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KGB in the Age of Perestroika and Glasnost
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18709 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
Date : |
8 / 1991 |
1,861 Words |
| Author
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Yuri Vlassov
Yuri Vlassov is a People's Deputy of the Soviet Union and is a
renowned weightlifter who has promoted health and fitness
throughout the country. |
Having received no reply to his letter, Yuri Vlassov gave us a carbon copy. Before publishing it, we tried to clear up the fate of the original letter. We learned from Vladimir Ivanov, the Chairman's First Aide, that Anatoli Lukyanov has received the letter. Whether he had read it or intends to reply is another matter. According to Ivanov, no reply so far doesn't necessarily mean Lukyanov will never answer. All the officials that we approached at the Supreme Soviet believe a newspaper has no business meddling in the personal correspondence of People's Deputies. That sounds quite reasonable--if it were not for the letter's content: it's a cry of desperation from a USSR People's Deputy who has found himself in a no-win situation. And although the KGB has disclaimed all responsibility, it's difficult to imagine that the well-known writer has made up the whole story. If the KGB honestly has nothing to do with it, who are those mysterious visitors, so powerful that they can terrorize a People's Deputy with total impunity? Here is Yuri Vlassov's letter to Anatoli Lukyanov:
Dear Comrade Lukyanov,
I am compelled to write to you on a rather ticklish matter.
You and I have different political views and affiliations. I reject Leninism; you are committed to it. However, you and I have one goal: a better life for the people. That is what made me become a USSR People's Deputy, and you become Chairman of the Supreme Soviet. You have your convictions, and I have mine.
Quite naturally, I follow my principles in my literary work, too. I write articles, essays, novels, in which I expound ideas which I believe to be democratic and which make up the meaning of my life.
The world you belong to and the much smaller world that I belong to are locked in mortal combat. It's an unequal battle, because the whole power of the Party and Government bureaucracy, including its secret (not to say punitive) services, is on your side.
I am well aware what world I live in. Yet the main principle of my work is being faithful to historical truth. Everything I publish, if it is not fiction, is always true to fact and is well documented.
Much as I loathe the regime that was established in this country after 1918, I have always thought it impossible to resort to falsification,
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