The State Within a StateIn this riveting and immensely readable investigation, Yevgenia Albats, one of Russia's leading journalists, explodes the myth that the KGB died - or even faded away - when the Soviet empire broke apart. Albats makes the shocking claim that the same group which proudly traces its lineage to Stalin's brutally repressive secret police actually engineered the policy of perestroika, subtly and effectively controlling the overhaul of Soviet society in order to reposition itself at the top. Drawing on a wealth of unpublished documents from the KGB's secret files and on rare interviews with victims as well as interrogators, Albats chronicles the KGB's evolution into the world's largest secret police force. She shows how it infiltrated every structure of civil society and every aspect of daily life; how it choreographed the "unsuccessful" coup of August 1991; and how, despite its official dissolution in the new democratic Russia, the KGB is stronger than ever, having transformed itself from an instrument of state power to a state power in its own right. |
Contents
TO THE READER | 3 |
A State within a State | 21 |
Victims and Executioners | 70 |
Unnatural Selection | 112 |
Who Was Behind Perestroika? | 168 |
Realities of the Glasnost Era | 204 |
The Coup | 268 |
LubyankaNow and Forever | 294 |
Other editions - View all
The State Within a State: The KGB and Its Hold on Russia--past, Present, and ... Evgenii͡a Alʹbat͡s No preview available - 1994 |
Common terms and phrases
abroad activity Alexander Andropov army arrested asked August author's archive Author's interview Bobkov Boris Boyarsky Boyarsky's called Central Committee Cheka Chekists Chief Directorate Chief Military Procuracy citizens colleagues Communist Party Comrade counterintelligence coup CPSU criminal December democratic Department deputy dissidents documents foreign former gazeta glasnost Gorbachev head Ibid ideological counterintelligence Institute intelligence investigation Ivanenko Izvestia journalists KGB Chairman KGB Directorate KGB Lt KGB officers KGB's Khrushchev Khvat Kichikhin knew Komsomol Komsomolskaya pravda Kryuchkov labor camp leaders Lubyanka memo Minister Ministry Moscow Moskovskiye novosti newspaper Nikolai NKVD Oleg Kalugin operations Orekhov organs parliament percent perestroika person Politburo political police President prison reports Rika rubles Russian Savostyanov secret police Service Soviet Union spetsnaz Stalin Supreme Soviet surveillance telephone told top secret USSR USSR KGB Vadim Bakatin Viktor Viktorov Vladimir Vladimir Kryuchkov Yakovlev Yeltsin Yevgenia Albats