Historians labor to understand the causes of World War I, a conflict whose resolution helped give rise to Nazism. Existing diplomatic alliances triggered a broader conflict following the assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand. Something I had not realized is, this single act of violence that sparked the war was just the latest in a series of assassinations that were happening in Europe at that time.
Moreover, Europe was rife with espionage before World War I. This plethora of covert activities was a subtext that may have subverted overt practices of governance.
According to Christopher Andrew and Oleg Gordievsky’s book, “KGB,” the Bolsheviks were never popular in Russia. In order to maintain power, they posited plots to overthrow the Bolshevik Revolution that were, in large measure, illusory. An extreme example of trumped-up fears can be seen with the Soviet assassination of Leon Trotsky in 1940. By then, Stalin and Trotsky seem to have been the only ones who truly believed Trotsky posed any kind of threat to Stalin. During the brutal internal purges under Stalin, KGB agents learned to “‘Ugadat, ugodit, utselt’ (‘Sniff out, suck up, survive’).” In continuing to use claims of danger to distract from domestic issues, the Bolsheviks and their heirs have always had to posit a main adversary that was, first, Great Britain and, now, is our country.
In “Comrade Kryuchkov’s Instructions” we may read some of what the KGB was up to at the end of the Soviet era. The Chekists wanted to cultivate “foreigners, especially governmental and party personalities, representatives of the business world, academics, journalists, etc., with the purpose of … exerting on them an influence favorable to us.” They sought to develop “confidential and special unofficial contacts among major state and political personalities.” Of particular interest for recruitment was any “‘Subject [who] could come to power (occupy the post of president or prime minister)…” As part of his tradecraft, “the recruiter will seek to establish a bond of personal friendship. Frequently, flattery is his most important tool.”
The Soviet Union collapsed in December of 1991. Donald Trump first visited Moscow in July of 1987.
Mary H. Hall
South Hadley