Report by the Chairman of the Delegation of the Committee for State Security (KGB) of the USSR, General-Colonel V. M. Chebrikov during Soviet Bloc Meeting on Western Radio

Top Secret!

23 April 1980
Report
By the Chairman of the delegation of the Committee for State Security (KGB) of the USSR, General-Colonel V. M. Chebrikov

Dear Comrades!

The present conference is a continuation of the now established and completely justified form of collaboration of the organs of security of the socialist countries concerning the fight against the ideological sabotage of the enemy. Such meetings give us the opportunity to periodically exchange experience, look at the results of the analysis of the operational situation, and develop active measures for the prevention and interception of the subversive acts of the enemy. The present conference will have an important role in coordinating and enhancing the effectiveness of our operations. At this meeting we would also like to discuss further measures of coordination and collaboration in the work of organizing of the Olympic Games in Moscow.

In the battle against ideological sabotage, soviet security agents are closely guided by the directives and instructions of the Central Committee of the CPSU, bearing in mind the interests of the external and internal politics of the Party, [and] the particulars of the development of the international situation.

The political situation in our country is good. The close unity between the people and the Party, the unbreakable tie between the working class, the collective peasantry and the intelligentsia, and the cohesion of the nations and nationalities in our country—all of this is a solid foundation of the might of our socialist country.

The organs of the Committee for state security have at their disposal information concerning actions of the special bureaus of the imperialist countries and the foreign centers for ideological sabotage over the last decade. These years were a period of intense fighting with the enemy. In the conditions of political relaxation, the ideological battle became sharper. Imperialism raised ideological sabotage to the level of national politics. The subversive actions of the enemy’s special bureaus in the field of ideology were strengthened.

The special agencies of the imperialist countries give particular attention to attempts to realize plans for ideological sabotage, with the purpose of creating an illegal anti-Soviet opposition in our country. By an initiative of the President of the US, in May 1977, the NATO countries came to a decision to carry out subversive actions by the special bureaus against the countries of the Socialist bloc. In the documents approved by the leaders of the NATO member states at the London conference, it is said that NATO’s intelligence organs need to get involved with “destabilizing tendencies and illegal currents in the communist world, to solidify the positions of the dissidents there, and further promote changes in their political systems for the advantage of the West.” The espionage agencies of the US and the other imperialist countries have tried persistently to fulfill these plans by consolidating hostile elements into political organizations and groups.

Two years ago, in the operative administration of the CIA, a new department was created whose function consisted of organizing and coordinating the activities of residents in the Socialist Bloc countries that used hostile elements.

Such centers for ideological sabotage as the Committee of the radio stations Liberty and Free Europe, the National Labor Union, the Organization of Ukraine Nationalists, the World Zionist organization, continued to actively participate in carrying out the plans of the enemy to penetrate the USSR’s territory, as well as many other foreign, anti-Soviet, nationalist, and ecclesiastical organizations, acting under the leadership and control of the intelligence organs of the imperialist countries.