing re- Russian nationals inside the USSR. Since the 15 sistance to increasing KGB harshness must ulti- republics of the Soviet Union are by no means all mately lead to its demise - either through attrition constituted of Russian elements (there are 20 or voluntarily. It is unlikely at this stage that the

14 Scientia Militaria, South African Journal of Military Studies, Vol 14, Nr 2, 1984. http://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za latter option will be exercised by the communi- millions. It is up to the CD Border Guards to sts, since it would destroy them from within. As prevent such flight from the Worker's Paradise. the wise old Chinese saying goes: He who rides The counterparts of the Russian KGB Border the tiger dare not dismount! Even more to the Guards are to be found in Soviet satellite states point: he who wields the sword shall perish by as well: the East German Mfs (Ministerium fUr it ... Staatssicherheit) is responsible, through the HVA (Hauptverwaltung Aufklarung) for the main- Slave labour tenance and manning of the Berlin Wall which Chief Directorate 2 and Chief Directorate 5 ob- has cost the lives of many people trying to reach viously conduct certain operations which over- the West. Control along communist borders is lap: the latter's administration of the infamous ruthless and efficient: anyone venturing near for- 'Gulag Archipelago' - about which Aleksandr bidden zones is shot, blown up by landmines, Solzhenitsyn wrote so eloquently, having spent shredded by triggered shrapnel, torn apart by years in a slave-labour camp himself - and the dogs or reported to the KGB by frightened locals suppression of minorities inside Russia testify to who are conditioned by the simple expedient of that. More about NO.5 later. being 'suspected of assisting anti-Soviet ele- Other functions within the preserve of No. 2 in- ments', should an escape succeed. The Mfs (as clude the maintenance of industrial safety, not as well as all Soviet satellite states' security police) in the West, concerned with prevention of acci- are subject to KGB surveillance in some mea- dents, but with the control of sabotage by disaf- sure. Of course, citizens of the Soviet Union are fected workers. The standard Russian attitude of free to get in touch with the KGB themselves, 'Since the State pretends to pay us well, we should anything trouble them. The Moscow tele- pretend to work hard' is not surprising in view of phone number: call 221-07-62 for 'Enquiries' at the fact that private initiative and the profit motive the 'Pervy Odtel' (First Department)! are strictly taboo. Another KGB task in this sub- Chief Directorate NO.5 section: the surveillance of Soviet trade-missions abroad. To round off the list: subversion and Some of the activities of this directorate strain the recruitment of foreign diplomats inside the imagination, and border on the Kafkaesque. USSR; the investigation of corruption (a rich one, that!) and wastage of State property; and finally Apart from liaison with CD NO.2 in respect of the the operations of a group known as the 'technical control of political minorities and the consequent support group' (in fact a fraternity of professional overlapping and duplication of the tasks of these burglars). Of course the sentence for 'economic two Chief Directorates, CD No. 5 has several sabotage', which may cover any of a multitude of very specific orders. Some of these concern: sins for which Russian citizens are answerable to Chief Directorate NO.2, is death by firing-squad. Psychiatric torture Executions do not appear to be regularly re- (i) The staffing, maintenance and operation of ported by the likes of 'TASS', but they do still take psychiatric institutes for the purpose of 'curing' place. certain 'paranoid reformists' i.e. people too well- known or important to warrant summary incar- ceration in the Gulag, there to rot and be forgot- Chief Directorate Border Guards (not numbered) ten. No one is immune. Mother Russia's military Consisting of approximately 300 000 men, most heroes (like Marshall Grigorenko, one of the most of whom are under arms, this KGB organisation decorated officiers of WW II), researchers, scien- is tasked with the security of the USSR border. It tists, writers or whoever, are visited by the KGB is a formidable undertaking. As the largest politi- the moment they manifest anticommunist ten- cal unit in the world, the Soviet Union has a dencies - such as a public demand that the coast-line of about 16 000 km, as well as a fron- Helsinki Accord be implemented as underwritten tier of about the same length to guard (the USSR by the USSR itself. Grigorenko - a communist, abuts on 12 countries). Internal geographic di- yes, but a man of integrity nonetheless, was mensions are, approximately, 10 000 km east to arrested on Red Square after protesting that the west, and 4,500 km north to south. These areas USSR constitution's rights (such as they are) and borders are not, however, imperiled by ag- were being withheld from people by those who gressive intent from abroad. On the contrary, were supposed to guarantee them in the first they contain the peoples of the 15 so-called place. For that bit of effrontery he was bundled 'autonomous republics' of the USSR - peoples off to the Serbsky Forensic Institute of Psychiatry who would (if they could) leave Russia by the in Moscow and delivered into the hands of KGB

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Colonel D.R. Lunts, who donned a white coat of disinformation is quite as objectionable to non- and became 'Dr' Lunts, and diagnosed 'schi- communists as that which falls under the 'De- zophrenia of the paranoid type'. Subsequently partment of Religious Affairs'. It is, moreover, the Marshall was transferred to an assylum at also one of the most dangerous and potentially Chernyakhovsk. His political 'condition' was successful subversions of the human spirit im- treated by mind-bending injections of Pentathol aginable: we have here to do with nothing less and other suitable means - in order to extract a than the systematic and very thorough training of confession from him that he had erred. When bogus priests. Just as the Patriarch of the Rus- that failed, he was declared insane. According to sian Orthodox Church in Russia (not to be con- evidence collected by author J. Barron in his fused with the Russian Orthodox Church abroad, book 'KGB', many hundreds of healthy, but anti- which is staunchly anti-communist and has its communist or 'revisionist' citizens have suffered own head) is a KGB man who transmits whatever (and very likely still are undergoing) this kind of 'anti-Soviet' confessions he is privy to to No. 2 'therapy'. In Stalin's time, of course, such refine- Dzerzinski Square or its appointees, the ments did not exist and would have been churches abroad are also catered for. As we deemed extravagant since a bullet provided a have seen, the WCC (World Council of Churhes) far more rapid and permanent solution to prob- too, is beholden to the communists. But, infinitely lems of State. These days summary executions worse are the diabolical activities of the 5 estab- and the dreaded midnight-knock have been lishments which train ministers of various de- largely superseded by more sophisticated me- nominations at: thods like these. Today, as in Lenin's time, the (a) FEODOSIA, in the Krim. Here chiefly Latin 'scientific use of terror' still prevails. Censorship countries are the ultimate recipients of fake Catholic 'priests' who are educated in the (ii) The total literary control of every single docu- history, ecclesiastical custom, ritual and ment, book, film or tape issued in the USSR. doctrine of that Church - before they are 'GLAVLlT' looks after the 'ideological purity' of marked for infiltration into religious com- the written, printed and spoken word and vigor- munities of target countries: France, Italy, ously combats all 'Samizdat' ('self-publishing') Portugal and Spain. copies of forbidden, and therefore underground, (b) Likewise, 'priests' are produced in LVOV publications. KGB officers see to it that every (also known as LEMBERG) in the Ukraine for duplicating facility - such as copying machines Switzerland, Belgium and certain South - are kept locked at all times when they are not American countries. physically present. A literary writer's guild, sub- (c) SIGUEL (also SIGULDA) in Latvia caters for servient to official Marxist doctrine, lavishly re- Germany, Britain, Austria, the Netherlands wards the likes of Ilya Ehrenburg and Mikhail and Scandinavia, while Soiokov whose third-rate and frequently plagiar- (d) MOSCOW is the centre for ministering to ised books extol the virtues of the 'new Soviet Canada and the USA. man' as he flings himself into joyous labour and (e) Finally, KONSTANTA in Rumania specialises ever-increasing overproduction of set norms, or in Eastern faiths such as Mohammedanism, depict the glories of communist military and Buddhism and Hinduism. police adventures against renegade White Rus- sians who resisted Lenin and Stalin. Christ as revolutionary Jews pay to leave After 6 years of intensive religious, linguistic and (iii) Thirdly, there is the Department of Jewish target country training for their 'ministry' abroad, Affairs. Its main preoccupation: the processing little controversial preaching is done, but by of emigration applications. Depending on West- subtle stages congregations become radical- ern outcry or political expediency, x-numbers of ised and politicised against their country's gov- Jews are allowed to leave. However, engineers erning authorities. Since a person's religious and other professions are expected to reimburse convictions are of central importance to him, and the State for costs incurred during their educa- not infrequently constitute the Achilles Heel in tion in Russia. The going rate for an engineer: matters of doctrinal manipulation, successful approximately 10000 roubles (more than subversion is virtually guaranteed among at least R10 000). The control of synagogues falls under some of the people who believe sincerely that the next, and final sub-section of Chief Directo- the humanist and 'liberation theology'-approach rate NO.5. holds great promise of freedom for the domestic Fake 'priests' masses that are exploited under capitalism. (iv) Probably no other KGB activity in the realm From there it is but a few short steps to the taking

16 Scientia Militaria, South African Journal of Military Studies, Vol 14, Nr 2, 1984. http://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za up of arms, as indeed certain South American abroad: emigres, particularly White Russian or- Catholic priests have already done in order to ganisations, are a prime target. Subdirectorate 'hasten the coming of the Lord'. Christ is por- NO.8 undertakes the monitoring and decipher- trayed as the Revolutionary par excellence, the ing of space-satellite information, while No. 9's here-and-now is considered to be as important exclusive task is the guarding of high communist (or more so) than the hereafter, and 'human officials: only KGB members of this subdirecto- rights' and 'freedom' are defended by bombs 'if rate may carry arms in the vicinity of government necessary' - since violence is 'cathartic'. These or party leaders. grotesque perversions are not all that difficult to understand when one considers that violence is Administrative and financial affairs are also han- being celebrated in itself on many other grounds dled by subdirectorates. Perhaps it would not be as an acceptable solution to problems which will far off the mark if one were to view most of them not yield to other methods of persuasion. The as support facilities for the Chief Directorates. military, police, entertainment, literature, TV, radio, universities, trade-unions all in some way How does the Soviet propaganda machine work contribute to a perception of violence as a sub- in practice? stitute of the consultative process instead of as its negation. That law and order and the legiti- mate defence of a country's sovereignty require International Communist Propaganda: its violence occasionally, is disallowed as an 'in- origins and front organisations fringement' of the rights of people to 'do their The single most important tool of communism is, own thing' - including the refusal of national of course, violence. Violence, however, has two service on religious grounds. Small wonder that parameters: the physical and the mental or spiri- immature and apathetic minds are swayed by tual. In other words, physical coercion and such rhetoric, particularly if it emanates from a propaganda together force the issue. priest ...

The church & subversion Propaganda, in turn, is built on deception: lies, It should be apparent that 'the Church' is becom- truths and half-truths are selectively employed to ing an increasingly docile and handy vehicle propagate a given 'Weltanschauung', to impart for communist indoctrination. As in de- credibility to it. Facts, therefore, are in them- mocracy itself, the seeds of its own destruc- selves meaningless - they need to be inter- tion are sown within it: the right to worship has preted in a certain way. This distinction between been so subverted that it has become (and, mirrors of truth and interpretation or manipulation sadly enough, accepted as) a political weapon. of truth marks the difference between demo- 'Salvation' and 'liberation' are almost synony- cratic and autocratic purpose: on the one hand, mous in the liberal theological mind. And it is a neutral legal system that adjudicates differ- precisely this which the KGB 'priest' knows how ences between contending interests; on the to exploit and cultivate. It is also this which well- other a biased legal system as instrument of meaning liberals (who would be horrified at any power in the hands of a section of the people. KGB connection) unwittingly propagate in their Justification of terror attack on national service and government au- In communist societies, however, even the op- thority as the so-called 'immoral' exercise of portunistic must somehow try to 'justify' their pro- power. Perhaps the Namibian Council of gramme. Put differently: their principle-of-no- Churches and the South African Council of principle becomes a principle in itself. The im- Churches would care to comment ... ? In all fair- portant thing to communists is that doctrinaire ness, they should be given proof of the above: grounds must be fabricated for actions that ig- Monsignor Tondi, long-time assistant to Pope nore the rights of the individual. His dissenting Paul VI, was caught as a spy in the Vatican. voice must be stilled in the name of the 'larger Before he fled to East Germany, there to head whole' of which he is only a 'small part', viz, the the 'Department of Religious Affairs', he boasted State. For that laws are needed - laws whose that he had been a communist for many years. prescriptive and proscriptive content and intent leave little doubt in the minds of those individuals Subdirectorates that the totality of the nation (and by extension, Subdirectorates of the KGB are engaged in more the totality of mankind) immeasurably exceeds 'passive' pursuits. Thus No. 7 personnel is his or her little selfish interests. To bring home geared for the surveillance of dissident elements this 'truth', the State exercises sole discretionary

17 Scientia Militaria, South African Journal of Military Studies, Vol 14, Nr 2, 1984. http://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za fiat. With apologies to Jean-Jacques Rousseau: it if they cannot pay. This can hardly be said of, the people must be made to see the folly of say, the Soviet Union where the communist party pursuing fanciful 'rights' while their real and ra- and its armed executors of policy have the sole tional rights repose in the State, their 'curator jurisdiction over every single aspect of every bonis'. It alone presides over the sum-total of citizen's life from cradle to grave, and can there- everyone's dispensation ... fore determine the material lot of any given person. Nor are the nominal adherents to official Having established that, communist doctrine communist doctrine exempt from such control: can justify just about anything. The State in its only unquestioning loyalty to the cause ensures wisdom does not make mistakes: present suffer- their relatively prosperous survival. Hence, coming and shortages are ultimately all to the final munism can at one and the same time exercise good. After all, if every citizen would be per- total control over adherents as well as non-ad- mitted to do his or her 'own thing' we would have herents of the party. chaos - not so? Control and authority are Conform - or go under necessary adjuncts of the revolutionary process Taking these considerations into account, we which must in the end lead to the liberation of all must now look at some of the characteristic prac- peoples from exploitation by some among them. tical aspects that flow forth from them. In the first Q.ED. place, trust and loyalty are utterly self-centred, Morality & profit as they have to be if communism itself is to Morality, then, is a bourgeois invention and con- survive. Cynicism is, however, the sole preserve vention encouraged by the capitalists whose in- of those who have made the grade: young hope- strument is the church: the profit-motive will (in fuls are rigorously indoctrinated with the im- the name of a spurious 'personal freedom') re- agined advantages of official policy even as they main alive and well as long as people are condi- must surely perceive its failures all around them. tioned into accepting their servitude as part of a The important thing, ultimately, is to establish the Biblically-ordained and sanctified right to private reality of centralised authority: that it has its property. Such, at any rate, goes the Marxist- shortcomings is accepted, but largely blamed Leninist litany in its attack on private ownership. on the weather (droughts, poor crops) or other outside forces which seek to undermine com- Coupled with the right to private ownership, we munism (the suppression of the workers interna- have the right to vote governments - who are tionally by capitalist exploiters). Eventually it fol- expected to administrate our rights according to lows that the up-and-coming young aparatchick a law that transcends even their authority - into has one of two choices: conform or go under. or out of power. To the communist, this practice is nothing but the relentless and ever-increasing There is no third alternative. Trapped by the consolidation of power of the have's over the system he shall suffer one way or another if by either omission or commission he fails to support have-nots. In other words, Western democracy creates licence to exploit unashamedly. And it: should communism go under, he will go down since such governments are beholden to the with it. Should it survive in spite of his opposition business-interests which put them into power in to it, he will also go under. Thus, whether it be a the first place, they actively entrench a perma- perceived threat from the West, or from inside his nent worker inferiority in every way. To the un- or own ranks in the party, he has no option but to undereducated, the disaffected and the uncriti- continue to defend what imparts power and privi- cal, the latter type of argument sometimes holds lege. Only very, very rarely does one hear of an powerful emotional appeal. What has a shanty- influential and/or committed communist inside dweller to lose by assisting in the liquidation of the Soviet Union who has a complete change of his 'oppressor'? If his precarious existence and heart and airs it publicly. Once again, com- deprivation are symptomatic of capitalism, why, munism and complete self-interest are bound up communism couldn't possibly be worse, could by a virtually indissoluble symbiosis. After all the it? And the seeds of revolution are sown ... verbiage and learned claptrap have been dis- pensed with, this is the rock-bottom foundation Half a picture of the system which confronts us - and we had What is conveniently omitted by the Marxists is, better remember itl of course, the other half of the picture: the poor World-inflation are not poor as a result of official decree: they From the foregoing it follows axiomatically that are not forbidden to improve their status in a non- ALL and ANY communist offer of 'detente', 'ar- predatory manner. Free education and excellent mistice', 'peace' or 'disengagement' cannot social services are available to those who ask for possibly be taken at face value. Any of these are,

18 Scientia Militaria, South African Journal of Military Studies, Vol 14, Nr 2, 1984. http://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za with apologies to von Clausewitz, war by other ment is Boris Ponomarev, Founded after the for- means, This being so, it behoves South Africa to' mer Comintern was disbanded in 1943 as a sop exercise the greatest circumspection in respect to temporary Western allies who objected to of Soviet willingness to negotiate, The USSR being undermined by the Russians even as they never negotiates for the sake of an equitably- assisted their war effort against Germany, but balanced outcome - it does so only to consoli- reactivated later as the 'Foreign Affairs Dept.' date or to gain time, Whatever the reason, the until it became the 10, This specialist organisa- West is sure to be the loser - as it has been all tion has since 1957 been used as a tool of Mos- along even before Potsdam and Yalta, and most cow's foreign policy, Ponomarev and his deputy, certainly thereafter, Only one thing impresses RA Ulyanovsky, control its four divisions: 3 Soviet (and other types of) communism: power, Africa and 1 South Asia, Both men are knowl- coupled to the resolute will to resist. Nothing else edgeable about Africa and rated as experts on finally matters in the East-West struggle for su- so-called 'national liberation movements', The premacy, That is to say, only a refusal to come to present section chief of the Southern Africa divi- terms with communism will ensure our survival. sion is thought to be V,G, Tolstikvo, We bargain with them at our perill KGB service academies Who, then, are some of the exponents of this fine Publishers of the World Marxist Review, which is art of supremacy at any cost? It would be cum- the mouthpiece of the CPSU, the 10 is also re- bersome to enumerate all the members of the sponsible for liaison with non-ruling communist Politburo or the Supreme Soviet, but some of parties world-wide, as well as with a few ruling them - and their subordinates - should be men- ones, One would think that Gromyko, as Foreign tioned inasmuch as they affect South Africa, Minister, would be tasked with policy dis- cussions concerning South Africa, In fact, Pono- Politburo, Central Committee of the CPSU marev sits in on all such committees concerning and the 10 and 110. Southern Africa and terrorist movements active In theory responsible to the CC (Central Commit- there, The 'Soviet Co-ordinating Committee for tee) of the CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Africa' is in constant touch with Joe Siovo Union), the Politburo nevertheless enjoys a high (through the SA Communist Party) and the likes level of autonomy and often initiates proof ANC leaders, Much of the research done in grammes, The number of its Secretaries varies connection with the RSA and its neighbours between 8 and 12, each of which is responsible emanates from the Institute of International Af- for one or more of the 26 departments of the CC, fairs in Moscow, The latter is a service academy Departments, in turn, are headed by Dept. Chief, for the KGB, First Deputy Chief and Chief, The 110, whose head is B, Zamyatin, is a typical reflection of Soviet political schizophrenia: while The authority of Departmental Chiefs exceeds party propaganda for home consumption is that of Ministers of the Council of Ministers, heavily orthodox, rigid and hostile to most things headed by the Presidium and, above it, the foreign, that destined for consumption abroad Chairman (and usually President of USSR as abounds with aggressively populist sentiments well) of the so-called 'government' - as opposed which question the need for 'fascist' government to the Party - of the Soviet Union, control and vilify national service, The civil dis- obedience and outright revolutionary activities SA a priority target which are encouraged elsewhere, would result in The Politburo, on whom some Ministers are rep- instant deportation to the Kolyma (Siberia) or resented as well (Gromyko, Ustinov and Tikho- execution back home in Russia, Soviet propa- nov), directs the activities of two bodies which ganda, need it be said, tries to destroy freedom are of paramount importance to South Africa, in the name of freedom, They are the International Dept. (10) and the International Information Dept. (110), The former Pecki ng-order is responsible for the export of revolution abroad, For the home market, other KGB agencies seek the latter handles propaganda and disinforma- to instil iconographic fervour (the worship of pic- tion against Western and other target nations, tures or images) in the people: pictures of the South Africa is high on their list of priorities - of 'Vozhd' (leader) saturate the entire USSR in their that all of us may be quite sure! millions - only to disappear overnight should he fall into disgrace or die, By the same token, The Head of the infamous International Depart- Kremlin-watchers can determine very accurately

19 Scientia Militaria, South African Journal of Military Studies, Vol 14, Nr 2, 1984. http://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za the exact stature of leaders' authority by observ- costly effort which is directed at, say, Western ing standing arrangements on the Lenin mauso- Europe. Since France, for argument's sake, pos- leum in Red Square, or by looking at official sesses a credible nuclear deterrent it is that photographs and portraits. That, too, is part of much more dangerous for the Soviets. For this the communist Messianic and collectivist vision: reason, the highly industrialised peoples are everything is done according to plan and every subjected to unceasing propaganda in various plan must have the approval of higher authority. guises. Communist parties organised over 70 protest demonstrations there in 1981 alone. The Propaganda shift from gross lies and distortions is also per- The ID's World Marxist Review (on which sit ceived by leading Western analysts. The Deputy about 60 representatives of foreign communist Director of the CIA sees these trends developing parties, and which is based in Prague) is pub- in the immediate future: 'Greater attention to se- lished in 37 language editions. Together with the curity, disarmament and peace issues ... a tacti- liD's 'agitprop' (political agitation), it plays a cal de-emphasis of communist ideology, greater large role in the constitution and financing of so- operational sophistication in the manipulation of called 'peace movements' like ban-the-bomb influence assets and in the production and use protests. But overt and cultural issues are also of documentary forgeries; greater willingness to published. Zamyatin, who is also General Sec- work with religious groups and non-communist retary for the Politburo's international communi- political parties ... communist front organisa- cations, sees to it that the USSR's most important tions ... allies, proxies and surrogates such as voices are amplified: Chernenko and Gromyko Cuba, continued opposition to Western ... social therefore presently determine much of the tenor and economic influence in the Third World, and of Soviet propaganda. *** greater advocacy of the creation of new interna- There are three more or less defined Soviet 'in- tional institutions and organisations such as a formation' types: the 'white' (handled by the 110 Third World Press service that promotes Soviet and the Foreign Ministry), the 'grey' - responsi- influence.' (P. 38, Pacific Defence Reporter June bility of fronts, parties and movements run by the 1983: Valerij Ivanov and company, by H. Handle- 10, while 'black' is catered for by those who know man.) The foregoing would appear to be a rather it best: the KGB. It is thought that Soviet propa- accurate reflection, considering that all of these ganda expenditure runs to approximately projections have already come to pass. 35000 000 000 roubles annually. A portion of this goes to the financing of 'rent-a-crowd' ex- Abusing protest penditures (ct. 'Propaganda': A modernised It should be made clear here that not all anti- Soviet weapons system, by PA Smith, Jnr., Stra- nuclear organisations are necessarily com- tegic Review, Vol. 2, NO.3, 1983). munist, and that their exploitation for communist World communist parties propaganda purposes is disliked by them. The same applies to other humanitarian institutions, There are 96 recognised communist parties in committees, and so on, active in various fields. the world today: of these, 80 are non-ruling, and Unhappily, however, groups like the Greenham under the control of Ponomarev. Of the esti- Common Women in the UK protesting against mated 77 million party members (including 39 the stationing of American missiles on British million Chinese) which have a controlling say in soil, find themselves expressing the Kremlin's the running of 16 countries, many are in one way views on the so-called danger of nuclear escala- or another engaged in subversive activity or are tion: for that reason these women figure promi- directed towards the suppression of freedom of nently on Soviet TV and in the communist press expression. Their task would not be possible as 'courageous anti-imperialist fighters'. It is without being able to infiltrate Western institu- likely that SA Kondratchev of the KGB Dezinfor- tions by means of front-organisations. matsiya Dept. collaborates with Zamyatin of the Shifting emphasis 110, and that persons like Solodovnikov, former Of course, not only Western countries are thus USSR ambassador to Lusaka and Salisbury (Ha- subverted: Asian, African and South American rare), see to it that anti-RSA programmes get off as well as Central American countries have also the ground: the latter, after all, used to employ attracted the unwelcome attention of the pur- 400 workers whose overriding function it was to veyors of communist disinformation, but Third garner information about the RSA and SWA, and World nations are not accorded the intense and to liaise with SWAPO and the ANC as well as Joe ••• Suslev, C.P.S.B. idealogue, was - until his death - in charge of most of Siovo. This linkage with non-communists to the the official communist doctrine's formulation. communist cause creates the impression that,

20 Scientia Militaria, South African Journal of Military Studies, Vol 14, Nr 2, 1984. http://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za say, the Greenham Common Women and the USSR delegations to the UNO and other interna- ANC work for the same cause. tional organisations, correspondents of Tass, Iz- West slow to wake up vestia, Pravda, etc., Armtorg purchasing com- missions, Aeroflot crews, Warsaw Pact collabo- Western attitudes towards this mortal danger rators and Soviet 'academic' institutions. Occa- inherent in Soviet subversion are at times difficult sionally some of this tide of filth and lies washes to fathom. While leaders like President Carter of back onto Russia's own propaganda shores, the US tried the moral imperative as bait with there to create confusion: an American delegate which to shame the Soviets into desisting from to a SALT meeting was asked by his Soviet their aggressively imperialist stance, and for- counterpart not to bandy about too many USSR hade the CIA and the FBI to combat the Rus- secrets since some members of their own dele- sians effectively by imposing all sorts of restric- gation 'were not cleared' to be privy to them; tions on them, the USSR had no such compunc- obviously some are considered to be too frail to tion. KGB and GRU agents are stationed at the endure the truth, or else the Soviet delegate United Nations (The Economist estimated as far could no longer distinguish fact from fiction in his back as 1976 that probably 180 or so were in own position-paper! place), to which the FBI is legally denied access. KGB agents - some 39 are also stationed at Suitable traitor-material the UNESCO HQ in Paris, while about 50 work at It would not be out of place to list what the Rus- the ILO in Geneva, Switzerland. They can also sians themselves consider to be suitable catego- be found at the International Atomic Energy ries for pro-communist work: amoral government Agency in Vienna. In effect, then, all these for- employees, lonely secretaries, spoiled brats and merly 'neutral' organisations have been con- disaffected intellectuals. Un promoted and un- verted into fronts for the Soviets. Let us look at promotable military personnel could also figure some of the better known and try to understand among this rogues' gallery. In short, greed, lust why G. Dmitrov of the old Comintern already and resentment are fruitful emotions to exploit. realised that communist sympathisers (i.e., non- card-carrying ideological fellow-travellers) are "Non-aligned" each worth '100 card-carrying, militant com- In the Soviet set-up, 'secrecy' and 'security' are munists': virtually synonymous. This means that the truth and insecurity are, likewise, allied. Indeed, in any Communist front organisations communist system, the truth - both good and The World Peace Council (WPC), World Feder- bad - is never neutral. For, nothing - no event, ation of Trade Unions (WFTU) World Federation no human being, no pursuasion - is ever non- of Democratic Youth (WFDY), International Union commital in communist eyes: you are either for of Students (IUS), International Association of them or against them. There is no falling between Democratic Lawyers (IADL), International Asso- these two. Professed 'non-aligned' states, there- ciation of Journalists (IAJ), Women's Interna- fore, are considered to be enemies unless and tional Democratic Federation (WIDF), and the until such time as they become 'progressive', i.e. World Federation of Scientific Workers (WFSW) - sympathetic to the USSR. Which is precisely in addition to the more recently created NWIO - what has happened in international politics: 'non- New World Information Order, are some of the aligned' nations are invariably pro-Soviet or at more obvious Soviet Front organisations. The least anti-Western. problem is that these and others in turn spawn second- and third-generation fronts whose affili- This cavalier attitude towards terminology in the ation with Moscow becomes obscured. Hence political sense has an Alice-in-Wonderland qual- they are in an ideal position to attempt the sub- ity about it: the communists like to determine version of members of the USA Congress, for what words, promises, conditions and clauses instance, who need no security clearance in shall mean under given cirumstances. Conse- order to gain access to classified information - quently, what was valid yesterday may no longer or to infiltrate educational, religious and recrea- fit into the scheme of things today: as a matter of tional groups anywhere in the West or, for that fact, Soviet 'history' is rewritten whenever it suits matter, in the RSA. the ruling clique to do so. Once upon a time Stalin was the invincible giant; after his death he Infiltration of UNO was suddenly discovered to have been a brutal Apart from blatant fakes such as the above-men- tyrant. These days there exists a kind of ambiva- tioned 'World Federations' et aI., there are, of lence about the dictator: some Russians feel that course, also many other disinformation sources: a bit of rehabilitation would be in order. In the

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'Vozhd's' time, so the saying goes, things would ised in communist countries. Much the same can not have been permitted to deteriorate to such be said about the truth in the latter instance. an extent. Thus, the Russian NOVOSTI News Agency Discovering "enemies" which is responsible for the co-ordination and One is bound to wonder what all the incessant dissemination of all anti-Western propaganda propaganda, all the lies, all the violence, are out of Moscow, is the great generator of guilt supposed to achieve in the long run. The answer which it then 'exposes' - much as the KGB does probably is that the ever-present fear of 'counter- inside the Soviet Union itself. revolutionary' activity drives communist rulers to paranoid lengths in their frenzy to discover 'ene- Since communism depends on unrest and insta- mies of the State'. One of the obvious methods bility which provide it with the pretence needed with which to combat that enemy is to confuse for intervention, as well as that required to justify him: a judicious admixture of truth, half-truth and its growing might, its adherents cannot afford to lie is far more effective than any straightforward let peace prevail where it seems domination. untruth. The latter can, after all, be disproven South Africa, need it be repeated, is one such while the former is very difficult to disentangle. country. The sooner this incontrovertible fact of Moreover, once some truth is found to be part of political reality is accepted by us as well as by a given disinformation programme, unease per- the West generally, the better will be all our sists in the target-group that there just might be chances to prevail against this monstrous ideo- more truth to it This is, of course, a much- logy! favoured method of communist propaganda against the RSA, as is evident almost daily from • Lt Cdr H.G Graser (BA Hons Political Philosophy) is attached to the the reports emanating from the UNO. The prob- Military Information Bureau, SADF. lem with this kind of half-truth or lie is that it forces the target-group or country onto the de- fensive. In addition, any denial of an accusation somehow does not carry the same weight as the Verwysingsbronne Moorehead, A., The Russian Revolution, Bantam Books, NY, 1959. accusation: an implicit suggestion of guilt lin- Barron, John, KGB, Corgi Books, Great Britain, 1979. gers. It is a supreme irony that Marx's vision of Deriabin, P. & Gibney, F., KGB - The secrel world, Ballantine Books, NY, capital concentrating in fewer and fewer hands 1982. Grieg. Ian, The Communist challenge to Africa, Foreign Affairs Publishing in capitalist countries, has in fact also material- Co, 1977.