Azerbaijan in the late 1980s (5)

5.Were the popular movements the late 1980s ruled by certain departments?

- In our conversation with you about the events that took place on the Soviet-Iranian border on December 31, 1989, you expressed the idea that the implementation of the task set by interested structures to provoke unrest could be realized if there were certain people in the crowd who had been instructed in advance by the staff of these departments. Could you somehow reveal what you said?

- Let us first recall the period from the history of the Russian Empire in the first years of the twentieth century, known as "Zubatovshchina" (often referred to as "police socialism"). This stage was preceded by the emergence in the empire of a social-democratic (someone can say the workers) movement, when in the late 1890s the Bund, the RSDLP and a party of the Social Revolutionaries arose in Russia a little later. So, in the early twentieth century, workers' organizations initiated by the head of the Special Section of the Police Department Sergey Zubatov began to appear in the central cities of the Russian Empire. According to his confession, he began to organize the "legal labor movement", which must fight socialism and promote "progressive capitalism". As a result, the working-class (popular) movement born in the government offices of the Russian Empire, which was driven by S. Zubatov and Co. by "their" people, was to no small degree in the vanguard of the protest struggle, becoming the detonator of the revolutionary sentiments of the masses.

Therefore, there is nothing accidental in the fact that, as it became known after the change of power in Russia in 1917, more than 30 secret police informers, including the chairman and his deputies (lib. sale), were on the Council of Workers' Deputies. Pavel Dekonsky, a member of the Odessa Committee of the Social Revolutionary Party, was exposed as a former police agent who served in the detective department (intelros.ru). Roman Malinovsky, member of the Central Committee of the RSDLP, Bolshevik, State Duma of the 4th convocation, turned out to be a secret officer of the Security Department of the Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire.

- It is unpleasant;probably, from the height of today it is difficult to provide some definite verdict to those events. As I understand it, you want to draw a line from the beginning of the 1900s to the year 1989?

- In any case, I can try to make this jump, which will allow you to see quite visible parallels between the events that characterized the historical period in this geographical space at the beginning and end of the twentieth century.

For example, in a biographical sketch of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU (since 1985) Mikhail Gorbachev, it is noted that in 1986-1987, "hoping to awaken the initiative" of the masses, he and his confidants "took the course" to "democratize" all parties "public life." Through the efforts of the secretary and member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, Andrei Yakovlev, this line was "developed" in the aspect of freedom of speech", including the process of creating initiative groups, popular fronts, other non-state and non-party organizations" in support of (rufact.org).

In this way in the autumn of 1988, "almost synchronously, as if by a wave of someone's hand," the People"s Fronts of Estonia and Latvia were born, and "Sajūdis" - in Lithuania. The "figure of A. N. Yakovlev", who visited the Baltic republics in the summer of the same year (I. Froyanov. Immersion into the abyss: Russia at the end of the 20th century), emerges in a special vein. After his visit, as the former head of the analytical center (A department) of the USSR KGB Vyacheslav Shironin, Saoudis, "felt that he was being made the main political force." Ex-deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, Viktor Alksnis, states that "instructions to party organizations at enterprises about the creation of primary organizations of the Popular Front" came "from the CPSU Central Committee, the Central Committee of the Communist Parties of the Baltic Republics". "Enlisting the support of the Central Committee of the CPSU", representatives of the Moscow intelligentsia became more active (Vyacheslav Igrunov. About informal political clubs of Moscow).

- It turns out that the popular movement of the second half of the 1980s, perceived by the Soviet public as a result of the "mass uprising", was actually inspired by higher authorities?

- The above facts, of course, do not indicate that in the Baltic region, Moscow, Leningrad (St. Petersburg), and other cities of the Soviet Union, such a movement did not mature. However, the impetus to its development, whether it wants to recognize it or not, as in the case of Zyvatovshchina, was given by the highest authorities. It is also quite obvious that the special services conducted their game in the "constructive" activity of "unwinding" the "people's democratic" movement. Naturally, this happened through the introduction of organs into the movement of their own sources (the common name is agents) or the recruitment of their leaders.

- Are there any specific facts about this?

- According to open information, the situation in most "people's perestroika" movements throughout the USSR was clearly supervised by the KGB (both in the center and in the scenes). For example, the last chairman of the KGB of the Latvian SSR, Edmunds Johansons, states that he and his inner circle "sat" in "their offices, though without archives, without a card file," until January 1992, when they were fired. The reason for "such a condescending attitude towards us" E. Johansons refers to the presence of information in the Latvian KGB, for example, that "40 deputies of the then Supreme Soviet" of the republic were "active agents of the KGB, trusted representatives of our structure". Many "ardent nationals, too, were at one time our agents." This "has become a deterrent factor," since these politicians, "of course, were afraid of disclosing information about their past." They "did everything to prevent the initiation of any kind of criminal cases against us" (rus.delfi.lv).

In turn, the Lithuanian journalist Vytautas Sasnauskas notes that "everything" in "Sajudis" was "held in his hands" by the writer and translator Virgilius Chepaytis, the future deputy of the Supreme Council of Lithuania, who had collaborated with the KGB since 1964. "The court recognized him as a KGB agent ", after what" ex-prime minister Casimir Prunskiene "was one of the initiators of Sajudis, the republic"s first prime minister after the restoration of independence, and Lithuania"s ex-minister for European affairs Laima Andrikene" were exposed; Academician J. Minkevicius and other "lower-rank" (4) (Sasnauskas V. Avant-garde of traitors // Duel. 2001. No. 11. P. 5-6). Member of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania of the first convocation, Vladislav Shved, adds that "no less than (16)" of the 36 members of Sajudis "were in formal and informal relations with the KGB of the Lithuanian SSR" (moskvam.ru).

A similar situation was seen in other regions of the USSR. For example, Vitaly Neiman, a member of the Perm branch of the Democratic Union organization (CP), at a press conference admitted to his many years of service as an agent of the KGB (panorama.ru). The data are also about the "famous public repentance" of one of the organizers of the DC Yuri Mityunov, when he "confessed from the podium that he was a KGB agent sent to the Perestroika club (docplayer.ru).

Moldavian historian Gennady Codreanu emphasizes that "the leadership of the Popular Front of Moldova has about a dozen of its activists" considered "informers of the KGB" because they "listen in, split, disorient". Following what G. Codreanu records that "among the suspects were indeed unwritten sources" (mioritix.tripod.com).

A well-known Soviet and Russian journalist, people's deputy of the USSR, who later held the post of deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Security, Yuri Shchekochikhin quoted excerpts from the operational information of the USSR KGB in 1988: "Moscow Tribune"; "The agent was introduced to the Moscow Committee on Karabakh" ((lib.ru).

- Very interesting. By the way, does the latest emphasis indicate the emergence of separatist tendencies in Nagorno-Karabakh, like the "popular movement" in Armenia, which is identical to the above, that is, by initiating "from above"?

- Is it not considered unequivocally? It is quite symptomatic that immediately after A. Yakovlev"s visit to Yerevan there "the Karabakh Committee launched its work", which brought "almost half a million people on the street demanding to attach Karabakh to Armenia" (I. Froyanov).

Evidence of the artificial origin of this process is also indicated by the testimony of the commander of a special district of Yerevan (after the state of emergency was declared in 1988) Albert Makashov. He notes that in Yerevan "Karabakh Armenians were considered not equal to themselves, and in colloquial speech it was often heard" the nickname "Karabakh ass." And then suddenly "such a campaign began in the press, radio, TV, that immediately "Karabakh" committees were created in all universities, schools, and even in kindergartens the children played a round dance with "Karabakh" flags in their hands."

Well, after Yerevan, the Armenian community of Moscow spoke. "A rally was held in the courtyard of the Surb Harutyun Moscow Church, after which "the Karabakh Committee" was set up in Moscow (hyenews.tripod.com).

True, the Armenian "people's perestroika" movement", unlike its sister regions in other regions of the USSR, adopted the geographic name, which was caused by the proclamation of territorial claims against Azerbaijan (within the framework of "democratic transformations", so to say). But, in any case, the voice of Yerevan sounded confidently in the general order inspired by the higher authorities of the "people's perestroika" choir.

- And what steps did the Soviet special services take in relation to the PFA?

- Let's be more attentive to revelations of the then officer of the Special Section of the KGB of the Caspian Military Flotilla (stationed in Baku), the captain of the 1st rank, encrypted as "Ya.Ya." They are presented in the documentary story by Vyacheslav Morozov "The Admiral of the FSB" (nash-sovremennik.ru).

So, "Ya.Ya." reveals that the counterintelligence structures were tasked with "penetrating the deep underground of destructive forces - organizations that operated in the region". In particular, he specifies, "the talk is about the military wing of the Popular Front". The main goal was to reveal their autopsy; interception of communications with the secret services of the West, "Turkey and above all Iran." Therefore, a decision was made to introduce "our source" for a long-term counter-terrorist operation. Directly "Ya.Ya. was responsible for "its introduction into the deep underground," after which the period of active use of the latter for the purpose of "obtaining information" began.

Taking into account the fact that the operation was "super-secret", information about it was owned only by "Ya. Ya." and Herman Ugryumov, at the turn of 1989-1990 headed the Special Department of the Caspian Military Flotilla (in 1999-2001, Deputy Director of the Federal Security Service of Russia). "Very good our specialists" joined the subject, including the three surveillance groups that arrived from Moscow, which no one knew and should not even guess, as well as "two teams of technical specialists" who supplied the "operational equipment". All these forces "provided the work of one source only", its safety and verification. Thus, "within all destructive forces, we had excellent positions," since "they infiltrated all their organizations, including the Popular Front. They knew everything about them."

We agree that the revelations "Ya.Ya." quite visibly reveal the form and methods of work of special departments in relation to popular movements.

- In this scenario, from a particular point of view, the information provided by you in our previous conversations can be regarded as obviously inspired riots on the Soviet-Iranian border on December 31, 1989.

- In any case, it should be admitted that the sources of the secret services could quite successfully implement the tasks of the curators both, in the light of the voicing of extremist appeals on the rally days, and the initiation of certain illegal actions.