Research on the KGB
A Compass for the Archives and the Literature
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
The legacy of the KGB, the Soviet intelligence service, shapes Russia’s domestic and foreign policy. Institutional structures have been preserved, values and worldviews have been passed down from one generation to the next, as are techniques of infiltration, disinformation, and assassination. Ukraine, which has the largest KGB holdings outside of Russia, and the Baltic states have opened up their archives, thus making new sources from the period 1954-1991 available to scholars and the public. This has sparked a veritable archival revolution. The new findings about the Soviet intelligence services also serve as background knowledge for analysing contemporary Russian politics.
(Osteuropa 11/2022, pp. 205–234)