Revealing a Precarious Past: Ukraine Opens KGB Files

Ukraine, the former Soviet, communist nation, has decided to open up to it a controversial part of its past. The country has decided to open up a part of its KGB files, everyone of which has the possibility of containing a tragic story.

Since the fall of communism many nations in Eastern Europe have had to face a difficult dilemma: whether or not to open secret intelligence files to the public. It is an immensely difficult decision for many to make. On the one hand, some seek justice for past tragedies and see the opening the files as a critical component to achieve it. They feel that the information is their right, particularly remain unaware of the circumstances around which their neighbours, family members and loved ones were lost or disappeared. On the other hand, there are those who believe that it would not do the nation or its people good to open old wounds. They want to move forward and leave the past in the past. Many fear the repercussions of making the information public knowledge and the implications of popular justice that could arise. The situation is precarious. Intelligence gathering by the KGB and other communist intelligence services was pervasive and widespread. In many instances neighbours would provide information about those in their apartment to intelligence officers. Many people's lives ended in labour camps, prisons or executed as a result of suspicion of their activity and being declared enemies of the revolution and state. Further, as Nico Lange, the director of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Kiev, noted that "coming to terms with the past really starts when you start uncovering also your own involvement: the oppressions by your own state, the offenders who are from your own people." The files may not tell the whole story however. For example if someone gave information under duress and threat, the fact may not be recorded in the files. That individual would appear as culpable as someone who voluntarily provided information. The fear of popular justice and finger-poinitng may have led Ukraine's intelligence service, the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), to declassify the files selectively. According to the BBC, the SBU, which replaced KGB in Ukraine, is concentrating on releasing older files. Some 20% of the SBU's officers previously worked for the KGB, and as the BBC put it "It seems unlikely that SBU officers who worked for the Soviet KGB in the 1970s and 80s will be enthusiastic about declassifying documents that could incriminate them." Ukrainian authorities are also preparing to mount a criminal investigation into the Holodomor period, the 1932-1933 famine in Ukraine in which at least 6 million Ukrainians perished as a result of Soviet collectivization policies. The Soviet Union refused to admit that it had occurred, but Ukraine and a number of other governments recognize it as genocide.