The stories related in the previous section are selected from a unique collection of twenty-one personal narratives assembled from the archive of the KGB of Soviet Lithuania, as described below. The narratives are abstracted in Table 6.1.
The documentary collection arises as follows. The condition of the agentura was a continual preoccupation of the KGB leaders. A related issue was the need to improve the training of agents’ handlers. In the early 1960s a specialist group was formed under Soviet KGB chairman Vladimir Semichastnyi for “study and dissemination of the experience of operative workers and of information about the adversary.” Similar groups were also set up in the Republican KGBs, including that of Soviet Lithuania. Like any large organization, in other words, the KGB was keen to identify and document improved practices and to disseminate them through in-house newsletters and training opportunities like conferences and away-days. The earliest batch of reports in our sample is accompanied by a memo signed by the head of the Soviet Lithuania KGB, responding to a request for information from the Moscow group.[343] More reports of a similar nature appear elsewhere in the archive, although without accompanying correspondence. All our stories were reported with the aim of uncovering and exemplifying good practices.
The sample is not only small but highly selected. It includes only successes. We know that KGB informer relationships often ended in failure. Elsewhere in the files, anecdotal evidence of unproductive agents and incompetent case officers abounds. When Moscow demanded that the agent network should be “small in numbers and high in quality,” the KGB’s own surveys show, it was easy to let unproductive agents go, but more difficult
table 6.1. Twenty-one effective KGB informers: Their personal data, abstracted from KGB records
| Code name | Personal data |
| Algis | Lithuanian male factory employee in Kaunas. Compromised by war service for Germany (sentenced to 10 years). Thought to have abandoned former beliefs. Recruited by consent, July 1963, to report on former nationalist prisoners. Complied fully with assignments. Rewarded by suitable employment for wife. Served 1 year 1 month to date of report, May 1964. |
| Berzas-1* | Lithuanian male rector of Catholic church.Compromised by evidence of minor theft of kolkhoz property. Recruited under pressure, July 1957, to report on other priests. Initial compliance with assignments was limited, resolved by lengthy discussions and a valuable gift. Served 3 years 8 months to date of report, March 1961. |
| Berzas-2* | Lithuanian male employed and studying part-time in Kaunas. Compromised (no detail given), now abandoned former beliefs. Recruited by consent, August 1962, to report on nationalists. Initial compliance with assignments was limited, resolved by lengthy discussions. Served 2 years to date of report, August 1964. |
| Genys | Lithuanian male, born 1933, incomplete high school. Compromised by nationalist activity before and after sentence (1951). Thought to have moderated former beliefs. Recruited under pressure, late 1950s, to report on nationalists. Complied fully with assignments. Served several years to date of report, January 1962. |
| Gobis | Lithuanian Jewish male born 1916, higher education, multilingual, resident of Siauliai. War service in Red Army, party member. Compromised by emigration of family members to Israel, with whom he maintained contact. Expelled from party, 1950. Recruited 1951(continued) |
table 6.1. (continued)
| Code name | Personal data |
| (unstated whether willing or not), to report on the Jewish diaspora. Complied fully with assignments, except complaints made undercover to targets about living standard. Performance was monitored excessively. Resolved by giving more responsibility in connection with the World Festival of Youth and Students (1957) and thereafter. Monitoring was continued; undercover complaints about living standards also persisted. Resolved by political reeducation plus privileges. Served 9 years to date of report, September 1960. | |
| Karklas | Lithuanian male, born 1905, higher education, schoolteacher in Siauliai. Multilingual. Compromised by remaining in Lithuania under German occupation and by brother (active nationalist, resettled). Recruited by consent, April 1961, to report on nationalists and emigrants. Compliance appeared full but still being evaluated. Served 5 months to date of report, June 1961. |
| Komandulis | Recent immigrant of Lithuanian Jewish origin, born 1937. Compromised by joint actions with other young people seeking reemigration. Friend of Agent Korabel’nik. Recruited by consent, 1961, through agency of father to report on associates. Complied fully with assignments. Served some months to date of report, January 1962. |
| Korabel’nik | Recent immigrant of Lithuanian Jewish origin, born 1938. Multilingual. Compromised by joint actions with other young people seeking reemigration. Friend of Agent Komandulis. Recruited by consent, 1960, through agency of father and work colleagues to report on associates. Complied fully with assignments. Served some months to date of report, March 1961. |
| Maksim | Lithuanian male, born 1911, higher education, journalist. Compromised by family (“kulak”) origin and by working in occupied Lithuania. Sentenced, recently released, |
| Code name | Personal data |
| seeking return to Vilnius. Recruited by consent, 1961, to report on nationalists. Complied fully with assignments. Served some months to date of report, January 1962. | |
| Mindaugas | Lithuanian male, higher education, actor. Recruited by consent, 1956, to report on others in the arts world suspected of nationalism. Initial compliance with assignments was limited. Personal issues: inner reservations, low salary, death of mother. Resolved by political reeducation, sympathy, and financial assistance. Served 5 years to date of report, January 1962. |
| Mir | Lithuanian male, higher education, choral singer. Multilingual. Compromised by family origin (former urban middle class) and links to emigrants. Recruited by consent 1956 to report on nationalist diaspora. Complied reluctantly with assignments. Personal issues: anti-Soviet views, low salary. Resolved by political reeducation and a higher-paid position in Vilnius TV. Served 5 years to date of report, March 1961. |
| Neman | Lithuanian male, born 1925, higher education, radio journalist. Compromised by war record (remained on occupied territory, deported to Germany, collaborated in making anti-Soviet propaganda). For this reason, dismissed from state radio in 1952/53, then reinstated. Attended the World Festival of Youth and Students (Moscow, 1957) as a journalist, where he attracted KGB interest. Recruited by consent December 1959 to report on foreign diplomats and journalists. Personal issue: desire to wipe clean his bad war record. Complied enthusiastically with assignments; sent abroad on mission to China, being considered for another to Poland. Served 1 year 3 months to date of report, March 1961. |
| Neris | Lithuanian female, higher education, fluent German, port authority worker in Klaipéda. Recruited by consent, April 1958, to report on foreign shipping. Complied fully |
343
Hoover/LYA, K-1/10/300,24-25 (letter to Col. T. N. Beskrovnyi, chief of the USSR KGB chairman’s group for study and generalization of the experience of operative work and information about the adversary, from Soviet Lithuania KGB chairman Col. A. Randakevicius, 14 March 1961).