New image for K.G.B.

Press, 20 October 1981, Page 9

New image for K.G.B.

By

RICHARD BALMFORTH,

of NZPA-Reuter Moscow It-was clear from the start that the eight-storey red brick complex being built in central Moscow was no ordinary project. Absent are the stout Russian women with paintsplattered head scarves, traditional to most Soviet construction sites. Instead hard-hatted young soldiers swarm around the scaffolding and when the site is dosed at night a militaryguard is placed at-the gates. Work has gone on speedily, apparently untroubled by the sudden shortages of rawmaterials that normally bedevil all but priority projects in the Soviet Union. Another curious fact was noted shrewdly by one Muscovite. “The first thing they did when they had built the walls was to-put shutters on the windows.’’; There is no sign on the site — but it does not need one. Moscow’s open secret is\ that; smart new offices are being built for the K.G.B. security police,, though its main headquarters are likely to remain in the huge brownstone Lubyanka just ..across the street. ” The expansion of the Moscow headquarters of the K.G.8.. or Committee for State .Security,, symbolises the organisation's gradual growth ifi prestige under the leadership of Leonid Brezhnev.. ; ;. Western’ diplomats say that : in. recent years the Kremlimhas been at pains to improve the public image of the K.G.8., whose excesses during’ the rule of Josef Stalin left few families in the Soviet Union untouched. On the death of Stalin in 1953 the K.G.B. emerged allpowerful under the leaderships the dictator’s notori-

ous . lieutenant, Lavrenty Beria. : When Nikita Krushchev gained power, however, he set about curbing the enormous arbitrary power the K.G.B. had accumulated.

-The present-day trend to repairing the image of the K.G.B. while at the same time keeping a tight rein on its activities began, according to diplomats, in 1967 when Yuri Andropov was appointed to head the organisation.

Mr Andropov, now 67. was by background a Communist Party functionary and diplomat and his appointment was seen as bringing the K.G.B. under tight party control.

When Mr Andropov became a member of the ruling party Politburo the organisation at the same time gained considerable prestige. But in a remark calculated to assure the Soviet public that the dark days of Stalin were a thing of the past, Mr Brezhnev paid tribute to Mr Andropov’s “clean, irreproachable hands.” ■ Since then, though public references to the organisation remain a rarity, the K.G.B. has grown in respectability Avith' several of its leading, lights moving up the Soviet nower echelons.

Mr Andropov’s No. 2, General Semyon Tsvigun, in particular, has emerged into prominence recently, embarking on a career as a writer of war fiction. He has also delivered stinging attacks on dissidents.

The K.G.B. is responsible for intelligence and counterintelligence operations both at home and abroad, and keeping an eye on internal "crimes against. the St ate.” , ’•<

An elite corps,’ its duties also include such priority work as guarding top Krem-

lin personnel and ensuring security at big State occasions.

It is also responsible for the security of Soviet borders and according to latest Western estimates maintains a border guard force numbering about 300,000. This field has provided most scope in recent times for the K.G.B.’s imagemakers..'; Books . and films have appeared; extolling the virtues of-the men who guard Soviet frontiers day and night,. while May 28 official border guards day — is marked by glowing official tributes to their heroism and vigilance. The 74-year-old Mr Brezhnev in his keynote speech at the party congress praised the K.G.B. for keeping “a sharp and vigilant eye on intrigues of imperialist intelligence" and later bestowed on them the rare public honour of attending a top-level K.G.B. conference in Moscow.

. Moscow rarely admits, however, to maintaining any agents: abroad and expulsions of suspected K.G.B. agents by other governments are never reported in the Soviet press. . ’. The success ..of efforts to revamp the image of the K.G.B. before the Soviet .public are, however, debatable. Russians will readily spring to the defence of the K.G.B. as a counter-intelli-gence organisation protecting. leitimate Soviet’interests and borders. ■ . - v

But. the Stalinist image of an all-powerful’ organisation watching the Soviet citizen’s slightest move is not easily exorcised. '■

Though Russians generally accept they may never have anything to do with the K.G.B. as long as they have onlv a fleeting acquaintance with foreigners, most people still find it hard to pronounce

the initials oi the organisation without lowering their voice.

K.G.B. operations against the dissidence movement have provided a stiff reminder to Soviet citizens of the effectiveness of the organisation in dealing with breaches of Communist legality at home. In the last five years, a drive by the K.G.B. against human rights groups inside the Soviet Union has led to lengthy labour camp and exile terms for the country’s dissident leaders.

Most dissidents reject the notion that the K.G.B.’s powers have been greatly curtailed and maintain that considerable repression still continues throughout the Soviet Union.

Savouring a victory over dissidence, General tsvigun wrote recently in the party journal, “Kommunist,” that the most active “anti-social elements” had been brought to justice and “prophylactic work” carried out with those who had been “misled.” But at the same time, he warned that Western intelligence and anti-Soviet organisations abroad were feverishly seeking new ways of subverting Soviet society. Soviet youth, he said, was a particular object of foreign propaganda which tried to suggest that the Soviet model of democracy could be improved. Put another way, General Tsvigun’s . remarks meant that there would be no let-up in K.G.B. vigilance within the Soviet Union. The ambivalent attitude of most Soviet citizens towards the K.G.B. was summed up by a Russian girl who told a Western correspondent recently: “The K.G.B. is a great and good organisation.” Then she added as an afterthought: “And one that I never want to have dealings with.”