KGB Report, 'On the State of Jamming anti-Soviet Radio Programs of Foreign Radio Stations'

USSR
Committee for State Security of the USSR
Council of Ministers

21 May 1959
No. 1392
Moscow

Secret
18030
21 may 1959
33a

To be returned to the CPSU CC
General Department

CPsu CC

(To the Directorate of Propaganda and Agitation CPSU CC in Soviet Republics)

Enclosed are materials on the state of jamming of anti-Soviet radio programs, summary of data regarding random quality control conducted by the Committee for State Security in April of this year, and a record of the contents of radio programs of the Voice of America and BBC in the Russian language, covering a period between 24 April and 3 May 1959.

Attachment: 358 pages of text.

CHairman of tHe Committee for state seCuritY

[signed] A. Shelepin
Secret
Copy no.1

NOTE

On the State of Jamming anti-Soviet Radio Programs of Foreign Radio Stations

In the period lasting from April 8 until April 15 of this year, the KGB, under the supervision of the Council of Ministers, conducted random quality control on the jamming of anti-Soviet radio broadcasting by foreign radio stations in Leningrad, Moscow, Minsk, Kiev, Tbilisi, Tashkent, Sverdlovsk, Rostov, Chita, Khabarovsk, Vladivostok, Riga, Petroplavsk- Kamchtka as well as the suburbs of the afore-mentioned locations, and also in Grodno, Brest, Borisov, Molodechno, Slutsk, Smolensk, Kaliningrad, Nizhny Tagil, Kamensk-Uralsk, Pervouralsk, Chimkent, Novocherkassk, Taganrog, Shakhty, Kuntsevo, Serpukhov, Mozhaysk, Klin, Artem, Suchane, Nakhodka.

Materials demonstrate that as a result of poor jamming, the programs of the radio station Voice of America were listened to in the majority of controlled locations. Thus, Russian language programs in the suburbs of Kiev were unsatisfactorily jammed on 8 frequencies between 0530-0600, on 5 frequencies between 1800-30, on 6 frequencies between 2100-30; in the suburbs of Riga on 5 frequencies between 0530-0600; in the city of Brest on 6 frequencies between 0530-0600; in the city of Nizhny Tagil on 8 frequencies between 0100-30 and on 4 frequencies between 0000-30 and 1800-30; in the city of Kozhaysk on 3 frequencies between 1800-30; in the suburbs of Riga on 6 frequencies in Latvian between 0500-30, and on 4 frequencies between 2030-2100.

Systematic reception of programs by the Voice of America on one to two frequencies is possible in the suburbs of Leningrad, Minsk, Khabarovsk, Tashkent, Chita and other populated areas between 0100-30, 0530-0600, 1230-1300, 1800-30 and 2100-30.

Programs of the BBC radio station reached the suburbs of Kiev on 11 frequencies between 0645-0715, on 8 frequencies between 1800-30, on 7 frequencies between 2045-2115; the suburbs of Leningrad on 7 frequencies between 0645-0715; Riga on 8 frequencies; Minsk on 5 frequencies; the city of Borisov on 2 frequencies; the city of Kaliningrad on 3 frequencies. A similar situation was also observed between 0215-30, 1800-30, 2330-2400.

On one to two frequencies at different times of the day for the duration of 10-30 minutes, programs of the radio station Liberty (formerly known as Liberation) were listened to in the suburbs of Moscow, Tbilisi, Minsk, Kiev as well as Nizhny Tagil, Smolensk, Brest and others.

In Petropavlovsk-Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Chita and such cities as Artem, Suchan and Nakhodka (Primorsky region), programs from a branch office of this radio station, located on the island of Taiwan, were broadcast freely on frequencies 15345 and 17755 KHz.

Programs of the radio station “Nasha Rossiya” [Our Russia] were listened to primarily at night time from 2235-0445 in the 11400-2000 KHz range and 17600-17900 KHz range in the suburbs of Kiev, Tbilisi and such cities as Kamensk-Uralsk, Serpukhov, Minsk, Borisov, Smolensk, Mozhaysk, Klin and others.

Programs of the radio station “Svobodnaya Rossiya” [Free Russia] in the 11400-11900 KHz range were broadcast freely at night time (2025- 2300) in such cities as Serpukhov, Minsk, Borisov, Smolensk, Molodechno as well as in the suburbs of Kiev and Leningrad.

In the suburbs of Khabarovsk, programs of the radio station “Baikal” were listened to regularly on one to two frequencies. These programs were also listened to in the suburbs of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatka, Chita, Tashkent, Tbilisi, and in such cities as Artem, Suchane, Nakhodka.

A capacity to listen to programs of the radio stations Vatican, Rome, Novaya Ukraina [New Ukraine], Canada, Madrid, and Baltic in the suburbs of Kiev, Riga, Leningrad and such cities as Klin, Mozhaysk, Molodechno, Brest, Kaliningrad was simultaneously detected on one to two frequencies.

Anti-Soviet radio programs were poorly jammed in such cities as Novocherkassk, Shakhty and especially Taganrog. Thus, in Taganrog, radio programs of the Voice of America, BBC, Liberty, Nasha Rossiya [Our Russia] and Osoby Sputnik [Special Satellite] were regularly broadcast on frequencies above 12 MHz.

Head of the Fourth Special Directorate of the KGB, USSR CM, Major-General of the Engineer-Technical Services

[signed]
P. Kuznetsov

19 May 1959