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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."
... two years poring over ...
Must have been quite the sweaty fellow. :)
Boris! What shall we do!
What about the communist plot to undermine our great American nation from within by planting their agents in our movie studios? Sad part? That is the extent of my knowledge about 'communist' activities. Mah school hadn't done gave me some book learnin's!
The executive summary please.
Deleted
Given the personal history of the powers that be 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".
"Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong." (Oscar Wilde)
So, now we have access to the Boris and Natasha's nefarious plans of the past!
Where's the 'spyversusspy' tag when you need it!
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
Here's an article from the Nation that questions some of Vassiliev's conclusions on the Hiss case
So, we're supposed to just take the word of a former KGB operative-turned journalist that what he wrote in his notebooks is historical truth? Sorry, till a Western historian gets access to the KGB archives (I personally know a couple who have) and publishes their results in a peer-review, Western historical journal, I won't believe a word I read.
You don't honestly think that is a republican posting, do you?
Those kind of post are people just trying to make all conservatives look ignorant (yet not ignorant enough to post on slashdot anonymously.)
Do you think someone who is that stupid could even work a computer?
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.
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
I am curious if the former USSR has released something like this, especially with Putin basically still at the head; two things: first, how much of this document is black-lined at this point? Second, isn't it pretty obvious anything that isn't is an attempt to tell us what they want us to believe?
Yes, I do.
Freaking hilarious. While it's possible that original troll is just an imitation of stupidity as opposed to the real thing, your reasoning is tortured.
— not GP AC
Well, I honestly think it's a Republican posting. Given the stupidity of the rhetoric we hear from Republican politicians and pundits, the Republicans don't need any help making themselves look bad. Hell, that AC post is downright sophisticated compared to some of what you hear from the likes of DeMint and Limbaugh.
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
Fuck you. I'm a democrat and pissed at Barack W Obama. Issue after issue, he's George Bush. Or worse. I voted for him but I might as well have voted for John Sidney McCain (who is more liberal than many democrats!). At least the media and democratic congress would have the balls to stand up to his bullshit.
In Soviet RrUSA, Obama drops YOU!!!!
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Bullshit. The "dropped an Obama" troll goes back to at least the inauguration.
You're not a democrat... Just another web SA.
It's never too late to change. You could stay a Republican or ESR-anarcho-capitalist-acolyte or whatever you really are, but represent yourself truthfully. If you have faith in the power of your ideas, you don't need to do shit like this.
Both the Party and KGB archives have been closed to researchers under Putin, and probably purged, too.
#1
If it is really secret then don't write it down, forget it and never talk about it, not even your colleagues and heavens forbid your superiors.
#2
If it is really secret but also really important that it should be preserved and you are absolutely 'put your life on the line' sure about it then make sure you spread enough 'information'. Preferably related to it but meaning the opposite and meaning the same but unrelated to it, the quantity of misinformation counts the most.
Do so in at least in the main stream languages from every major region.
Involve colleagues and superiors to help you but never mention what is the actual accurate intelligence unless it is the person who is on a need to know basis.
#3
There is no correlation between hard to get information and its accuracy
#4
There is no correlation between hard to get information and easiness to protect it.
Strive for not common known available, create an action plan for when using this information the worsted case scenario happens.
#5
Never assume because it is 'near' impossible to decode information that it is impossible to do so, the future is sooner then later.
#6
You are not special, if you can figure it out then at least one person who is at the moment considered your enemy can find it out too.
If 'it' came from the enemy then treat the content as if it was made available on purpose by the enemy unless proven otherwise.
#7
The walls have ears
#8
So have the ceilings, your car, your phone, the bypassing colleague, the open air and everything else which is not in the silent room, which is inspected by your self for electro-magnetic and sound leakages prior your intend to communicate.
#9
When confronted with an opponent that is prepared to die for their cause, don't let them down but keep well out of their way. History is not written by the dead but by the ones that lived.
#10
Eventually people will defend if they have something to loose.
Eventually people will attack when they having nothing more to loose. Give them just enough to prevent them from defending or more than what your opponents give you, whatever is the least.
So what does this all mean?
The information you get is probably not that interesting or important.
If consumed, best digested with added seasoning to own preference.
If this interests you, check out the book, The Sword and the Shield which is compiled from the notes of a KGB archivist who smuggled documents from KGB archives for about 20 years.
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
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
What to the files contain about their most successful agent of all time? You know, the father of Emacs.
PDF of the Mitrokhin Archive is here
http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/1897549/6976998/
> True. But they were mostly useless.
Depends on what your definition of useless is. Go read _Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies_ by M. Stanton Evans. The fifty year seal on the Senate records has expired and combined with many other sources, all well footnoted, that book makes several things clear.
1. McCarthy had no idea just how far the rabbit hole went. Which is why he lost. But what he did know was for the most part accurate.
2. The US State Dept from the entry of the Soviet Union into WWII to the end of the period covered in the book was essentially in Soviet hands. China and Eastern Europe fell into Communist hands with the heroic assistance of the 5th Column within our foreign service.
3. A non-trivial but not quite majority of the US Congress were either Communists or useful idiots. The majority were Dems but the Pro/Anti Communist line hadn't hardened alone party lines to the same extent. Many Dems were still hard core anti-communist, including for example Robert Kennedy who served with Joe McCarthy for a time.
Again, I dare you kids to read it. It is brutal in the attention to detail and use of actual declassified documents.
Democrat delenda est
He looked up a lot of people, but nothing on Raoul Wallenberg? If its true, that would be extremely disappointing. Perhaps thats some of the stuff he never got to see (and understandable). The little information from the Gulag is quite disappointing, considering the daring of Wallenberg during World War 2.
If the Nation said it is 2009, I'd check the calendar.
The world might be quite different if the KGB had realized how wasy it was to get the USA to elect a Communist, foreign-born, Muslim president.
"The mind works quicker than you think!"
Whatever the KGB was doing in the US, the US was trying to do the same in the Soviet Union. Spy vs Spy. It is still going on today. The real point is what was the long term strategic impact of these efforts by both sides. Clearly very little of substance. The Soviet Union got atomic bomb a year or two earlier, but to think their physicists and engineers were incapable of designing and building one is sheer fantasy. The CIA did not hasten the fall of the Soviet Union: it did it all itself.
I wonder when the KGB archives will open up for the 1960's and 70's. Then we finally get to confirm that the anti-war movement was funded and orchestrated by the KGB. I'd love to know who the "handlers' were for prominent anti-american activists like Jane Fonda.
"How much polonium do you take in your tea?"
Ceterum censeo subscriptionem esse delendam.
Actually if you look at another of Yuri's lectures he describes the appearance of a political "messsiah" at the time of escalating tension in the society. You can understand Obama better after this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xef8EEyhPVU&feature=related
I am a Republican, did not vote for Obama, but did have high-hopes for him. I am not a Bush fan for reasons I won't detail here, but Obama in my opinion has turned out to be a bust so far...
In terms of foreign policy, despite some rhetorical flourishes, he is exactly like Bush.
He has hired crooks to run his administration. Too many people who conveniently don't pay their taxes while insisting other pay more
He has engage openly in class warefare, blaming rich people ($250K/year) while all the while bailing out actual rich people with TARP funding
He is nationalizing the car industry
Despite being critical of Bush (rightly so) for ballooning the deficit, Obama doubled Bushes deficit within 60 days and shows no signs of letting up.
Thus despite talking about the need to help the poor, inflation from this massive spending will hurt the poor significantly more than the rich
Bottom line: This guy is a cliche tax and spend guy. And it's no use bringing up Bush, Bush was bad, but Obama, once you get past the nice suit and ability to orate is worse.