KGB: The Perils of Arbitrary Power
Perspective, Boston University
Posted: Monday, September 16, 1991
"The KGB is everywhere, in everything, and that itself frustrates democracy."
Former KGB Maj. Gen. Oleg Kalugin(1)
"We have had as much democratization as we can stomach."
KGB Chairman Vladimir Kryuchkov(2)
In trying to construct a "law-governed state" that would preserve the supremacy of the center, Gorbachev laid down the legal framework for his own overthrow. His decrees flouting the democratic process and his refusal to promote parliamentary oversight of the internal security organs and the military permitted those forces to engineer his ouster.
Ultimately, the botched August 19 coup unwittingly may have unleashed an accelerated process of reform that could dramatically reduce the powers of the security apparatus. But even if he does manage to purge the KGB, Interior Ministry, and the military, Gorbachev deserves none of the credit, for prior to being the victim he was an active co-conspirator.
Following the 28th Party Congress in July 1990 at which KGB Chairman Vladimir Kryuchkov made a militant speech in favor of communist orthodoxy, Gorbachev conspicuously acquiesced time and again to the state security and other repressive organs.
As Gorbachev's reformist advisors fell away, they were replaced by officials reportedly working for or dependent on the KGB. Maj. Gen. Oleg Kalugin, a former leading KGB counterintelligence officer, publicly warned at the time of the Party Congress that the Presidential Council included "KGB people, not identified as such but KGB all the same, not KGB officers but people who have cooperated with the KGB and are dependent on the KGB." He added, "Gorbachev may not know who they are . . . he probably does not."(3) Thus KGB men replaced reformers in Gorbachev's inner circle.
By the time he fired his moderate Interior Minister Vadim Bakatin on December 3, it was clear that Gorbachev had been co-opted by the security apparatus. Thereafter, Gorbachev meekly followed the lead of the security troika of KGB Chairman Kryuchkov, new Interior Minister Boris Pugo, and Defense Minister Dmitri Yazov. Kryuchkov made an unscheduled live television appearance on December 11, pledging—in the name of the president—to smash the "anti-communist tide" sweeping the Soviet Union.(4) Gorbachev made no attempt to disassociate himself from Kryuchkov's remarks. Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze's dramatic resignation speech, in which he warned of impending dictatorship, should have prepared the world for what was to follow. Gorbachev embarked on a course of almost slavish obedience to the security troika's every whim.
When army, MVD and KGB forces cracked down against the democratic governments of Lithuania and Latvia in mid-January 1991, Gorbachev was nowhere to be reached and later protested that he was not responsible for the bloody acts of repression there. The state terror against independence-minded republics continued.
KGB's old ways made 'legal'
Gorbachev helped put in place the machinery that was employed to overthrow him in August. Consistent with his drive to turn the USSR into a "law-governed state," the Soviet government moved in 1990 to legalize the KGB's functions. However, the process was then directed by the KGB with the president's approval. The state security apparatus itself drew up the "Draft Law on State Security Organs" for parliament to enact. Though ready for submission to the Congress of People's Deputies on December 3, it was not actually presented until February 28, 1991. This lag coincided with Gorbachev's removal of reformist MVD chief Bakatin and the subsequent decrees which led to the crackdowns in the Baltic states, Georgia, Armenia and elsewhere.
Law rammed through parliament
According to Moscow News, the law was rammed through the Congress without committee revi
