“The KGB published a cynical instruction on how to lie when asked by relatives of repressed and shot citizens. “Regarding persons shot extrajudicially, whose relatives have already been informed of their death, as it allegedly occurred in places of deprivation of liberty, the previously adopted decisions shall not be changed. To the inquiries of the social security authorities about the causes of death of these persons, give the same answers as”, — write on: ua.news
The KGB published a cynical instruction on how to lie when asked by relatives of repressed and shot citizens.
“Regarding persons shot extrajudicially, whose relatives have already been informed of their death, as it allegedly occurred in places of deprivation of liberty, the previously adopted decisions shall not be changed. To the inquiries of the social security authorities about the causes of death of these persons, give the same answers that were given to the relatives,” the service manual says.
According to the estimates of historians and human rights organizations, the actions of the Soviet KGB against Ukrainians in the period from 1954 to 1990 suffered approximately from 500 thousand to more than 750 thousand people — to varying degrees.
It is not only about arrests or camps. Systemic repression included:
- Political arrests, imprisonment, exile — tens of thousands of people, especially in the 1950s and 1960s (UPA fighters, “sixties”, dissidents).
- Forced “prophylactic” processing — the official policy of the KGB, which covered more than 200 thousand citizens of Ukraine“to prevent anti-Soviet activities.”
- Conviction for “anti-Soviet propaganda” – over 2-3 thousand dissidents received real terms in camps or mental hospitals.
- Psychiatric repression — methodologically, they were not recorded as political, but hundreds of people were forcibly isolated.
- Full tracking and attempts to break the resistance — thousands of writers, priests, scientists, students were under round-the-clock “care”.
It is impossible to establish the exact number, since many documents of the KGB are still classified or destroyed even before the collapse of the USSR. But the overall scale of systemic pressure on Ukrainians during this period was — hundreds of thousands of peopleand according to a broader calculation (including families that have suffered persecution, restrictions, job loss) — over a million.
