Second Directorate of the Soviet Lithuanian KGB

http://courage.btk.mta.hu/courage/individual/n624

The Second Directorate of the Soviet Lithuanian KGB (Fond No 41)

The documents in the collection represent KGB activity in the sphere of counter-intelligence, persecuting various forms of expression of the anti-Soviet movement, as well as KGB work against what was understood as cultural opposition. Until the autumn of 1967 (when the 5th Department of the KGB was established), the 2ndDirectorate was responsible for counter-intelligence work in ideology. From 1967, its main direction was the security of state secrets. The KGB continued to use the 2nd Directorate to fight against dissidents and opposition, but it applied a new interpretation: the underground and expressions of nationalism were seen as a danger to state secrets.

Location

Vilnius, 40 Gediminas avenue, 01110 Lithuania
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Languages

Russian

Website

http://www.archyvai.lt/lt/lya.html

Name of collection

The Second Directorate of the Soviet Lithuanian KGB

Provenance and cultural activities

The collection consists of operational-working files of the 2nd Directorate of the Soviet Lithuanian KGB. The KGB was established in Soviet Lithuania in 1954, but the roots of the Soviet security services go back to post-Second World War times, the MGB, and later in 1953 and 1954, the NKVD. The main task of the security services of that time was to fight against the armed anti-Soviet resistance which lasted more than eight years in Lithuania (1944-1953). After the KGB was established in 1954, its 2nd Directorate was responsible for defeating the anti-Soviet partisans, as well as working in ideological counter-intelligence. The Directorate had four departments, which were engaged in the following: the surveillance of foreigners coming to the country, the search for 'very dangerous state criminals', exposing anti-Soviet organisations and groups, carrying out counter-intelligence in border districts and near military objects, searching for the authors of anonymous anti-Soviet documents and those who disseminated them, and counter-intelligence in railway and air transport, the fishing fleet, and important industrial entities, research institutions, and civil defence headquarters. It also protected state secrets in state institutions, offices and enterprises, and monitored the employment of candidates for posts in the secret services, and those who dealt with secret documents.
After defeating the anti-Soviet partisans in the first half of the 1950s, the main task of Soviet security was the surveillance of the intelligentsia and youth groups that were organised into underground networks. This work became more concentrated after the restructuring of the KGB in March 1960. The 2nd Department of the Directorate became responsible for supervising activity among the intelligentsia and youth. This work lasted until the autumn of 1967, when a separate structure for counter-intelligence in ideology was founded, the 5th Department (later the 5th Service) of the KGB.

Description of content

This is a huge collection. Its list of files (inventory) has four volumes, which include several thousands of files. Most important and relevant to the topic of cultural opposition are the files about KGB work among the intelligentsia and youth groups. These are operational rather than personal files, and include KGB plans, reports, operational descriptions and other information about the KGB's attempts to root out expressions of nationalism and anti-Soviet feelings.

The collections consists of various documents about ongoing surveillance of anti-Soviet organisations, members of the intelligentsia, and youth organisations. The KGB's reports, annual plans and correspondence contain information about these 'targeted groups', their ideas, and examples of what was understood by the regime as anti-Soviet. As a result of the events in Hungary and Poland in the autumn of 1956, mass protests took place in Soviet Lithuania on 1 November 1956 in Vilnius, and especially in the second largest city of Lithuania, Kaunas. These protests scared the Soviet government, and made the regime’s control even stricter. From that moment, a strong campaign by the regime against so-called nationalism in institutions of higher education and schools started. The documents of the 2nd Directorate show what operational measures the KGB took against the intelligentsia and youth, especially students and writers. Following this KGB activity, Irena Kostkevičiūtė and Meilutė Lukšienė, professors in the Department of Lithuanian Language and Literature at Vilnius University, lost their jobs, and some students were expelled from the university.

Content

grey literature (regular archival documents such as brochures, bulletins, leaflets, reports, intelligence files, records, working papers, meeting minutes): 1000-

Operator(s)

Lithuanian Special Archives

Owner(s)

Stakeholder(s) of the collection

Geographical scope of recent operation

international

Topics

Founder(s)

Soviet Lithuanian KGB

Date of founding

1944

Place of founding

Vilnius, 40 Gediminas avenue, 01110 Lithuania
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Creator(s) of content

Soviet Lithuanian KGB

Collector(s)

Important events in the history of the collection

Restructure of collections, 2014

Access type

parts are closed to the public

Publications

No publications.

Part of network

Office of the Chief Archivist of Lithuania

Author(s) of this page

Grybkauskas, Saulius

References

Gečiauskas Geistys, interview by Grybkauskas, Saulius, September 19, 2016. COURAGE Registry Oral History Collection

Remeika Kęstutis, interview by Grybkauskas, Saulius, September 22, 2016. COURAGE Registry Oral History Collection

Last edited on: 2020-02-06 08:28:02

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