Recently, the Supreme Court recognized as legitimate the refusal of the FSB to remove the heading “secret” from a letter dated 1937 from the head of the NKVD, Nikolai Yezhov. It concerned the so-called Harbin case, in which thousands of Russian emigrants from China were repressed. The plaintiff, historian Sergei Prudovsky, told The Insider how he is fighting the FSB and what exactly the Chekists are trying to hide.

On September 20, 1937, the Operational Order of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR No. 00593, known as the "Order on the Harbinites", was issued.

The preamble of the order begins with the words: “The bodies of the NKVD registered up to 25,000 people, the so-called “Harbinites” (former employees of the Chinese Eastern railway and re-emigrants from Manchukuo), who settled in the railway transport and in the industry of the Union…”, and the second paragraph states that “All residents of Harbin are subject to arrest” and follows a listing of 13 categories of persons, ranging from exposed and suspected of terrorist, sabotage, espionage and sabotage activities and ending with members of counter-revolutionary sectarian groups.

Looking ahead, I note that within the specified period, it was not possible to fulfill the order “On the Harbinites”, like other “national” orders, and the deadline was extended until April 15, 1938. During the execution of this order, during 1937-1938, was arrested “ Japanese spies" 53,906 people.

The draft of this order, the day before, was considered and approved at a meeting (question No. 107) of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. At the same time, the draft closed letter of the NKVD of the USSR “On measures in connection with the terrorist, sabotage and espionage activities of the Japanese agents from the so-called Harbinites” was approved, which received No. 60268.

Studying archival criminal cases of former employees of the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER), colleagues of my grandfather, Stepan Ivanovich Kuznetsov, I got acquainted with this declassified order, but I could not get acquainted with the closed letter itself, because. he, as it turned out, is classified as "Secret".

I turned to the head of the FSB with a letter in which, in accordance with the law "On State Secrets" and based, among other things, on the paragraph of Decree of the President of Russia No. 658 of June 23, 1992, which says that legislative acts should be declassified , decisions of government, party bodies and departmental acts, served as the basis for the use of mass repression and violations of human rights, asked the letter to be declassified and to acquaint me with it.

The answer came within the prescribed period of one month and, as expected, was negative. Deputy Head of the Central Archive of the FSB of Russia, A.P. Cherepkova, informed that the document I requested was not among the acts that served as the basis for mass repressions and that it contained information constituting a state secret and there were no legal grounds for their declassification.

I appealed to the Moscow City Court challenging this decision of the FSB. The court session held on July 14, 2014, refused to satisfy my application, recognizing the FSB's refusal to declassify the Letter as legitimate. The court decision, citing FSB experts, states that this letter of 1937 contains a state secret, the disclosure of which will damage the security of Russia and that the Letter is not a document that served as the basis for mass repressions... Full text The letter, during the court session, was not read out, the Judge limited himself to reading the titles of the sections of the letter, from which I understood that the entire content of the Letter refers only to the description of the actions of the intelligence agencies of Japan. I was refused to conduct a linguistic examination of it.

After the trial, I published the course of its meeting and its decision on LiveJournal and FB, and a few days later, a photocopy of the Letter appeared on the web, it turned out that it was declassified in Ukraine in 2011.

Not only does all of its content have nothing to do with the “forces, means and methods” of the work of the intelligence agencies of the USSR, it is also based on false “facts” - the vast majority of the persons named in the letter by Japanese spies were not such, about which evidenced by their rehabilitation in the second half of the 50s.

In addition, the last paragraph of the letter, which reads: “Use this closed letter when conducting an operation on Harbin residents, in accordance with my order No. 00593”, is a direct instruction to use the information contained in it in carrying out mass repressions, therefore, the Letter, in accordance with the Presidential Decree mentioned earlier, is subject to declassification.

Based on these data, he filed an appeal with the Supreme Court, but a miracle did not happen - on February 18, the Supreme Court decided to “reject the complaint”. The justification is also the conclusion of the FSB experts. I wonder how the Supreme Court will motivate this in its decision ...

By its decision, the Supreme Court defended the "honor of the uniform" of the NKVD-FSB and the judges of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, who issued unlawful sentences.

During the meeting in the Moscow City Court, two more curious documents became known:

- “Conclusion of the Interdepartmental Commission for the Protection of State Secrets”. In accordance with this conclusion, extended for another 30 years, i.e. until 2044, the period of secrecy of a large array of documents classified by the Cheka-FSB in 1917-1991.

- “Decision of the Central Expert Commission of the FSB ...”, which decided to extend the period of secrecy of the above documents, and decided to declassify in full or in part a number of documents of the Secret Office of the Special Department of the NKVD of the USSR, the Secretariat of the NKVD of the USSR and the Secret Political Department of the NKVD of the USSR for 1936 and 1937 years.

It seems that the decision of the Central Executive Committee of the FSB should be welcomed, but ... the lists of declassified and partially declassified documents, and these are 10 sheets, are now marked “For official use”, therefore, except for the FSB officers themselves, no one will be able to get acquainted with them. And without knowing the name of the document, the interested person will not be able to request it for review. What gives such "declassification"?

Familiarization with the archival criminal cases of the rehabilitated and obtaining copies in various archives is a separate issue.

Archival criminal cases, from the moment of sentencing on which 75 years have passed, are provided to citizens, regardless of whether he (she) is your relative or not. This is stipulated in Article 25, paragraph 3, federal law"On archiving in Russian Federation» dated October 22, 2004 N 125-FZ. In reality, everything is not so simple.

In the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GA RF), transferred to the FSB in Moscow and the Moscow Region are stored. In total, according to various estimates, from 130 to 140 thousand cases. At the request of citizens, cases are provided for review in the reading room. Before this, the cases are reviewed by the FSB officer for the presence of information in them, access to which is limited. These are documents containing: state secret, information about persons who cooperated "on a confidential basis with the bodies carrying out (carried out) intelligence, counterintelligence and operational-search activities" and regulatory and teaching materials for operational-search activities law enforcement. The legislation does not provide for other grounds. Such sheets are put into an envelope and stitched, and a corresponding mark is made in the file. During the acquaintance, you can use the brought computer, but only on battery power. You cannot connect to the mains. Photography is also prohibited. Copies of documents are made for relatives free of charge (10-15) sheets, and in addition, you will have to pay, like non-relatives, 15 rubles per sheet.

Files are also stored in the Central Archive of the FSB, but no one except its employees knows exactly how many. Copies are made only to relatives, despite the fact that the Regulation of the Order of the Ministry of Culture and Mass Communications, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the FSB dated July 25, 2006 N 375/584/352 states: “ The right to access the materials of terminated criminal and administrative cases, as well as filtration and verification cases means providing ... to get acquainted with the documents in the files, receive copies of them.

Relatives of the repressed can apply to the FSB Department for Moscow and the Moscow Region and request files located in other regions of the country. Researchers can do the same, if there is an official request from the organization. Archival criminal cases on such requests are delivered to Moscow and you are invited for review. The principle of closing sheets is the same. Photography is allowed during the tour. Photocopies for relatives are made free of charge.

You can also contact the regional departments of the FSB with a request for archival extracts and copies from archival criminal cases. As a rule, such requests are satisfied and the answer comes within 1.5 - 2 months. Almost all regional departments black out the names of NKVD officers from copies of protocols and other documents ...

The FSB appears to be seeking to cover up the crimes of its predecessors

The procedure for declassifying the submission of documents indicates that the FSB seems to be seeking to cover up the crimes of its predecessors. You can come across documents that were classified as far back as 1917 ... The office does not want to provide complete lists (file cabinets) of all cases stored in its archives. Many "secret" documents are most likely based on false, falsified data - and the current Chekists do not want to admit this. Until all documents on terror are declassified, until the lists of all the cases stored in their archives are widely publicized, one cannot be sure that they will not have to go through a "repetition of the past." And we can already see some elements today, we just need to remember, for example, the Bolotnaya case or the Savchenko case.

Attention! Open post. I propose to study those for whom the entrance to the community is closed. A series of lectures about our work. I'm tired of reading the common opinion on the net that the FSB officers only do what they shit in the comments. These lectures will help to take a different look at the meaning of our service.

Lecture 1. The failure of one operation.

I have been planning to open a series of lectures on the secrets of the FSB's work on the Internet for a long time. The task is not easy, because we have learned many things over the years. They even studied such unusual things as dance and music theory. All this is necessary for operational work. So, I still have a bad idea how I will explain some things to an unprepared audience. It is known that human rights activists and liberals are the most poorly educated stratum of society. Well. I will try. Let's start with the fact that intelligence agencies have been using the Internet since its inception. Notice the asymmetry. Human rights defenders want to get on the air, because most of them do not have the knowledge to work on the Internet. And the FSB, on the contrary, relies on the Internet. Now we have about 6 million employees who receive from 2 to 10 thousand ringing dollars a month, as well as a free vacation ticket to anywhere in the world. These are usually young guys who grew up after communism, are familiar with computers, creative and erudite. By the way, my information is limitedly secret, so there will be no links. I also kindly ask you not to distribute my posts from this section outside the livejournal site.

Today I want to talk about one unique operation that we performed in 2008. And although some people think that it was a failure, I think it turned out very well for the first time. The method works.
Pay attention to this report about me on the American 3rd channel.

Using the Internet, we tried to nominate our man (personally me) as a candidate for the post of American president. Believe it or not, it almost succeeded.
The main thing is to work convincingly on forums and blogs. However, watch the video.
The next lecture will be on the topic "How to distinguish an FSB officer from a human rights activist on the forum."
And I also ask human rights activists and liberals not to swear and respect other participants. Otherwise, I will simply refuse to participate in the discussions. You have more to lose than me.

Lecture 2. Identification system

Now let's talk about the identification of Internet users. I am often asked how to identify a human rights activist on the forum? How to identify an FSB officer? And there is only one answer - you don’t have to determine anything special. Distinctive signs "friend or foe" were developed back in 1994, at a meeting in the Kremlin. Note that there was no Windows back then. To this day, the secret equipment of the special services operates under the control of the Solaris operating system. This will be my next lecture.
Read, first. How to define a human rights defender? According to the rules, human rights defenders use nicknames (Internet names) indicating their geographical affiliation. Well, for example "vova_usa", "iz_kieva", "masha.kavkaz". The reference may be to a country, city, region, etc. But it will always be. This is a "friend" signal used in human rights structures. So remember again. If the Internet nickname has a link to geography, you have a human rights activist. They are not allowed to use other nicknames.
How to identify a security officer on the forum. Here I laugh. The easiest way is to ask him yourself. FSB-shnik NEVER hides who he is. Well, think for yourself, why would he hide? Who is he afraid of? Therefore, asking you will always get a truthful answer. But that's not all. There are also objective rules for the work of special services on forums. The main thing to remember. In intelligence, many things are encoded with the number "6". It's more of a tradition. Just as the decimal system is used in mathematics, and the binary system is used in computers, so in the security forces a lot is built on the number 6. There is no need to explain to anyone what the "six" is. For human rights activists, this is considered a bad word, for the security forces - on the contrary.
As you know, each forum user has a number. Sometimes this number is visible, sometimes not, but it is always there. So, if the user number is divisible by 6, then this user is an FSB officer. You can check it not with a calculator, but it is better to remember the rule of divisibility by six.
The number is divisible by six if the last digit is even, and the sum of all the digits in the number is divisible by "three". Well, for example:
User with number 31008
(the last digit is even, 3+1+8=12. Twelve is divisible by 3. Before us is a security officer)
According to existing standards, out of 6 people on the forum, one must be an FSB officer. Every sixth, in short.
But that is not all. As a rule, Vladimir Putin is personally present on many sites. It is believed that this promotes discipline among employees, and speeds up the processing of orders. How to define it, you ask. Very simple.
Take the user number and divide it by 6. If the result is 66, then you have Vladimir Putin. By the way, if after dividing by 6 it turns out to be 72. Then this is Dmitry Medvedev.
There is another important number - 666. This is a bot used in the elimination and retribution system. Well, I'll talk about that in the next lecture. How Internet active human rights activists are liquidated.

Lecture 3. The system of liquidation and retribution

Today is going to be a pretty tough post. Let's talk about the system of elimination and retribution. Well, you all know that human rights activists are liquidated in Russia. Moreover, those cases that are well known are less than one percent. As a rule, no one simply knows about cases of elimination, because it is forbidden to talk about it.
None of you want to be eliminated. Yes? Do not want? I assure you, nothing here depends on your desire, absolutely nothing. Others make decisions, so you can relax. Woland said this well in the first chapter of The Master and Margarita, remember?
Man is mortal, and often mortal suddenly. And it only seems to him that his desires affect something. Who knows, perhaps Annushka has already spilled her oil. I must say that the liquidation system works in such a way that if the procedure is started, then it can no longer be stopped. That's what we'll talk about.
Again, there are no special secrets here. The first step is to find out the home address of the human rights activist from the forum. Let's think, how would you do it yourself? You need to write a letter to the site administrator and find out the IP address. Then write to the provider to raise the logs, protocols for a certain time. The provider gives you the name and address. Well, everything, in general. The disadvantage of this method is too long bureaucracy. You will find out the address, but by this time a day will have passed. And the liquidator who arrived at the house by mistake will work for another person who has just sat down at the computer. Therefore, we have automated system, which is installed in parallel with the computer of most security officials. The computer does the same job in 2-3 seconds. As I said, this special computer runs the Solaris OS and connects to the network via the Ethernet protocol. What is Ethernet - a very long time to explain, but you will not understand. I will only say that each computer has its own Ethernet address, which has nothing to do with IP. This address is set at the factory during production.
In short, the process of finding out the place of residence of a human rights activist takes 2-3 seconds. As if you opened a page on the Internet. And Ethernet requests are not recorded anywhere in the logs. Comfortable?
Human rights activists working through proxies stand apart here. Here the usual algorithm will not work. Do you know what a proxy is? I explain.
Imagine that you wrote a note by hand and gave it to someone else. That other person can easily figure you out by handwriting, right? This is how a regular internet connection works. And imagine that you gave a note to Vasya. He rewrote it himself from beginning to end, and then handed over a copy to the addressee. In this case, you will no longer be found by handwriting. This is how a proxy works. Here our system is powerless. But it is much easier to find a human rights activist on a proxy. The fact is that all proxies exist on the money of special services (and why else?) All Internet criminals always work through proxies (terrorists, robbers, pornographers, human rights activists). Therefore, control over proxies is even stronger. These are the gangster batteries. Proxies are specifically used to track Internet criminals. Our system works with proxies too, it's just done according to a different algorithm.
As I already said, many security officials have a special computer. Do I have it? No. And I don't need it. I have a liquidation console. In general, a similar device from which you can give an order to eliminate the user. This device performs the same steps and then automatically contacts the liquidator at the place of residence. According to existing standards, we have 1 performer for every 600 people in the population. Approximately one apartment house. The work is difficult. People wait for a signal for days without taking off their boots. I know in rural areas Buryatia, the liquidator is forced to get to the object sometimes 20 kilometers on horseback.
In general, doggy work. But they do well. The liquidator raised on alarm is working on a human rights activist with a shot in the head from a PM pistol with a silencer. If there are witnesses, they are forbidden to talk about it. So, in general terms, the automated system of liquidation and retribution works.

ONLY BY 1970 IN CHECHNYA THE LAST GANG OF “REBELLIONS” FORMED BY THE FASCIST SPECIAL SERVICES WAS LIQUIDATED IN CHECHNYA

The FSB Central Archive contains declassified materials of the criminal case of German intelligence resident Osman Saydnurov (undercover pseudonym - Guba), who was abandoned in the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1942 to form bandit groups and organize an uprising in the Caucasus.

In early 1943, the fascist emissary Osman Gube was arrested by Soviet counterintelligence and gave frank testimony that contributed to the almost complete defeat of the Caucasian "insurgent" movement. Here are some excerpts from the interrogation protocols of the fascist resident.

“Question: - How did you get to the territory of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic?

Answer: - I was thrown into the territory of Checheno-Ingushetia from an aircraft belonging to the German army on August 25, 1942 and landed in the area of ​​​​the villages of Arshty - Bereshki, Galashkinsky district.

Question: - How many people were dropped by the Germans at the same time as you? Name them.

Answer: - Four. Ramazanov Ali, 45 years old, a native of the Kazikumuk region of the Dagestan ASSR, who lived in the Crimea, where he was engaged in notching silver; Gasanov Daud, 35 years old, a native of the village of Untsukul, Dagestan ASSR; Batalov Akhmed, 30 years old, Chechen, native of the Shali district of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR; Agaev Salman, a Chechen, a native of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, served in the Red Army in the paratrooper unit and, together with a group of 15 people, was transferred to the Crimea in early 1942 to join the partisans, but the next day he was detained and recruited by the Germans .

Question: - With what task did you arrive in CHIASSR?

Answer: - Recruitment of local residents. Intelligence activities. Organization of blowing up bridges and other structures in the hope of disrupting the movement of units of the Red Army. Incite the local population to sabotage and disrupt the activities of the Soviet authorities to supply food to the Red Army. Conduct pro-fascist agitation among the population and spread rumors about the imminent arrival of German troops, the upcoming capture of the entire Caucasus by them, promising on behalf of the German command independence to all Caucasian peoples. Organize, if possible, an uprising in the mountainous regions and seize power into your own hands, uniting bandit gangs and rebel groups for this purpose ...

The fact that the intention of the fascist special services to raise an uprising in the Caucasus was not groundless is also evidenced by the documents of local political agencies, recently declassified in the Central Archive of the RF Ministry of Defense.

According to the military commissariats, in March 1942, out of 14,576 Chechen conscripts, 13,560 deserted, went to the mountains and joined gangs.

At the end of August 1943, the head of the political department of the military commissariat of the CHIASSR, Colonel Ivanov, reported to the higher leadership: “In Shatoevsky, Itum-Kalinsky, Cheberloevsky, Sharoevsky and other areas, the situation continues to be tense.

1. On August 12, 1943, a group of bandits entered the regional center of the Achaluk district, armed with machine guns and rifles. The bandits opened fire, attacked the apartment of policeman Bistov, opened fire on the windows. Bistov managed to escape, and his 14-year-old daughter was killed.

2. 18.8.43 from the collective farm. The "2nd Five-Year Plan" of the Achaluk region was taken away by bandits of collective farm horses.

3. 18.8.43 in the area of ​​the villages. Buty, an armed gang of up to 30 people attacked a convoy with a load of the Sharoevsky general store.

4. On August 19, 1943, a group of an armed gang in the Kirinsky village council stole up to 300 sheep.

5. In Achkhoi-Martan district 13.8. 43 in the village of Chu-Zhi-Chu, the chairman of the village council Comrade Larsonova was killed by a group of bandits.

At present, measures are being taken to liquidate counter-revolutionary bandit groups in the republic.”

Reading these documents, one involuntarily draws attention to the fact that even in wartime, bandit attacks in Chechnya were not as bloody and cruel as they are today. Perhaps that is why some of the bandit groups managed to escape destruction, and they hid in the mountains for quite a long time after the war?

I recently had a chance to talk on this topic with KGB Major General Eduard Boleslavovich Nordman. Here is what he said:

In 1968, I participated in a scheduled inspection of the work of the Chechen-Ingush KGB. From conversations with local Chekists, I suddenly learned that two unfinished gangs, formed during the war years, are still hiding in the mountains. True, their activities have lost any political connotation. Just survived, robbed the local population. But it did not betray its offenders - due to its peculiar mentality.

In order for the label “secret” to actually appear, the state needs good reasons. Most of these cases are state secrets.
But many personal archives famous people become secret at the request of the heirs, who do not regret that their ancestors look in an impartial light.

The most secret documents became in 1938

A radical change in the classification of information occurred in 1918, when the Main Directorate of Archives was organized under the People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR. The brochure “Keep the Archives” published by Bonch-Bruevich was distributed through the “ROSTA Windows” to all government agencies, where there was, in particular, a provision on the secrecy of certain information.

And in 1938, the management of all archival affairs was transferred to the NKVD of the USSR, which classified a huge amount of information, numbering tens of thousands of files, as classified. Since 1946, this department has received the name of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, since 1995 - the FSB.
Since 2016, all archives have been reassigned directly to the President of Russia.

Questions for the royal family

The so-called famous Novoromanovsky archive has not been declassified until the end royal family, most of which was initially classified by the Bolshevik leadership, and after the 90s, some of the archival documents were widely publicized. It is noteworthy that the work of the archive itself was strictly confidential. And one could guess about his activities only by indirect documents of employees: certificates, passes, report cards wages, personal files of employees - this is what remains of the work of the secret Soviet archive.

But the correspondence between Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra Feodorovna has not been fully disclosed. Palace materials relating to the relationship between the court and the ministries and departments of the First World War are also not available.

KGB Archives

Most of the KGB archives are classified on the grounds that the operational-search activities of many agents can still cause damage to counterintelligence work, reveal the methodology of its work. Some of the successful cases in the field of terrorism, espionage, smuggling are also mothballed.
This also applies to cases related to intelligence and operational work in the GULAG camps.

Stalin's affairs

From the archive of the President of the Russian Federation to the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History, 1,700 files were transferred, formed in the 11th inventory of the Stalin Fund, of which about 200 files were classified as secret.

Of considerable interest are the cases of Yezhov, Beria, but they were published only in parts, and complete information on the cases of "executed enemies of the people" are still not available.
The fact that in 2015, at four meetings of the Interdepartmental Expert Commission for the Declassification of Documents under the Governor of St.

Party archives - also in the "secret"

Of considerable interest to researchers are the resolutions of the Council of People's Commissars or the resolutions of the Council of Ministers, the decisions of the Politburo.
But most of the party archives are classified.

New archives and new secrets

The main task of the archive of the President of the Russian Federation, formed in 1991, was to combine documents from the former archive of the President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev, and then the subsequent period of the reign of Boris Yeltsin.
The presidential archive has about 15 million different documents, but only a third of them, five million, are in the public domain today.

Secret personal archives of Vladi, Vysotsky, Solzhenitsyn

The personal funds of the Soviet leader Nikolai Ryzhkov, Vladimir Vysotsky and Marina Vlady are closed to the general public.
Do not think that the documents appear classified "secret" only with the help of government officials. For example, Alexander Solzhenitsyn's personal fund, kept in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, is kept secret because the heir, the writer's wife Natalya Dmitrievna, decides on his own whether or not to make the documents public. She justified her decision by the fact that Solzhenitsyn's poems are often found in documents, which are not particularly good, and she would not want others to know about it.
In order to make public the materials of the investigation file, according to which Solzhenitsyn ended up in the Gulag, it was necessary to obtain the consent of two archives - the Ministry of Defense and the Lubyanka.

Plan for "secrets"

Andrey Artizov, head of the Russian Archive, said in one of his interviews: “We are declassifying documents in accordance with our national interests. There is a declassification plan. To make a decision on declassification, three to four experts with knowledge are needed foreign languages, historical context, legislation on state secrets”.

Special commission on declassification

In order to declassify the materials in each archive, a special commission was created. Usually - from three people who decided on what basis to betray or not to make this or that document widely publicized.
Secret materials are of undoubted interest to a wide range of people, but historians warn that working with archives is a ton business and requires certain knowledge. This is especially true of secret archival materials. Not many people have access to them - thousands of documents from the times Russian Empire And Soviet Union classified for various good reasons.

On December 14, the presentation of the collection “Top Secret” took place at the Cultural Center of the FSB of Russia: Lubyanka to Stalin on the situation in the country (1922-1934). Employees of the Federal Security Service, the Federal Archival Agency, Russian Academy Sciences, Institute Russian history RAS, state and departmental archives, as well as representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The publication "opened to the scientific community unique previously unpublished documents on various aspects of the life of Soviet society in 1922-1934," the FSB Public Relations Center reported.

According to a representative of the CSO FSB, the published ten-volume book makes it possible to comprehend the role of the state apparatus in historical events those years and "contributes to the objective coverage of the history" of the country.

The compilers did a great job - 1225 documents were introduced into wide scientific circulation.

The materials published in the collection, as noted in the CSO FSB, "recreate a fairly complete picture of the political and economic situation in the country, contribute to countering attempts to falsify national history."

• Publisher: Institute of Russian History RAS

objective view

MSLU professor, doctor historical sciences Alexey Plotnikov, in a conversation with RT, noted that "conceptually, this publication is built very soundly and solidly."

“It quite objectively covers the topic of the work of the special services, avoiding extreme, politicized, unnecessary polar assessments, which very often in our time accompany everything related to the history of the special services in general and the Lubyanka in particular. That is, it gives the most objective picture of what really happened: the Lubyanka was doing its job - ensuring state security, ”explained Plotnikov.

Head of the Department of Political Science and Sociology of the Russian University of Economics. G.V. Plekhanov, Andrey Koshkin, an expert of the Association of Military Political Scientists, noted in an interview with RT that such literature allows you to get acquainted with real documents of the past and understand what the relationship between society and power was then, how the institutions of power themselves were built in the political system.

“It was a formative period. Now there are many interpreters who promote their own, sometimes mythical, version of history. The publication of such books allows you to independently study the documents, get acquainted with the primary sources, and not with the interpretations of politically engaged specialists, ”Koshkin is sure.