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Soviet soldier taking a photograph of another soldier in Red Square, Moscow, 1959

Eastern Europe

Soviet Union

Mitrokhin Archive

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Mitrokhin, Vasili

1922- 2004

Intelligence Operations in the Cold War

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Eastern Europe

Czechoslovakia

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Eastern Europe

Poland

Aerial view of National Mall

North America

United States

Photograph of Gorbachev-Bush summit at Malta, 1989

End of the Cold War

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Andropov, Yuri Vladimirovich

1914- 1984

Mass Media and Censorship

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Eastern Europe

Bulgaria

The Palace of the Republic (Palast der Republik) in Berlin

Eastern Europe

East Germany

Jan Nowak-Jeziorański broadcasting for Radio Free Europe, 3 May 1952

Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty

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United States. Embassy (Czechoslovakia)

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Todor Zhivkov Collection

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Stoyanov, Dimitar

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Soviet Union. Committee for State Security (KGB)

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Mikhail Gorbachev, 1986

Gorbachev, Mikhail Sergeevich

1931- 2022

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March 23, 1967	Bulgarian State Security Chairman Angel Solakov’s Report at a Bulgarian Communist Party Plenum According to the State Security Committee chair, Angel Solakov, there has been a major shift in the policies of the West towards the Soviet bloc. While during the 1950s military face-off was often considered an option, in the late 1960s such possibility has been largely ruled out. Consequently the US and their allies in Western Europe are focusing their efforts on fighting socialism around the world through peaceful means, such as strengthening economic and cultural ties with the Soviet bloc countries. This calls for a change in the strategy of the State Security Committee intelligence operations. Solakov also reports on the anti-Soviet activities of the Chinese and Albanian intelligence services across Europe.
February 19, 1973	Information from Bulgaria on the Dismissal of Charges Against Army Officers for Anti-Party and Anti-State Activity Information regarding the reaction of a group of 16 Bulgarian Armed Forces officers, discharged for “anti-party and anti-state activity”. Some of them were rehabilitated with a CC BCP Secretariat Resolution “B-9” on October 13, 1972. The BCP CC’s Military Department recommends that the State Security Committee’s Sixth Directorate continue monitoring the group. KDS should also brief regularly the BCP CC about the behavior of those former officers who have not yet been rehabilitated. While those with favorable disposition towards the Party line should be recommended for future rehabilitation, others who are still standing on “anti-party” positions must be warned in the course.
June 5, 1974	Report from D. Stoyanov to T. Zhivkov on Strengthening of the Bulgarian Border with Yugoslavia The Minister of Internal Affairs, Dimitar Stoyanov, reports on the security situation along Yugoslav-Bulgarian border. Since that border is the one most often used by defectors, the Minister proposes a 50% increase in the border patrol troops.
February 9, 1987	Weekly Bulgarian State Security Review Based on intelligence sources, the Minister of Internal Affairs Dimitar Stoyanov reports on domestic political developments. Among the issues covered in the memo are the domestic repercussions of the January 1987 Plenary Session of the CPSU Central Committee, as well as the Western allegations of human rights violations in regard to Bulgaria’s policy toward the Turkish ethnic minority.
April 24, 1987	Information from D. Stoyanov to M. Balev on Propaganda Against People's Republic of Bulgaria The Minister of Internal Affairs, Dimitar Stoyanov, reports on the coverage in the Western media of the alleged repressions against six Bulgarian dissidents who sent an open letter to the 1986 CSCE Meeting in Vienna. The letter claimed that Bulgaria does not comply fully with the Helsinki Accords on Human Rights of 1975. The Minister reports that although some measures have been taken to neutralize the activities of this particular dissident group, the official investigation has been suspended as there was a risk of further tarnishing Bulgaria’s image abroad.
October 13, 1987	Information from D. Stoyanov to G. Yordanov on Discontent Among Sofia University Employers and Professors The Minister of Internal Affairs, Dimitar Stoyanov, informs the Education Minister, Georgi Yordanov, about intelligence reports regarding the rise of discontent among professors, employees and students at the University of Sofia.
June 20, 1988	Weekly State Security Review from the Ministry of the Interior to T. Zhivkov The Minister of the Internal Affairs, Dimitar Stoyanov, briefs Todor Zhivkov on the weekly domestic developments. Among the most pressing issues is the ongoing popular discontent in Ruse triggered by the unresolved problems with industrial pollution in the city. Another issue is the opposition of the Turkish minority to the revival process.
March 23, 1989	Bulgarian Secretariat Resolution on Termination of Jamming of Foreign Broadcasts for Bulgaria The BCP CC passes a decision to stop jamming the broadcast of Western radio stations airing programs in Bulgarian. This decision however does not apply to Radio Ankara, whose Bulgarian programming continues to be blocked.
June 2007	The Operational Situation as Reported in 1971, 1975, and 1981. Folder 35. The Chekist Anthology. In folder 35 Mitrokhin discusses the KGB’s assertion of an increase in domestic dissent and unrest in the 1970s and early 1980s as well as the methods the KGB utilized to combat this threat. Soviet intelligence believed that this increase in domestic unrest was due primarily to an increased effort by the United States and its allies to promote internal instability within the USSR. In response, the KGB continued to screen foreigners, increased the harshness of penalties for distribution of anti-Soviet literature, and monitored the activities and temperament of nationalists, immigrants, church officials, and authors of unsigned literature within the Soviet Union. Mitrokhin’s note recounts the KGB’s assertion that foreign intelligence agencies were expanding their attempts to create domestic unrest within the USSR. These activities included the support and creation of dissidents within the Soviet Union, the facilitation of the theft Soviet property such as aircrafts, and the public espousal of a position against Soviet persecution of dissidents and Jews. Responding to public exposure of these activities, the KGB proclaimed its legality and trustworthiness while also beginning to assign some agents verbal assignments without written record.
June 2007	The Case of Zinovyeva and Others, 1972. Folder 23. The Chekist Anthology Mitrokhin describes KGB reports on slanderous and politically harmful material disseminated in Kaluga Oblast.