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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."
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, 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.
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'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.
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