Thirty years later: Who was or wasn't KGB?

Thirty years later: Who was or wasn’t KGB?

Jun 21, 2019 Estonian Life No. 25 2019

Who had been co-opted by the KGB in Estonia? Nobody seems to have a full picture. Does it really matter nearly 30 years after the Soviet Union collapsed and the KGB was disbanded?

The recent Latvian experience is one which tells us the consequences of revealing the names of who was an agent, informer, person to be trusted, a KGB confidant because of a position at work - like the personnel department etc.

In October 2018 at the last session before parliamentary elections, the Latvian Seim decided to make public the KGB list of agents and operational dossiers. This countered the position of Latvia's security and intelligence agencies. The debate surrounding the release of the names has lasted for nearly three decades.

Revealing the names has come too late say critics. They could damage families, weaken the public trust of the agencies and attract the interest of adversary regimes. Some have even suggested that making public the lists is a clever disinformation operation of Russian intelligence to cause disarray among Latvia’s elite with fabricated documents.

In addition the accuracy of the lists is questionable, They are certainly not complete and the circumstances involving individual recruitment is missing. What benefit each individual provided the KGB and whether any co-operation was given are also unavailable. The documents released so far presents only a partial story. Names without details of what they did creates a fake reality. After their name is…

(Read more: Estonian Life No. 25 2019)

Laas Leivat, Toronto

Thirty years later: Who was or wasn’t KGB?

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