Rereading “KGB
- Chairmen of the state security organs: the fate of the
declassified”*
By He Qinglian on March 12, 2012
The most controversial action of the
Chinese government during this year's “Two Meetings” was its
pending passage of the draft Code of Criminal Procedure amendment**.
Article 73, the “secret arrest” article, of the draft amendment
that targeted its citizens attracted a chorus of criticism from
various sectors, who realized that such an article would become a
Sword of Damocles hanging above the heads of the Chinese people and
every one may be subjected to “secret disappearance” by the
authorities on the grounds of “threatening national security”.
Should such an article be passed, China
would enter a time of “governance by secret police”.
Coincidentally, the “Wang Lijun incident” unfolded in China last
month. Wang, former Public Security Chief known for his “hitting
the black” campaign in Chongqing, resorted to the same measures for
survival as spies of the USSR did when he felt he might become a pawn
to be sacrificed in the power struggle. He hid inside the US
consulate-general in Chengdu to avoid his fate. That incident
reminded me of a book, “KGB -
Chairmen of the state security organs: the fate of the declassified”.
The focus of the book was completely
different from that of KGB : the inside story of its foreign
operations from Lenin to Gorbachev, which recounted mainly the
external functions of the KGB—espionage and intelligence work—and
led one to perceive the nature of that organ was exactly the same as
the CIA or the MI6 and overlook its cruel functions of internal
repression. Through description of KGB leaders and what they did
during their terms of office, “KGB
- Chairmen of the state security organs: the fate of the
declassified” revealed the bloody history of the Great Purge and
movements to eliminate dissidents of Soviet Russia and the USSR. The
little-known details described in that book fills one more with
terror than shock.
A unique organization that once existed
in human history, the KGB, successor of the All-Russian Extraordinary
Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage (VcheKA),
was set up initially to deal with the large number officials who
resisted the new regime. Later on, its functions evolved into the
elimination of domestic political dissidents. Of its seventy-odd
years of history that coincided with the USSR, an organization of
conspiracy and terror, the KGB doubtlessly meant more than
“bone-chilling”, “mysterious”, or “terrorizing”. Its
inception, development and dissolution all bore the hallmarks of the
particular era when the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ruled the
country. It could be said that the history of the KGB was nothing but
injustice, inquisition by torture, and indiscriminate killing of
innocents. To this date, Vladimir Putin, a former major of the KGB,
still uses skillfully some of the KGB techniques to deal with
political dissidents.
Leaders of the KGB were seen as the
most powerful inside the USSR. For those who loved the excitement of
having control over life and death of others, such a position was
rather appealing. Yet, oddly enough, this position often ruined the
lives of those who assumed office. A secondary translation from
Chinese of what the author wrote is, “Amidst applause, many people
went inside this famous building in Lubyanka Square, the place where
they obtained power and reward. Few, however, left Lubyanka on their
own volition or because of promotion.
In general, the leaders of this
national security organ departed from this place either because they
got dismissed or were forced to step down. Among them, five were
executed by firing squad, some others were imprisoned or disgraced
over a lengthy period. This job has so far brought honor to no one.”
This position was full of risks. From 1917 to 1999, chairmen of the
KGB, its people's commissars, ministers and secretaries had been
replaced for a total of twenty-three times; while the instances of
their counterparts in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were almost
less than half in comparison. Some of those who served as leaders of
this organ did not stay long—a few months or a year maybe, with the
exception of Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov, who set the longest record
in office by serving as KGB chairman for up to fifteen years.
Whether it was the Soviet Russia or the
USSR afterward, the Great Purge expanded to a scale that was
unbelievable. It wasn't just the common people who feared for
themselves, top level leaders of the party and the state, too, got by
on tenterhooks. Vyacheslav Molotov, number two man of the CPSU, could
only watch his wife being arrested and dare not rescue her. That
which carried out the Purge, the security organ was itself, too, a
target. On July 29, 1920, Vladimir Lenin approved the inception of
the VcheKA, which was constituted by a leadership of thirteen
persons. With the exception of Felix Dzerzhinsky and Vyacheslav
Menzhinsky, who died natural death, all eleven others were killed
later on.
The most well-known KGB leader was
Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria, who served as the top leader of the organ
from 1945 to 1953 and was core to the Great Purge in the era of
Stalin. In that unprecedented movement, many of the founding fathers
of the USSR, veteran revolutionaries, and millions of innocent people
were charged with unproven crimes and died miserably in prisons or
forced labor camps. Beria, the one who sent countless others to their
death, eventually fell victim to the Purge.
In
2008, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation handed down a
judgment recognizing Beria's death sentence meted out by the USSR
Supreme Court in 1953 as a legitimate one and rejected calls of
vindication for Beria.
In
the course of the hearing, the case unearthed a cold case concerning
the death of Beria. There was no proof of Beria's cremation or burial
in that case file and no one knew the whereabouts of his body. As
with many of his victims, Beria mysteriously “vanished
into thin air”.
Enveloped
by an atmosphere of terror, the people of the former Soviet Union
became seriously distorted, not the slightest of human dignity
remained. Charges of “episonage”, “anti-Soviet elements”,
“saboteurs” and “traitors” could fall on anyone, anytime.
Although these falsely accused had committed no crime, under heavy
torture they would eventually be forced into confession and expressed
their willingness to receive punishment. Those with light charges
would be sent into the labor camps, and those with heavy charges were
executed. The heyday of the KGB was the time when the people of the
Soviet Union bled the most. Being in a country where everyone's life
was precarious was undoubtedly the greatest tragedy.
Throughout human history, there is no
other organization more keen on power than the Communist Party, and
there is no other organization that would care less about the cost in
using various terrorizing means to consolidate its power than the
Communist Party. Out of the strategic consideration of autocratic
power and monopoly of the truth, it has become the necessary logic of
the Communist totalitarian politics to wipe out any political
opposition, any individual in possession of real power in the
community, and to nip all organized forces in the bud.
Today's Russians have bid farewell to
this history of the KGB. But if China is to implement
the Code of Criminal Procedure Amendment Bill, which contains the
terms of secret arrest, then inevitably the Chinese people would be
under the political fear of a KGB-styled governance. When the
security organ could monitor, eavesdrop on, and issue secret arrest
warrant for anyone, no one in China could feel safe, the so-called
human diginity would just be gone. In the face of such a danger, what
reason there is for those who embrace the CPC regime to continue to
praise the strength and progress of China?
*“KGB
- Chairmen of the state security organs: the fate of the
declassified”, KGB--predsedateli organov gosbezopasnosti
: rassekrechennye sudʹby (КГБ--председатели
органов госбезопасности : рассекреченные
судьбы) written by Leonid Mikhaĭlovich Mlechin (Леонид
Михайлович Млечин) No known English translation yet –
Translator note.
**The amendment was
passed despite strong public opposition.
