KGB MEMORANDUM. ‘Anti-Soviet elements’ intend to hold an international seminar in Moscow, “The KGB and Perestroika”, inviting prominent foreigners and former dissidents to attend [R: 27 Jul 88, 1541-K]. 2 pp.

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Top Secret

27 July 1988, No 1541-K

To the CPSU Central Committee

The intention of anti-social elements to hold an international seminar in Moscow “The KGB and perestroika”

According to information received, anti-social elements from among the so-called “rights activists” and Jewish nationalists (incited from abroad) are planning to hold an international seminar in Moscow during the first ten days in December on the subject of “The KGB and perestroika”.

Hiding behind the process of glasnost and perestroika [¹], the organisers of the seminar have the goal of “discrediting the USSR Committee for State Security” by drawing the attention of wide circles among Soviet and world public opinion to its “activities and crimes”. In particular it is proposed to hold a public discussion of such reports:

• “The function of the KGB in the epoch of New Thinking”,
• “The role of the KGB in crisis situations”,
• “Monopoly on Information”,
• “Overcoming mystery and fear when faced by the KGB”,
• “The KGB and the national-democratic movement in the USSR”,
• “The KGB and anti-Semitism”.

Such organisations as Amnesty International and the International Helsinki Federation, which have demonstrated their abilities as “defenders of human rights in the socialist countries”, are being considered as possible sponsors.

It is intended to invite famous Western political figures and Sovietologists, including Z. Brzezinski and R. Pipes, and also former citizens of our country Alexeyeva, /…

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Bukovsky, Ginzburg, Orlov, Plyushch [²] and others who are engaged in anti-Soviet activities abroad.

It is proposed that the following will take part: well-known “rights activists” such as Grigoryants and Timofeyev; representatives of the “national-democratic” movements of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Moldavia, the Baltic republics and Ukraine; “authorities” from among the Crimean Tatars and religious figures.

The organisers of the seminar intend to send invitations to:

• Chebrikov, Kryuchkov, [Procurator General] Sukharev [³], and the head of the Visa & Registration Department [OVIR] at the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.
• USSR People’s Deputies Adamovich, Afanasyev, Vlasov, Gdlyan, Ivanov, Korotich,
• the writer Semyonov, the poet Dementyev,
• former KGB chairmen Semichastny and Shelepin,
• the Russophiles Andreyeva and [illegible],
• the chief editor of “Moscow News” [⁴],
• the TV programmes “Vzglyad” and Fifth Wheel”.

The Committee has taken additional measures to obtain information about the scale and character of the proposed operation and its possible damage to our country.

For information.

[written addition] [⁵]

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NOTES

Like the preceding year’s attempted gathering (4 December 1987*, 2451-Ch), the conference was successfully blocked, writes Bukovsky: see Chapter Six, “The Coming of Gorbachov”, 6.3: Last Attempts.

*

A few years later, in the 1990s, there was a series of three conferences in Moscow entitled “The KGB — Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow”, funded by George Soros and his Open Society.

There were lively discussions and some notable if ambivalent participants (Galina Starovoitova, Oleg Kalugin and Alexander Yakovlev among others). A veteran dissident commented at the time: “Well, really. Can you imagine the Germans holding something of this kind: ‘The Gestapo — Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow’?!”

*

1. Compare the official reaction to an event planned for the same time a year earlier (4 December 1987*, 2451-Ch, 9 pp). It contains detail of the actions taken in response.
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2. See entries in A Chronicle of Current Events (“Name Index“) for objective reports on those named here.
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3. See “Polemics with Sukharev”, a report in CCE 39.10 (March 1976). He also put in a memorable appearance at the 1st Congress of People’s Deputies in May-June 1989.
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4. Yegor Yakovlev (1930-2005) was a key media figure, of the ‘perestroika’ period and during the 1990s: see Chapter Two, 2.1: “Back to the Lubyanka“.
   
   Deputy director of the APN news agency and chief editor of “Moscow News” during perestroika (1986-1991), Yegor Yakovlev was in charge of the nationwide “Ostankino” TV channel from 1991 to 1993, and editor and owner (1993-2002) of the weekly Obshchaya gazeta newspaper (for which Anna Politkovskaya briefly worked).
   
   In 1989, Yakovlev’s son Vladimir set up, owned and edited the weekly Kommersant newspaper. In 1992 it became a leading daily newspaper in Russia.
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5. There was, Bukovsky writes (6.3: Last Attempts), a written addition to this report: “This event must be prevented at all costs. M. Gorbachov “.
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GENERAL

• Notes by translator and editor are bracketed, thus [ ];
• text written by hand is indicated in italic script;
• when a handwritten phrase, figure or word has been inserted in a previously typed document this is indicated by underlined italic script.

Translation and annotation, John Crowfoot

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