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The Soviet Committee for State Security (KGB) had its own educational system, at the pinnacle of which was the Felix Dzerzhinsky Higher School of the KGB located in Moscow. As can been seen in the articles from the KGB鈥檚 classified in-house academic journal Papers of the Higher School of the KGB, considerable attention was devoted to the cultivation of what were described as 鈥淐hekist鈥� values: unquestioning loyalty to the Soviet Communist system and its defense from foreign and domestic adversaries.[1]

But what if someone were to be recruited into the KGB without having graduated from the Higher School in Moscow or from one of its branches in the other Soviet Socialist Republics? Was this even possible and, if so, what kind of study and training would this individual have to go through? In other words, could one be trained for the Chekist profession independently from the Chekist educational institutions?

A secret document from the archive of the Lithuanian KGB provides answers to these questions. I have translated this document into English and .[2] The document was produced by the regional branch of the Lithuanian KGB from the northern Lithuanian town of Pasvalys on the river Svalia. Today Pasvalys is a small farming town best known for its beer and cheese. There is no evidence that it was the source of any major security concerns during the Soviet era, except in the immediate post-WWII period when the local Lithuanian partisans fought against the Soviet troops.[3]

However, came into being almost four decades later, in December 1984, and has no direct relation to those events. Titled 鈥淎 Plan for the Individual Training of a Young Officer of the State Security Service,鈥� the document provides a set of instructions concerning the matters that a newly-recruited state security officer who has not gone through the Chekist educational system needs to know in order to perform his Chekist duties in the successful manner. As such, the document offers a fascinating insight into the fundamentals of Chekism. Essentially, it is a course syllabus for Chekism 101.

The officer in question is named Stasis Stasevich 惭别濒苍颈办补惫颈膷颈耻蝉. He is 27 years old, a university graduate, a member of the Soviet Communist Party, and comes to the KGB from the Army Reserve where he had the rank of a lieutenant. It is likely that he was a native of Pasvalys and was well-known to the regional security service leadership as a young, devoted Communist. It is also likely that someone from his immediate family was closely connected to the state security. This would explain how 惭别濒苍颈办补惫颈膷颈耻蝉 could be recruited by the regional KGB branch without having any previous Chekist training. Even so, the issue of his lack of training could not be allowed to linger on for long. Not even a week after 惭别濒苍颈办补惫颈膷颈耻蝉 started his new job on December 1, 1984, the chief of the regional branch, Lt. Colonel S. Saveikis signed a detailed plan instructing Melnikavichius鈥� immediate supervisors how to remedy the situation.[4]

First of all, 惭别濒苍颈办补惫颈膷颈耻蝉鈥� training was to include both theoretical and practical components. The theoretical component included the close familiarization with the executive orders of the KGB dealing with the main areas of the security officer鈥檚 daily job: working with agents and trusted persons and filing reports for superiors. It is to be noted that the executive orders that the document specifically mentioned included the two from the previous year (1983), which implies that the KGB was in the process of reforming its procedures and trying to improve the manner in which it conducted these activities.

In addition, the theoretical component included an intensive and sustained focus on seven specific areas of study designated as 鈥渢opics.鈥� The topics ranged from the procedures related to the selection, recruitment, and work with agents and trusted persons (two distinct categories of informers in the KGB terminology, with the latter being more informal and typically not paid for their services) to the general measures on political and ideological vigilance given the vectors of international and domestic politics and the dynamics of the Cold War in the 1980s.

The practical component encompassed the assessment of 惭别濒苍颈办补惫颈膷颈耻蝉鈥� abilities to fill out and file all the necessary reports related to his daily activities. According to the document, this assessment was to be made via 鈥渞egular conversations鈥� initiated by 惭别濒苍颈办补惫颈膷颈耻蝉鈥� immediate supervisors.

Interestingly, these 鈥渃onversations鈥� were also intended to go beyond the complexities of the daily tasks and to involve the references to what the document described as 鈥渢he glorious Chekist war and post-war traditions.鈥� In this way, 惭别濒苍颈办补惫颈膷颈耻蝉 was supposed to be brought into contact with the idealized images of the Chekists as role models to inspire him to be a loyal and disciplined cog in the Chekist machine. As a source for these references, the document suggested the KGB in-house bi-monthly journal Sbornik as well as the variety of Chekist-sponsored popular culture products (novels and films) but without naming any in particular.[5]

It is not known how well his independently acquired Chekist education served 惭别濒苍颈办补惫颈膷颈耻蝉 in carrying out his daily duties, how many agents and trusted contacts he recruited, or how many anti-Soviet plots he broke up in the flatlands of northern Lithuania. The top secret Pasvalys KGB regional branch annual report for the year 1985 (the first full year of 惭别濒苍颈办补惫颈膷颈耻蝉鈥� Chekist employment) reveals that the branch had 36 agents, two of whom were recruited during the course of that year in addition to the recruitment of one owner of a safe house apartment.[6] However, it is not stated who recruited them nor who was in charge of running them. The same absence of the recruiting officers鈥� names is also found in the other Pasvalys KGB regional branch annual reports available in the Lithuanian KGB archive.

There is, however, an additional trace of 惭别濒苍颈办补惫颈膷颈耻蝉鈥� activities found in the archive. It is a short, undated handwritten note he addressed to the chairman of the Lithuanian KGB, Maj. General Eduardas Eismuntas giving his assent to being transferred to another KGB regional branch in the town of Skuodas.[7] Skuodas is located in northwestern Lithuania about 130 miles west of Pasvalys and is 50 miles away from the major Lithuanian port city of Klaipeda. It is slightly smaller than Pasvalys, so it is not clear whether this was to be considered a promotion or not. Still, 惭别濒苍颈办补惫颈膷颈耻蝉 seems to have been happy with it. Now in the rank of a captain, he informed Eismuntas that his wife had nothing against the move and that she also did not mind the fact that for a time he would have to leave his family behind.

The transfer might have turned out to be a smart career move for 惭别濒苍颈办补惫颈膷颈耻蝉, if not for the larger domestic and international forces that were shaking up the Communist status quo in Lithuania in the late 1980s. Less than a year after his announced move to Skuodas, Lithuania declared itself a sovereign, independent state and the days of the Lithuanian KGB were numbered. In contrast to the majority of Lithuanians, the independently-educated Chekist captain 惭别濒苍颈办补惫颈膷颈耻蝉 faced a bleak future. The archive says nothing about his post-Soviet fate.

[1] See, for instance, 锌芯谢泻芯胁薪懈泻 袙.袗. 袟芯谢芯褌芯褌褉褍斜芯胁 [Colonel V.A. Zolototrubov], 鈥溞斝靶谎屝叫敌寡埿敌� 褍泻褉械锌谢械薪懈械 写懈褋褑懈锌谢懈薪褘 - 胁邪卸薪械泄褕械械 褍褋谢芯胁懈械 锌芯写谐芯褌芯胁泻懈 褔械泻懈褋褌泻懈褏 泻邪写褉芯胁 [The Further Strengthening of Discipline 鈥� The Most Important Condition for Training Chekist Officers]鈥� 孝褉褍写褘 袙褘褋褕械泄 楔泻芯谢褘 11 [Papers of the Higher School of the KGB, Volume 11]. Moscow, 1976, pages 238-253; 锌芯写锌芯谢泻芯胁薪懈泻 袗.袛. 袠芯薪懈薪 [Lt. Colonel A.D. Ionin], 鈥溞澬敌盒狙傂狙�褘械 屑械褌芯写懈褔械褋泻懈械 锌褉芯斜谢械屑褘 褋芯胁械褉褕械薪褋褌胁芯胁邪薪懈褟 褋芯写械褉卸邪薪懈褟 褋锌械褑懈邪谢褜薪褘褏 褍褔械斜薪褘褏 写懈褋褑懈锌谢懈薪 胁 褔械泻懈褋褌褋泻芯屑 胁褍蟹械 [Some Methodological Questions Regarding Content Improvement of Special Study Disciplines at the Chekist University]鈥� 孝褉褍写褘 袙褘褋褕械泄 楔泻芯谢褘 14 [Papers of the Higher School of the KGB, Volume 14]. Moscow, 1977, pages 170-182; 袣邪薪写懈写邪褌 褞褉懈写懈褔械褋泻懈褏 薪邪褍泻 锌芯写锌芯谢泻芯胁薪懈泻 袙.肖. 楔屑械谢械胁 [Law PhD Lt. Colonel V.F. Shemlyov] 鈥溞ば狙�屑懈褉芯胁邪薪懈械 褍 褋谢褍褕邪褌械谢械泄 褔械泻懈褋褌泻芯谐芯 褏邪褉邪泻褌械褉邪 胁芯械薪薪芯谐芯 泻芯薪褌褉褉邪蟹胁械写褔懈泻邪 胁 锌褉芯褑械褋褋械 锌褉械锌芯写邪胁邪薪懈褟 褋锌械褑懈邪谢褜薪芯泄 写懈褋褑懈锌谢懈薪褘 5 [The Formation of the Chekist Character of the Military Counterintelligence Officer Among the Students in the Process of Teaching Special Discipline No. 5]鈥� 孝褉褍写褘 袙褘褋褕械泄 楔泻芯谢褘 30 [Papers of the Higher School of the KGB, Volume 30]. Moscow, 1983, pages 329-345. All these articles were classified as top secret. The print run of the Papers in the 1980s was 350 copies per volume.  

[2] 鈥溞⌒敌貉�械褌薪芯: 袩袥袗袧 懈薪写懈胁懈写褍邪谢褜薪芯谐芯 芯斜褍褔械薪懈褟 屑芯谢芯写芯谐芯 褋芯褌褉褍写薪懈泻邪 芯褉谐邪薪芯胁 谐芯褋斜械蟹芯锌邪褋薪芯褋褌懈 [Secret: A Plan for the Individual Training of a Young Officer of the State Security Service], December 7, 1984, Lithuanian Special Archives, f. K-11, ap. 1, b. 2357, l. 1 - 3, first published by The Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania, .

[3] In this context, the archive contains the documents related to the case of Juozas Cibulskis, a Pasvalys region native, sentenced to death for the anti-Soviet 鈥渢errorist鈥� activities in November 1951 whose sentence was later commuted to 25 years in prison. Released in 1957, Cibulskis returned to the Pasvalys region in 1974. He was known for his anti-Soviet views and was a subject of the extensive Pasvalys regional branch surveillance. See 鈥淟SSR KGB Pasvalio r. skyriaus vir拧ininko pplk. S. Saveikio pa啪yma apie operatyvin臈s steb臈jimo bylos (DON) Nr. 1857 objekt膮 J. Cibulsk寞 [The LSSR KGB Pasvalys Regional Branch Chief Lt. Col. S. Saveikis' Report on the Operational Surveillance File of the Object No. 1857 J. Cibulskis],鈥� December 30, 1983, Lithuanian Special Archives, f. K-1, ap. 46, b. 2648, l. 34, first published by The Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania,   . There is also a document detailing the KGB plan for the arrest of Cibulskis in June 1987. See 鈥淟SSR KGB Pasvalio r. skyriaus vir拧ininko kpt. R. Gabalio operacijos planas d臈l J. Cibulskio su臈mimo [The LSSR KGB Pasvalys Regional Branch Chief Capt. R. Gabalis' Operational  Plan for the Arrest of J. Cibulskis], June 9, 1987, Lithuanian Special Archives, f. K-1, ap. 46, b. 2648, l. 35-36, first published by The Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania, .

[4] Lt. Colonel S. Saveikis was the head of the Pasvalys regional branch until the spring of 1987 when Captain R. Gabalis was appointed to that position. Gabalis was in charge of the Pasvalys regional branch at least until the spring of 1990. There is a document bearing his signature dated February 1990 which shows that in the meantime he had been promoted to the rank of a major. See 鈥淟SSR KGB Pasvalio r. skyriaus mobilizacin臈s veiklos dokument懦 apra拧as [The LSSR KGB Pasvalys Regional Branch Description of Its Mobilization Activities], February 8, 1990, Lithuanian Special Archives, f. K-1, ap. 46, b. 2648, l. 1 - 3, first published by The Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania, .

[5] For the discussion of the Sbornik, see Victor Yasmann, 鈥淭he KGB Documents and the Soviet Collapse: A Preliminary Report鈥� (Washington, DC: The National  Council for Eurasian and East European Research, 1998); Victor Yasmann and Vladislav Zubok, 鈥淭he KGB Documents and the Soviet Collapse: Part II鈥� (Washington, DC: The National Council for Eurasian and East European Research, 1998), and Sanshiro Hosaka 鈥淩epeating History: Soviet Offensive Counterintelligence Active Measures,鈥� International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence (2020).

[6] 鈥淟SSR KGB Pasvalio rajono poskyrio 1985 met懦 veiklos ataskaita, statistiniai duomenys, agent奴ra [The LSSR KGB Pasvalys Regional Branch 1985 Activities Report, Statistics, Agent Networks], December 13, 1985, Lithuanian Special Archives, f. K-11, ap. 1, b. 2357, l. 44-56, first published by The Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania,  .

[7] 鈥淟SSR KGB Pasvalio r. skyriaus oper寞galiotinio kpt. S. Melnikavi膷iaus raportas KGB pirmininkui gen.-mjr. E. Eismuntui [The LSSR KGB Pasvalys Regional Branch Captain S. 惭别濒苍颈办补惫颈膷颈耻蝉鈥� Note to the Chairman of the KGB Maj. General E. Eismuntas],鈥� 1989, Lithuanian Special Archives, f. K-11, ap. 2, b. 918, l. 10, first published by The Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania, . The note makes a reference to June 1989 which means that it was written sometime after that.