Terrorism myths
The Soviet Union, the KGB and the RAF
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
40 years after the German Autumn, several questions still remain unanswered. They include the issue of whether the Soviet secret service, the KGB, supported terror groups in the West during the East-West conflict. Since Claire Sterling’s The Terror Network, published in 1981, the theory has been in circulation that the RAF was assisted by Moscow. This theory is untenable: at no time did Moscow support the RAF terrorist activities. The overriding interest in a policy of détente and the CSCE pro-cess, as well as the fight against terrorism within the Soviet Union itself prior to the 1980 Olympic Games, were more important than supporting ostensibly anti-imperialist freedom fighters and terrorists in western Europe.
(Osteuropa 11-12/2017, pp. 163–171)