In February 1987, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party – the supreme political authority in the Soviet Union – sought to address the ever-growing vocal support in the international community for the independence of the Baltic republics (Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia). The resulting Politburo decree, titled “On the Measures for Counteracting Ideological Diversions against the Soviet Baltic Republics,” was summarized for the KGB of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic by Lt. Colonel Vilius P. Kontrimas, deputy chief of the First Department (foreign intelligence) on March 24, 1987.
October 19, 1988
Chief of the 1st Department of the KGB of the Lithuanian SSR Colonel V. L. Karinau,'A Plan of Counterpropaganda Measures to Explain to the Population of the Republic the Fundamentals of the Political Processes in Lithuania in the 1930s and the 1940s'
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Secret
Document No. 1
Approved:
Chairman of the KGB of the Lithuanian SSR
Maj. General E. A. Eismuntas
October 1988
A Plan
Of Counterpropaganda Measures to Explain to the Population of the Republic the Fundamentals of the Political Processes in Lithuania in the 1930s and the 1940s
At the present time in connection with the processes of democratization and openness taking place in the USSR, the interest of the population of the republic in the events of the 1930s and the 1940s has significantly increased. [These events] are inadequately represented in our history, the proof of which are the significant numbers of the various kinds of publications and public statements on historical themes in which some authors interpret the events of the 1930s and the 1940s from non-class-based, pseudohistorical positions, attempting to blame the Soviet Union for open conspiracy with Hitler, [and] the occupation of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
In order to expose such attempts [and] make a positive ideological impact on the population of the republic on the eve of the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the declaration of Soviet regime in Lithuania (December 1988), [we plan to] organize the publication of a series of articles on the following themes in the republic’s newspapers:
- the collaboration of the public figures of the bourgeois Lithuania with Hitler’s Germany;
- the inspiration of the nationalist underground and armed resistance in Lithuania by the German security services;
- the orientation of the prominent representatives of the bourgeois republic on the Soviet Union;
- the economic conditions in the bourgeois Lithuania in the 1930s.
To prepare the above mentioned articles, [we plan to] use the archival documents of the diplomatic service [and] the state security department of the bourgeois Lithuania, [the documents] of the NKVD USSR station [rezidentura] in the city of Kaunas, the documents about the Banquet Affair (on diplomats), the investigative files on Voldemaras, Povilaitis, and others, the sentencing decision of the bourgeois court regarding Voldemaras, the investigative file on Lizunas, the book “On the Path to Treason” by Yakaitis and the book “On This Side and on the Other Side” by Mikutskis, [the testimonies] of the veteran agents KOTIK and GRANITAS.
For the processing and preparation of the above mentioned materials for publication, [we plan to] bring in the rezidents [agent network heads] RASHIDOV [and] DYMOV. The editing of articles will be entrusted to the agent KARALYUS.
The organization of the publication of the above mentioned series of articles will be done by the press section of the KGB of the Lithuanian SSR in collaboration with the 1st Department of the KGB [of the Lithuanian SSR].
Chief of the 1st Department of the KGB of the Lithuanian SSR
Colonel V. L. Karinauskas [signed]
“19” October 1988
No. ½-1430
Added by hand: Presented to the Chairman of the KGB of the Lithuanian SSR, 20.10.1988
signed by V. L. Karinauskas
A plan to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Soviet regime in Lithuiana calls for the publication of a series of articles in the major Lithuanian newspapers on four topics.
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