Andriy Kout, who is in charge of the largest collection of declassified Soviet files, which Moscow left in Ukraine, claims that Russian spies do not innovate. They study and update old KGB manuals.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has the largest declassified KGB archives in the world. This vast collection of unique materials is stored by Ukraine. Archive director Andriy Kohut says that these documents fundamentally change Western perceptions about the USSR.
Kohut highlights a paradox in Western academia. While acknowledging the brutality of the Soviet regime, they maintain that Ukrainians and Russians coexisted peacefully. This peaceful coexistence is a myth, he claims. Russians systematically eradicated Ukrainians via the NKVD, KGB and FSB. This pattern continues today with FSB attacks on unoccupied areas and missile strikes in occupied territory.
Kohut urges Western historians to examine authentic documents from the period that reveal the mindset of the KGB and NKVD operatives. He says it is important to understand their thinking patterns, as the Russian FSB operates in a similar way today.
There is still a major obstacle: the lack of English translation severely limits access to Western academics. The current SBU archives director is a native English speaker and participates in Western academic programmes.
In an interview with journalist Olha ivazovska, for Civil Network OPORA’s Power of Choice Project, Kohut discusses the contents of these archives and how researchers can gain access.
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