Intermediaries could blur responsibility. In 1944, Stalin’s war cabinet telegraphed a secret instruction to a factory manager in Gor’kii (Nizhnii Novgorod) province. In his absence, the local party secretary held it for safe keeping. Five years later, someone asked: Who now held the telegram? The party secretary said he handed the telegram to the manager, but without obtaining a receipt. The manager, now a junior minister, swore he had never received it. This story has several notable features. It took five years to follow up the missing telegram, plus two more years to investigate it. The case was considered important enough to be reported to Stalin’s chief of staff. And the outcome? After investigation, no guilt could be assigned.[137]
Secret documents were supposed to be distributed through one of two channels, the agency’s own courier service (if it had one) or the “special service” of the ministry of communications. Open channels such as the regular mail or civilian couriers were not to be used under any circumstances. But the secret channels were cumbersome. Mishaps arose when officials resorted to workarounds: they carried secret documents themselves or sent them by a personal courier. Lapses of attention on the part of the bearer led to many cases of paperwork being lost or stolen in transit. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, briefcases were sometimes stolen in bars or mislaid as a result of excessive drinking.[138] (Men often used briefcases to carry shopping, so the casual thief was likely looking for alcohol or personal valuables more than government papers.)
The sheer volume of secret correspondence was sometimes of concern. Throughout the Soviet system there was a perennial cascade of instructions, many of them secret, and many of them implementing, modifying, or canceling previous instructions. If the original instruction was classified, care had to be taken to ensure that subsequent correspondence referring to that instruction was classified to the same level. So many decrees heightened the risk that a nonsecret decree could disclose the content of secret ones, or even just their existence, by referring to them.[139] This illustrates the issues that could arise when secrecy was reflexive at the level of detail.
Filing and Storage
In important offices such as those of the Gulag, an inventory of secret paperwork was carried out on the first of each month. This was one of a series of measures that together assured secure storage. Many archived files contain lengthy sequences of affidavits enumerating hundreds of secret and top-secret items incoming and outgoing from various offices.[140] Despite the scope for deficient storage and mistakes in handling, nearly all such accounts certified everything as all present and correct.
Should we believe them? The system was designed for a low-trust environment. In all cases, the inventories had to be certified by at least two officials of varying status, who had to agree on a cover-up if the records were not in order and shared the risks of being caught out later in a he. It was not possible for one person to cover personal deficiencies without securing the collusion of others. Collusion to cover up missing items was not impossible, but the conditions for achieving it were demanding.
Transfers of Ownership
Comprehensive inventories were also required when one official was appointed to replace another in charge of an office. A joint affidavit acknowledged the transfer of responsibility for classified papers. The length of such a document could range from one page to many dozens. The following case is not untypical. In June 1965, the first (secret) department of the Lithuania KGB second administration changed hands. Two senior lieutenants signed a deed of transfer (typed the same day in one copy).[141] Over six pages the document enumerated files, ordinary, letter-coded, and special; decrees and instructions; personal files and personnel records; “most wanted” and “no longer wanted” notices and lists; information about German intelligence; lists of traitors, foreign agents, participants in anti-Soviet organizations, war criminals, and state criminals; forms to request undercover documentation and wire taps; records of undercover documentation issued to officers; card indexes of agents, “safe house” keepers, and active cases; and ledgers for registration of incoming and outgoing correspondence.
In this list the largest single item was the correspondence ledgers, amounting to 13 volumes and so 2,600 pages altogether, compared with a mere 1,400 pages of documents in files. This illustrates the reflexive quality of Soviet secrecy: the deed itemized not only original documents but also the ledgers that itemized them as they came in and went out. Classified “secret,” the deed of transfer would be entered into the next inventory in its own right.
Changeovers occasionally exposed the loss of documents. When an office changed hands, the new boss had a strong incentive not to cover for items that had gone missing under the preceding regime. Here is an example from February 1948. At that time (as discussed in Chapter 4) the entire Soviet bureaucracy was in a state of high anxiety over a recent law that criminalized the accidental or negligent disclosure of state secrets. The incoming chief of the Gulag secretariat reported that a classified document was missing. The last person to hold it, a former chief of Gulag, could no longer trace it. The loss was reported to the interior minister, who personally demanded another search.[142]
However strong the precautionary motivation for the newcomer to check the integrity of the secret files left by his predecessor, it could be overridden by other factors. Corners were sometimes cut in the Gulag in wartime when newly appointed camp bosses took over “on the go,” dispensing with the formalities of inventories and deeds of transfer in the rush. Later, they ran into trouble because they had accepted responsibility for documents that turned out to be missing.[143]
Further measures ensured secure storage facilities and day-to-day handling. In every establishment, classified documents were the property of the secret department. The documents’ file headings were periodically reviewed and approved. Each file was listed as either secret or top secret, with its term of conservation (three years, for example) and the name of the responsible official.[144] The secret department required secure rooms where staff could work unobserved, and where safes could be locked away. Outside working hours, all documents had to be returned to the safes and the doors and safes of the secret department were supposed to be locked and sealed.
Office by office, the security of file storage and compliance and the procedures for handling secret documentation were audited periodically by inspectors of the MVD or KGB. Their reports show how inadequate facilities and under staffing could interact.[145] The existence of files did not ensure that documents were placed in them in a timely way; backlogs of documents might accumulate in trays, waiting to be filed.[146] Safes might be left unsealed overnight. Lacking secure accommodation, classified work might be done and documents left lying around in areas accessible to civilians or, in the Gulag, even to prisoners.[147]
137
Hoover/RGANI, 6/6/1575, 33-34 (report to Poskrebyshev, signed by KPK chairman Shkiriatov, 16 April 1951).
138
Hoover/GARF, R94i4/ia/i45 (Gulag chief Nasedkin to chiefs of camps of republics, regions, and provinces, 1 July 1946); Hoover/GARF, R94i4/ia/84, 6 (acting Gulag chief Dobrynin, decree no. 4,13 January 1947); Hoover/GARF, R94i4/ia/9i, 1 (Gulag chief Dolgikh to minister Kruglov, 22 May 1951).
139
Hoover/GARF, R9414/1/85, 170 (Gulag chief Dobrynin, “top-secret” decree no. 139,17 October 1947).
140
To illustrate: Hoover/GARF R9414/1/2575,12 (deed signed by MVD GULAG security administration chief of organizational department Koriukin, senior lieutenant Grigor’ev and junior sergeant Safronova, 10 May 1951), counting secret and top-secret documents, 737 incoming and 371 outgoing. Hoover/GARF R9414/1/2575, 13 (deed signed by MVD GULAG security administration senior assistant to chief of quartermaster’s division Ziuzin and secretary of quartermaster’s division Ragina, 8 May 1951), counting secret and top-secret documents for April, incoming 130, outgoing 73. Hoover/GARF R9414/1/2575,14 (deed signed by MVD GULAG security administration senior instructor of political unit Bartkevich and secretary of political unit Karmanenkova, 15 May 1951) counting secret and top-secret documents for April, incoming 281, outgoing 88. Hoover/GARF R9414/1/2575, 15 (deed signed by MVD GULAG security administration secretary of department of combat readiness Demushkina and senior assistant of the chief of department Taran, 8 May 1951) counting secret and top-secret documents for April, incoming from no. 736 to no. 907, outgoing from no. 3/46 to no. 3/74. Hoover/GARF R9414/1/2575, 16 (deed signed by MVD GULAG security administration filing officer of secretariat Laskina and cryptographer of secretariat Chernenko, 10 May 1951) counting secret and top-secret documents for April, not numbered but all present and correct. Hoover/GARF R9414/1/2575,18 (deed signed by MVD GULAG security administration senior veterinary officer Kuz’kin and secretary of operations department Kalmykova, 25 May 1951), counting secret and top-secret documents for April, incoming 805, outgoing 167. Hoover/GARF R9414/1/2575,19 (deed signed by MVD GULAG security administration senior instructor of political unit Kuriachii and secretary of political unit Karmanenkova, 5 June 1951) counting secret and top-secret documents for May, incoming 185, outgoing 30. Hoover/ GARF R9414/1/2575, 20 (deed signed by MVD GULAG security administration filing officer of secretariat Laskina and cryptographer of secretariat Chernenko, 8 June 1951), counting secret and top-secret documents for April. Hoover/GARF R9414/1/2575, 21 (deed signed by MVD GULAG security administration senior instructor of political unit Bartkevich and secretary of political unit Karmanenkova, 15 May 1951), counting secret and top-secret documents for 1 to 10 June, incoming 69, outgoing 27. Hoover/GARF R9414/1/2575, 22 (deed signed by MVD GULAG security administration senior assistant to chief of quartermaster’s division Ziuzin and assistant to chief of quartermaster’s division Ovechkin, 12 June 1951), counting secret and top-secret documents for May, incoming 106, outgoing 89. Hoover/GARF R9414/1/2575, 23 (deed signed by MVD GULAG security administration senior assistants to chief of orgstroi department Sorokin and Kurzikova, department secretary Safronova, 16 June 1951), counting secret and top-secret documents for May, incoming 748, outgoing 311. Hoover/GARF R9414/1/2575, 24 (deed signed by MVD GULAG operations department officers Kuz’kin, Pvlov, Usatov, Rudnev, and Salo, 14 June 1951) counting secret and top-secret documents for May to 10 June, incoming 1,137, outgoing 259, and from the first of the year, incoming 4,028, outgoing 868.
141
Hoover/LYA, K-1/3/636,155-61 (deed of transfer, signed by LSSR KGB second administration first department, outgoing operational commissioner Marma and incoming Kirichenko, 11 June 1965). From earlier years see also Hoover/LYA K-1/10/34,348-51 (deed of transfer of LSSR MGB decrees held by Department “B”, signed by outgoing department secretary Nesytykh and incoming Litvinova, 8 December 1947), listing 234 decrees and directives of the Lithuania MGB including 69 top secret, 47 secret, and 117 nonsecret and other, noting that two are in the possession of comrades Andreev and Obukauskas; at the level of a parish office, Hoover/LYA K-1/10/35, 192-228 (deed of transfer, signed by LSSR MGB Zarasai parish outgoing division secretary Sukhorukova and incoming Shishin, 12 July 1949), listing 1,393 decrees, instructions and circulars of USSR and Lithuania MGB issued since 1939, of which 798 were top secret or secret; from the same period, Hoover/GARF R9414/1/2575, 1 (deed of transfer signed by MVD GULAG security administration secretary of quartermaster’s division Ragina and deputy chief of quartermaster’s division Ovechkin, 16 May 1951); Hoover/GARF R94i4/ia/i93, 4-40 (deed of transfer signed by former chief of USSR MVD GULAG Chirkov and deputy chief Kovalev, 7 July 1953). Hoover/GARF R94i4/ia/i93, 64-99 (deed of transfer signed by Gulag secretariat first division outgoing deputy chief Savina and incoming Konovalov, 7 July 1953).
142
Hoover/GARF R94i4/ia/i93, 60 (Gulag chief Dobrynin to Interior minister Kruglov, 2 February 1948). The memo bears Dobrynin’s handwritten note: “The minister has been informed. He has decreed to search again for the aforementioned decree. Dobrynin. 2.2.48.”
143
Hoover/GARF R94i4/idop/i382, 56 (memo to all chiefs of camps, signed by NKVD administration for prisoners of war and internees chief Petrov, 10 November 1943).
144
To illustrate: for 1953 the MVD GULAG security administration had a list of 492 file titles (with 8 titles in reserve, taking the total up to 500), classified “top secret,” covering 27 typewritten pages, including directives, plans, and correspondence with each of the Gulag’s units and subunits. Hoover/GARF R94i4/idop/i94, 2-28 (nomenklatura of secret files of the MVD GULAG security administration for 1953, signed by security administration chief of secretariat Teterevenkov and acting chief of security administration Egnarov, 22 December 1952). For similar documents see Hoover/GARF R94i4/idop/i94, 80-82 (nomenklatura of 32 secret flies of the MVD GULAG secretariat for 1953, signed by deputy chief of secretariat Kovalev, no date but December 1952, classified “secret”) and Hoover/GARF R94i4/idop/i94, 83-84 (excerpt from nomenklatura of 16 secret files of the MVD GULAG secretariat, cryptography division, for 1953 (second half), signed by chief of cryptography division Malakhov, 29 August 1953, classified “secret”).
145
Hoover/GARF R9414/1/2575,132-4 (deed of inspection of secret file keeping and the storage of state secrets at MVD Gulag, 69th militarized security detachment, signed by Karaganda province MVD administration, operational commissioner Tret’ian, 26 November 1951).
146
An inventory of incoming and outgoing secret correspondence of the MVD security administration in November 1952 found documents not yet filed, going back to January, with delays in filing in all departments. Hoover/GARF R9414/1/2588, 90 (deed of inventorization, signed by GULAG MVD security administration senior lieutenant of the internal service Babinskii and four others, dated 6 November 1952). A Lithuania KGB report on security in ministries and state organizations in April 1969 noted that the Kédainiai district party secretary was failing to keep files in good order. Hoover/LYA K-1/3/670, 67-73 (report “On the status of provision of preservation of state secrets in ministries and institutions of the republic,” signed by LSSR Council of Ministers chief of administration Petrila, April 1969) on pages 67-68.
147
In August 1944, the chief of Gulag complained of secrecy violations in camps and colonies. He cited reports from camps in the Khabarovsk region that listed files with top-secret papers, ledgers of secret correspondence, and stamps and seals openly accessible on office desks, and top-secret papers and topographical maps in cupboards open to prisoners. Hoover/GARF, R9414/1/324, 84 (Gulag chief Nasedkin to chiefs of local camp administrations, 19 August 1944). A Lithuania KGB report of April 1969 recorded that the safe for secret documents belonging to one of the local authorities was often left unsealed. It also criticized a variety of ministries, enterprises, and institutes for lack of separately enclosed office space for those executing secret paperwork. Hoover/LYA K-1/3/670, 67-73 (report “On the status of provision of preservation of state secrets in ministries and institutions of the republic,” signed by LSSR SM chief of administration Petrila, April 1969).