KGB - The Sword and the Shield

For the past century,

Russian history has also been the history

of its security services.

They were used by the Soviet state to crush dissent.

Millions suffered at their hands.

But while many things may have changed in today's Russia,

its security network is arguably stronger than ever.

And the reason behind that

is the rise of a lowly Lieutenant Colonel

to President of this vast country.

I know the KGB better than anyone else

because I was part of the inside circle.

KGB THE SWORD AND THE SHIELD

This is the story of the KGB

told by its veterans and its victims.

The Russian population is made up of three kinds of people.

Prisoners,

former prisoners

and...

future prisoners.

In a Moscow comedy club, young people laugh at life

as it was living in the shadow of the KGB.

STAGE

The jokes compiled from the archives,

show how humor was often the last refuge

under an authoritarian regime.

A joke is one of the main ways of dealing with stress.

MISHA MELNICHENKO SOCIAL HISTORIAN

It can help you live with the things you can't change.

Misha Melnichenko has unearthed almost 6,000 Soviet political jokes.

One day, Stalin lost his pipe

and ordered his security chief, Beria, to investigate.

A bit later, he calls Beria and says,

"Don't worry, I found the pipe."

Beria replies, "But we've arrested 100 people,

and 99 of them have confessed."

Stalin exclaims, "Only 99?

Continue the investigation."

In reality, life for most Soviet citizens

was no laughing matter.

This recently opened KGB archive in Kiev

contains millions of documents.

It records the fate of hundreds of thousands

sent to the Gulags,

and tens of thousands more sentenced to death.

Those who suffered at the hands of the KGB,

and KGB officers themselves, are well-placed to tell us

about the biggest state security network

the world has ever known.

On the third day, they led you into a cell

to take your fingerprints.

This is me.

Prisoners called this playing the piano.

They came one December night and arrested me.

They pushed guns through our cell windows

and opened fire.

They shot people without trial.

God knows what else they did.

Also inside these boxes,

there are untold stories of heroism

where KGB agents put their lives on the line

to protect their country and Soviet rule.

We truly believed

that we were protecting our country...

because the KGB was one of the most powerful

secret services in the world.

Usually it is associated

with some kind of enforcement or violence,

but I'm very proud to be a member of the intelligence service.

Russia,

the largest country on earth.

Misunderstood by many and feared by even more.

Invaded repeatedly over the centuries,

its leaders have adopted a siege mentality

to counter real or perceived threats from abroad.

Russia's people have been encouraged to view foreigners as the enemy.

I want to be a citizen of the world

and I want to be on good terms with the rest of the world.

EVGENIA TURKOVA ACTRESS

But they tell me that this is an enemy,

and that is an enemy,

and those over there are also enemies.

But why is he an enemy?

Maybe I just want to love him.

Enemies have been a preoccupation throughout Russian history.

In modern times, those enemies inside and out

have been the target of surveillance,

assassinations, honey traps, and hacking scandals.

THE WINTER PALACE, PETROGRAD 1917

The story of the KGB began over a century ago

with a revolution.

After the Bolsheviks took power in 1917,

Lenin founded a secret police force as a temporary measure.

It was called the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission

for Combating Counter-revolution and Sabotage,

or Cheka for short.

The name changed several times in the last century,

including OGPU, NKVD, MGB, KGB, and finally FSB.

But even today,

agents refer to themselves as Chekists.

KGB Colonel Anatoliy Sakhno recalls the ethics

that were drummed into him as a young recruit.

A Chekist, we were told,

had to have a cool head, warm heart, and clean hands.

It was drilled into us from our very first day.

It went into our heads, hearts, our souls

There is a myth of this high morality,

of this moral purity of the Chekists

and other Knights of the Revolution, as they were called.

In January, 2018, only 12% of Russians said

that they associate, the Cheka, as the Soviet Secret Police

with terror and persecution of dissidents.

Their Moscow headquarters, the Lubyanka,

quickly became notorious.

Chekists were expected to crack down hard on all

who opposed the state.

The first head of the secret police

was the son of a Polish Catholic aristocrat,

Felix Dzerzhinsky.

He soon earned the name, Iron Felix.

Dzerzhinsky came from a strict Catholic background

and he had ambitions to become a priest.

His mother and an uncle had to talk him out of this

because they recognized that he was too fond of women

to take up a job as a Catholic priest.

But Dzerzhinsky didn't entirely abandon

his Catholic beliefs.

He carried over the ideals of a kind of Jesuit priest

into the idea of what the perfect secret policeman was.

Somebody who was part of society,

but withdrawn from society at the same time.

Somebody with very strict moral values.

ALEXANDER KOLPAKIDI HISTORIAN

Everyone knew he was a man of iron,

a man of integrity.

Of course, he created a monster.

It was a dreadful organization.

Even some of Lenin's closest associates

were afraid of the Cheka.

Back then, all these people

that were really committed communists,

they had a very clear vision of the future

for their country and for the world.

And they wanted to start a world revolution

and it was a very big idea for many,

and they were ready to sacrifice themselves,

sacrifice the population of Russia.

From their imposing Lubyanka headquarters,

the Cheka exercised seemingly limitless authority.

Only the best, cleverest, most reliable people were selected.

So it was considered a great honor

to be awarded your certificate as an officer of the KGB.

State-sponsored movies and novels also glamorized the Security Services

through the exploits of men like Nikolai Kuznetsov,

a Russian equivalent of James Bond.

But while Bond was fictional, Kuznetsov was very real.

Films depicted his daring behind German lines

during the Second World War.

Many aspiring agents fell under the Kuznetsov spell.

One lad who dreamt that he join this prestigious organization

was young Vladimir Putin.

When he was still at school,

he went to the local KGB office and said, "How do I join?"

And even the KGB there were fairly disconcerted

and basically said, "Well, run along sonny,

go to university and do a degree, and then maybe, we'll talk."

When I was a young lad,

I wanted to work for the State Security Services

because I was influenced by the books and films of that time.

It was deliberately romanticized.

I was very patriotic.

MAJ. GEN. ALEXANDER NEZDOLYA KGB

I wanted to catch spies.

I wanted to work in counter-intelligence.

All that romantic stuff that excites young people.

We would be the patriots who would protect the country.

We were ready to sacrifice our lives for the country.

Once they had caught the bug,

these idealistic and ambitious recruits

underwent specialized training,

including the dark arts of counter-intelligence.

A KGB officer doesn't usually wear a uniform.

These are the only photos of me in uniform.

They were taken at the KGB training academy in Tashkent.

We learned languages and learned to shoot.

We learned the art of photography.

There were professors, specialized research,

and experienced professionals were assigned to train us...

how to recruit, how to blackmail, to bribe, and to abuse.

In their fortress-like training center

on the outskirts of Moscow,

today's recruits are constantly reminded of Lenin's words,

ironically borrowed from the Bible,

"Whoever is not with me is against me."

Yet Lenin's secret police chief, Iron Felix Dzerzhinsky,

constantly feared for his life, and he wasn't wrong.

He was a very cautious man.

For example, in his office in the Lubyanka,

there was an anteroom where his secretary worked

and a prisoner was in custody in the cells nearby.