In the service of the Empire of Evil. Sudoplatov and Serov on September 17, 1939

Abstract

In 1994 Pavel Sudoplatov’s Special Tasks: "The Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness – A Soviet Spymaster" was published. “Probably since the publication of Khrushchev’s secret speech, no one has further expanded our knowledge of this period.” (Robert Conquest) Sudoplatov was a man of immense competence in special operations and espionage, in constant contact with Beria and Stalin after 1938. In 2019, the book "Secrets of General Serov’s Suitcase", the diaries of the KGB’s first head (1939–1963). These are the notes-memoirs kept essentially on the fly for nearly a quarter of a century by the head of the Soviet security service, and later of the Soviet military intelligence service GRU, Serov was the only person in the Soviet Union to be the head of both the “civilian” Committee of State Security (KGB) and the military Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU). 1939–1963. These are the notes-memoirs kept essentially on the fly for nearly a quarter of a century by the head of the Soviet security service, and later of the Soviet military intelligence service GRU, Serov was the only person in the Soviet Union to be the head of both the “civilian” Committee of State Security (KGB) and the military Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU). Ivan Alexandrovich Serov actively participated in absolutely all the significant events of 1939–1945/1947. At the highest decision-making level, this participation remained in constant contact first with Stalin and later with Khrushchev. Thus, the reader received diaries or memoirs of the two highest-ranking officers of the Soviet secret service. “Parallel Lives.” From the essence of their functions and duties and the tasks set before them, they had to take an active part, among others, in the beginning of the Second World War. As we know, this war began with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and, among other things, with the attack of the Soviet Union on Poland on September 17, 1939. Neither of these two criminals, Serov and Sudoplatov, concealed their crimes in principle and even sometimes expressed themselves cynically about their actions. Neither of them regretted anything. They did good work for the good of the Soviet Union. Sudoplatov, dictating his memoirs after 1992, noted that “the fate of the Baltic states, which was initially decided in the Kremlin and Berlin, was similar to the fate of the Eastern European states decided at Yalta. Omitted in silence is the fact that [Stalin] also signed a secret deal to divide Europe first with Roosevelt and Churchill at Yalta and later at Potsdam with Truman.” Ronald Reagan described the Soviet Union as an evil empire, and this apt designation must also be applied to the very roots of Bolshevism, the soil in which it was born. Bolshevism was a social engineering project whose essence was Absolute Evil. The functionaries of the totalitarian – communist system were utterly devoid of human qualities. Animosity encompassed whole armies of security and communist party functionaries. What is the nature of a human? – But this is a question for a psychiatrist. Psychoanalysis has tried to answer it, as well as sociology and philosophy. Crime is inherent in the entire communist system during its entire existence.