Report by the Chairman of the Committee for State Security of the Armenian Socialist Soviet Republic M. A. Yuzbashyan

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REPORT

(presented at the session of the Bureau of the CC CP of Armenia on 6 March 1979)

Under the influence of the most aggressive forces of imperialism, the foreign policy course of the United States government and its allies clearly exhibits a tendency toward returning to a policy “from the position of strength” and to the “cold war.” The current leadership of the PCR [People’s Republic of Cambodia], who unleashed undisguised aggression against socialist Vietnam in February of this year, has practically merged with the forces of imperialism in its anti-Soviet aspirations.  Therefore there clearly exists an attempt by our enemies to create a united anti-Communist front.

In implementing of the aggressive course against the countries of the socialist commonwealth, and mainly against the Soviet Union, an important role is given to the special services and the anti-Soviet foreign centers, the subversive activity of which has acquired a global character.

One would like to especially emphasize the fact that the enemy, without giving up its final strategic goals, has adjusted its tactics [and] focused on conducting ideological subversion which has as its goal “exploding” socialism from within.  A powerful, multi-branch apparatus has been put in service for ideological subversion.  And the imperialist countries long ago raised this line of subversive activity to the level of state policy.

By acting in skillful and diverse ways, and by actively using specific features of different regions of the USSR all the channels through which people travel in and out [of the Soviet Union], and the mass media, the enemy often achieves his dirty goals.  Under the influence of hostile Western propaganda, negatively inclined individuals inside the country, including those in the Armenian SSR [Soviet Socialist Republic], still commit anti-state, and anti-Soviet crimes.

Notwithstanding the absence of a social base in the country for anti-Soviet activity there are certain marginalized individuals who choose the criminal way [of life].  This kind of person also exists in our republic.  

Protecting Soviet society from the overtures of the reactionary imperialist forces is the main task of the organs of state security, which they successfully fulfill under the unwavering control and daily leadership of our Party.

All the people, the widest strata of our society, take part in fulfilling that noble task.  And it is precisely in this connection that we should consider the CC CPSU Resolution of 23 May 1977, “About Raising the Vigilance of the Soviet People.”

Even taking into account the obvious exceptional character of this crime, it appears that the case of the “Bombers,” which was presented today to the Bureau of the CC CP of Armenia, , bears clear traces of all these processes and phenomena, so to speak, of the external and internal order, which were mentioned above.

Brief summary of the case:

During the evening of 8 January, in various public places in the city of Moscow, criminal elements carried out explosions of hand-made bombs, resulting in human casualties, destruction and damage to state property.  The explosions occurred in the metro train, in grocery store No. 15, and next to the window of grocery store No. 5.  As a result of the explosions, 7 people were killed, and 37 people were injured to varying degrees.

At the end of October 1977, criminals were preparing to detonate new explosives, this time at the Kursky Railway Terminal.  However, the measures for ensuring safety in public places, undertaken jointly by the organs of the KGB and MVD, scared the criminals, and they fled hurriedly leaving behind a bag with the explosives.

As a result of the additional measures which were undertaken the operative group of the Armenian SSR KGB, working in coordination with the USSR KGB, succeeded in capturing the criminals at the beginning of November 1977. They turned out to be: S[tepan] S. Zatikyan, head of the group, born in 1946 in Yerevan, and resident of Yerevan, nonaffiliated, married, did not complete higher education; A. V. Stepanyan, born 1947 in Yerevan, resident of Yerevan, with a secondary education; Z. M. Bagdasaryan, born 1954 in the village of Kanachut in the Artashatsky region, and resident of Kanachut, with a secondary education.

From 16 to 24 January 1979, the Collegium for Criminal Offenses of the USSR Supreme Soviet held an open trial session to consider the criminal case charging S. S. Zatikyan and his two accomplices with anti-Soviet activities and committing a subversive act.

During the course of the trial the information received earlier by the KGB organs was fully confirmed with regard to the fact that Zatikyan, having served a four-year sentence for anti-Soviet activities, did not disarm ideologically, and, moreover, chose the road of extremist methods of struggle against the Soviet state.  After being indoctrinated in a hostile spirit, he involved his accomplices in the preparation and implementation of the subversive acts.

In the course of the investigation and trial in this case, a large amount of material and other evidence was collected.  Approximately 750 victims and witnesses were questioned, 140 expert tests were made, and over 100 searches were conducted; persuasive evidence was collected in the residences of the criminals, linking them to the explosions.

This gave [the investigation] the opportunity to fully reveal Zatikyan’s and his accomplices’ roles in the crimes they prepared and committed, even during the preliminary investigation.  In particular, Zatikyan stated during the preliminary investigation the following:  “I did not testify against my own will, I told the truth that I built the explosive devices … that my actions … represent just one method of struggle against the regime that exists in the Soviet Union.” Later, during the trial, Zatikyan refused to give testimony.  However, his accomplices gave extensive testimony about the circumstances of preparing and carrying out the new subversive acts.  Zatikyan was fully implicated by his accomplices and other witnesses, by the conclusions of the experts, as the main ideological and practical organizer of the subversive acts and the main actor in building of the explosive devices.

Taking into account the exceptional danger and the grave consequences of the crimes committed by him, the court sentenced Zatikyan and his accomplices to the ultimate measure of punishment—the death sentence.  The verdict was received with approval by the numerous representatives of the Soviet public, who were present in the courtroom, including representatives from our republic.  By the way, one of the jurors and all three defense lawyers were also from our republic.  The sentence was carried out.

Using the Zatikyan case as an example it would be instructive to trace how he came to his evil design and who and what helped him in that.  

Brief background.  Over the last 12 years, the Armenian KGB has uncovered and liquidated more than 20 illegal anti-Soviet nationalist groups created under the influence of hostile Western propaganda.  Altogether, about 1,400 people were engaged in anti-Soviet activities in some form or another.

In accordance with the Party’s principles, the organs of state security have given and continue to give preference to preventive and prophylactic measures, and consider arrest an extreme measure only.  Those arrested represented only 4.3% of the individuals who were proven to have engaged in anti-Soviet activities.  Zatikyan was one of them—he was a member of one of the anti-Soviet nationalist groups, which pompously named itself NUP (National United Party).  It was created by the unaffiliated artist Khachatryan Aikaz, born in 1918 (in 1978 he was sentenced to 1.5 years of prison for a common crime), who, upon learning about Zatikyan’s role in the explosions in Moscow, called himself his “spiritual father.”

In 1968, Zatikyan was arrested and sentenced, as was already mentioned, to four years in prison.  At his arrest, they confiscated a document written by Zatikyan––“Terror and Terrorists”—in which he made an effort to justify the methods of extremism and means of struggle against the Soviet state.

During his stay at the correctional labor colony, and then in prison (where he was transferred because he systematically violated the regime, and negatively influenced other inmates, who chose the road of improvement), Zatikyan not only did not change his ways, but, on the contrary, nursed thoughts about even more extreme methods of hostile activity.

One should also note that Zatikyan admired the Dashnaks [Armenian Revolutionary Federation, an ultra-nationalist movement whose territorial ambitions include the Karabakh region and those parts of "Greater Armenia" currently within the borders of Turkey and Georgia].  In the course of  the investigation, and during his trial, he called the Dashnaks a “sacred party.”

One of Zatikyan’s accomplices—Stepanyan—participated in the anti-Soviet nationalist gathering.  For that, in 1974, he was served an official warning in accordance with the Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet of 25 December 1972.  However, that official warning did not bring Stepanyan to his senses, did not stop him from committing the crime.  

The USSR KGB gave a positive assessment to the investigative and trial measures undertaken by the organs of state security of the USSR.  The Armenian KGB also took an active part in that work.

However, all this took place after the first series of explosions had occurred in Moscow.  And the second series of explosions had already been prepared.  There should have been no explosions at all.  In any case, after the explosions, the criminals should have been quickly discovered and arrested.  However, that did not happen.  We realize that we have obviously made some mistakes here.  The republican KGB drew the following lessons from the “Bombers” case.

One can name the following reasons [as those] that contributed to the emergence of the “Bombers:”

1. Enemy influence from the abroad in the framework of the ideological subversion carried out by the adversary.
2. Negative influence by some hostile individuals on the young people.
3. As was already mentioned, mistakes in our work, in the work of the Armenian KGB.
4. Loss of sharpness of political vigilance among some categories of the population, as a consequence of a certain weakening of the ideological work.

In addition to that, there is some concern about persons who are not involved in productive labor, as well as such aliens to our social regime [who practice] phenomena such as bribery, theft of socialist property, petty crime, and vicious systematic libel against honest Soviet people in the form of anonymous letters and statements.

All this not only darkens the general moral and political climate in the republic, but also represents potential fertile grounds for marginalized elements, who then slide toward anti-Soviet activities.

Foreign Armenian colonies represent a special concern for us.  Let us dwell on just one question out of the whole system of issues related to this situation.  The processes and developments occurring in the colonies, taking into account their various connections with the republic, influence the situation here.  The enemy, primarily the United States, actively works with the foreign Armenian colonies—they use all means to encourage persons of Armenian nationality to move and establish permanent residency in their country.  Today already 600,000 Armenians reside in the United States.

An Armenian Bureau was created and is now functioning in the State Department, and Columbia University is planning to create an Armenian Cultural Center.

All these events unquestionably serve the same anti-Soviet goals.

There are plans to increase the Armenian diaspora in the United States to one million people.  This could have serious consequences for us.  The best organized force in the foreign Armenian colonies is the anti-Soviet nationalist party Dashnaktsutyun.  It is the most dangerous for us due to a number of circumstances (experience, knowledge of the situation, absence of language barrier, etc.).

That is why the CPSU CC resolution of 27 December 1978 about strengthening our work with the Armenians residing abroad has a great significance in trying to interfere with the efforts of the American administration to extend its influence on the foreign Armenian colony.

The KGB of the Armenian SSR reports its suggestions regarding the realization of the above-mentioned CPSU CC resolution to the Armenian CP CC separately.

Dashnak propaganda is being skillfully and inventively carried out, and it reaches its addressees more often than other kinds of propaganda.  We have to give them credit—they choose topics for ideological attacks against us in a fine and clever manner.

Take for example slogans like “Great and united and independent Armenia.”  Or the way they threw in the so-called “land issues” (both internal and external).  It is natural that the Dashnaks did not pass by Sero Khanzadyan’s letter, did not miss the clearly non-scholarly polemics between Z. Buniatov and some of our scholars.  They did not shy away from the case of Zatikyan and his accomplices either.  In addition, every time the Dashnaks choose the most skillful and at the same time innocent forms for their propaganda (for example about the “purity” of the Armenian language, about creation of genuinely Armenian families, etc.), which represents nothing other than acts of ideological subversion.

Of course, the current situation, the growing might of the socialist forces, and, first of all, of our country, could not but affect the Dashnak strategy, but their essence, their strategic designs remained unchanged, and we should start from that assumption in our work.  Naturally, we should also work against the Dashnaks—to try to limit, decrease their practical anti-Soviet activity.

It is necessary to point out that lately the enemy has been devoting more attention to the socio-political sphere in his intelligence endeavors.  In our republic, they are interested in such issues as the attitude of the local people to the Russians, Azerbaijani, and other peoples of the Soviet Union, to the “land” problem (both internal and external), to Turkey, and to the United States.  [They are interested in] how the genocide is taught in schools, what kind of nationalist outbursts happen in the republic, and how the nationalities issue is being resolved, and how the authorities treat the so-called dissidents, etc.

It is not hard to notice where the enemy is aiming—this is not just an expression of idle interest!  The enemy is trying to weaken, and if possible to undermine, the friendship of the peoples of the Soviet Union—the basis of our power.

In our republic, to some extent, the acts of ideological subversion, which are conducted now within the framework of the campaign for the so-called “defense of human rights” have made their impact.  There emerged the so-called “Group of Assistance for the Helsinki Accords” (the group was dissolved, its leader—Nazaryan—was sentenced to 5 years in prison at the end of 1978).  There also emerged an all-Union “leader” of the so-called “Free Labor Unions”—some Oganesyan [in our republic].  As a result of the prophylactic work, he renounced his unbecoming activity.

The actions named above did not bring success to the enemy. They are not that dangerous for our republic.  The Dashnak propaganda, and everything that originates in the Armenian foreign colonies is a different issue.  The Dashnaks exploit the nationalist feelings of the people, speculate on them.  The Armenian KGB constantly takes that fact into account in its work.

Information in the Soviet press and on the radio about the trial and the sentence in the case of the “terrorists” caused sharp indignation against the criminal actions taken by Zatikyan and his accomplices in the entire Soviet Union, in all the strata of population of the republic.  The people throughout the republic condemned those actions and approved the sentence of the USSR Supreme Soviet, emphasizing that those criminals have nothing in common with the Armenian people, which owes all its accomplishments, and its very existence in the Soviet state, to the great Russian people.

At the same time, we should not close our eyes to the fact that there are some hostile individuals with anti-Soviet and anti-Russian sentiments, who are nursing thoughts about separating Soviet Armenia from the USSR, express extremist sentiments (read excerpts).

For example, an unidentified person called the USSR KGB in Moscow after Zatikyan and his accomplices’ sentence was carried out, and expressed a threat to “avenge” the sentenced.

The KGB of Armenia sees this main task as follows:  to prevent and to interdict in a timely manner all extremist and other adversarial expressions on the part of the negative elements.

In this, we are starting from the assumption that in the current conditions, only politically well-prepared Communist members of the security organs can carry out the demanding tasks of ensuring state security, of protecting Soviet society from the subversive actions of the enemy’s special services, from the foreign anti-Soviet centers, and from some hostile individuals inside the country.  We believe that no Communist can have any kind of neutral, or passive position in issues of ideology.

The issues of ideological and political preparation and internationalist education of the personnel have been and will remain at the center of attention of the Collegium, the Party Committee of the KGB of the republic, and the party organizations of the [KGB] units.

The Armenian KGB works under the direct control of and direction of the CP CC of Armenia, and it constantly feels the assistance and support of the Central Committee and the government of the republic.

Officers of the Armenian KGB assure the CC CP of Armenia that they will apply all their skills and power to fulfill the tasks entrusted to them.

Chairman of the Committee for State Security

Of the Armenian SSR

[signature] M. A. Yuzbashyan

14 March 1979