Academic officials were dismissed from the civil service. What discoveries can we expect now? Shadows of Iron Crosses Academician Khristoforov
Andrey Vinokurov, Alena Malik
Russian President Vladimir Putin fired four officials, each of whom successfully qualified for membership in the Russian Academy of Sciences. Last week, Vladimir Putin scolded the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladimir Fortov, for allowing officials to participate in the elections to the Russian Academy of Sciences. The President recalled that he had previously asked to refrain from such practices.
“Nevertheless, some of our colleagues from the presidential administration, from the Ministry of Education, from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, from the Ministry of Defense, from the Federal Security Service (FSB) and from some other departments took part in the election and were elected,” Putin said at meeting of the Council on Science and Education last Wednesday. The President raised the question of whether these officials could simultaneously engage in serious scientific research and carry out their duties at their place of duty.
Putin asked Fortov several times whether the elected members of the Russian Academy of Sciences were “major scientists,” to which the latter diplomatically noted that they were worthy of election. However, the president was not satisfied with this answer. “I think that I will have to give them the opportunity to engage in science, because, apparently, their scientific activity is much more important than the performance of some routine administrative duties in government and government bodies,” Putin said. The very next Monday, decrees on the dismissal of officials from their jobs appeared on the Kremlin’s official website.
Now there were only four former officials, one from each department that the president listed. However, each of these officials, apparently, was really connected with scientific activities. Thus, Lieutenant General Vasily Khristoforov, who headed the FSB registration and archival funds department, lost his position in the FSB. If all his other colleagues in the civil service were dismissed at their own request, then in his case the reason is “reaching the age limit for military service.”
Khristoforov was elected as a corresponding member of the RAS. According to information on the RAS website, the main results of scientific activity include, in particular: research based on documents from state and departmental archives of issues of the military history of the USSR and the main problems of the activities of domestic security agencies. Also, according to the RAS certificate, Khristoforov, based on his own experience and archival materials, comprehensively analyzed the socio-political life of Afghanistan in the 1980s, as well as the evolution of Soviet-Afghan relations.
The next person to be dismissed is the head of the main military medical department of the Ministry of Defense, Alexander Fisun, who was also elected a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. According to a certificate from the Russian Academy of Sciences, he is an Honored Doctor of the Russian Federation, Chairman of the Special Expert Council of the Higher Attestation Commission under the Ministry of Education and Science for Medical Sciences. One example of the scientific achievements of a military doctor is the substantiation and implementation of “modern organizational approaches to the medical supply management system, ensuring the required level of combat and mobilization readiness of the medical service of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.”
 |
| Konstantin Kotenko
|
The last of the high-ranking dismissed - Alexander Savenkov, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Head of the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. “Specialist in the field of criminal law, criminal procedure, criminology, author of more than 50 scientific works, including 3 monographs, 15 textbooks and teaching aids (11 co-authored),” says the RAS certificate. Among the scientific achievements is a study of the formation of the criminal policy of the Russian state in the context of the development of international legal frameworks for the fight against crime.
["RBK Newspaper", 11/29/2016, "Academics Left Officials": On Monday afternoon, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev dismissed Deputy Minister of Education and Science Alexei Lopatin, who is listed as a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, from his post. “He is a scientist, and he will continue his scientific activities,” the government press service clarified. […]
Alexander Savenkov is one of the most influential security officials fired by the president on November 28. Savenkov served in the prosecutor's office since 1985, from 2002 to 2006 he served as chief military prosecutor, deputy prosecutor general Vladimir Ustinov. After Ustinov’s resignation, Savenkov was appointed First Deputy Minister of Justice, and then, says RBC’s interlocutor close to the FSB, he was actually “exiled to an honorable pension” to the Federation Council, where he represented the Vladimir region from 2009 to 2014. […]
After Savenkov was appointed to the investigation department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, he began to establish army order there, three department employees told RBC. All investigators were then forced to come to work in uniform, Saturday became a working day, and they had to forget about vacations abroad, they complained.
In the spring of 2016, Savenkov applied for the post of Prosecutor General, said two RBC interlocutors close to the FSB, but in June the Federation Council, on the recommendation of the president, extended the powers of Yuri Chaika.
According to one of the sources, Savenkov was also considered a supporter of the idea of uniting the entire investigation under the roof of one department, that is, a competitor of the chairman of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin. - Insert K.ru]
Political scientist Evgeny Minchenko considers the dismissals a natural continuation of the “public flogging” that Putin carried out last week - “this is already finishing the game.” At the same time, the expert does not consider the dismissals to be indicative: “Same Savenkov from the Ministry of Internal Affairs is not an ordinary person at all. There are no people who are inside the system of power structures and who are not related to “power games.” Even the very fact of the neutrality of one or another character is already one of the factors of the general disposition.” According to Minchenko, Putin “has been harassing the elite over the past year and intends to do so in the future.” “One of the manifestations of this tendency is fire at headquarters,” the political scientist shrugs.
Political scientist Gleb Kuznetsov laughed when asked about Khristoforov. “Who is Khristoforov? I don't know this. Is this a matter for academics, or what?” - commented the interlocutor of Gazeta.Ru, laughing. “Well, what can I say, this is work discipline. If they are told to jump, then they must stand up and jump. If you want to keep your post, you must listen to your leaders. Apparently, this did not reach everyone. This unfortunate Khristoforov is a victim of an educational act, he simply turned out to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. No matter what kind of Nobel laureate you are, you must obey your leader unquestioningly. I think that the next generation of officials will be more disciplined.”
Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Education and Science Lyubov Dukhanina, in a conversation with Gazeta.Ru, said that “it would be advisable to more clearly define the possibilities for officials to combine non-core activities.” According to the deputy, judging by the “clear message of the president,” the definition of these issues with the help of a law or a corresponding government resolution is possible in the near future.
Original of this material© "Novaya Gazeta", 11/24/2016, Photo: via "Novaya Gazeta"
Multi-machine operators with their eyes closed
Andrey Zayakin[...] The head of the Main Military Medical Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, Alexander Yakovlevich Fisun, has six scientific articles reflected in the most authoritative medical database of publications in peer-reviewed journals pubmed. Of these, five are in “organizational and administrative areas”: management of military medicine, planning, equipment, organization of services to the population in military medical organizations. We were unable to find any other contribution of Academician Fisun to world science at pubmed. Google scholar, however, pointed us to Fisun’s article “Psychology and Psychopathology of Information Wars” in the Military Medical Journal. The Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI) does not even know about the existence of such an author of scientific works as A.Ya. Fisun. The RSL does not have a single book whose author was Prof. Fisun. But it contains written-off dissertations, for the production of which prof. Fisun contributed as a leader.
Dissertation by Anna Tyukina under the guidance of prof. Fisuna is completely copied from the work of Vladimir Igonin.
They differ only in the title page. In all other respects they are completely identical. Who was Igonin’s leader? Surprise, surprise, the same prof. Fisun!
Also under the leadership of A.Ya. Fisun re-defended the dissertation of Anton Stazhinsky (supervisor - the above-mentioned student of Prof. Fisun Igonin) under the name of Elena Egorenkova.
And the same dissertation of Stazhinsky was defended by another graduate student of Fisun, Vyacheslav Polovinka. The opponent of the dissertations of Stazhinsky, Polovinka and Egorenkova was the same person, prof. Nikolai Kolomoets.
Deputy Head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs - Head of the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Alexander Savenkov did not appear in Dissernet. His H-index according to the RSCI is 8, in total there are 32 Savenkov’s publications in the RSCI, 16 of them are cited by anyone at least once.
(The Hirsch index allows, within one scientometric indicator, to assess both the fertility of a scientist and his relevance. For comparison, the Hirsch index of the co-founder of Dissernet, Prof. Rostovtsev, is 89.)
Mr. General writes mainly about corruption. The legal experts we interviewed did not classify Savenkov as an outstanding scientist in the field of jurisprudence. Judging by Savenkov’s biography, Mr. General never had a main job in scientific institutions; his career took place in the prosecutor’s office, the Federation Council and federal ministries. Some journal articles list his position as “chief researcher at the Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law under the Government of the Russian Federation.” We received the following comment from an expert in the field of criminal law: “My uncle understands everything: both cybercrime and crimes related to the implementation of state defense orders. We can assume that he is a “multi-machine operator” who is actively being helped.”
Also under the hot hand of the president was the head of the Department of Registration and Archival Funds of the FSB of Russia, Vasily Khristoforov. Professor Khristoforov has 98 publications with 208 citations, the H-index according to the Russian Science Citation Index is 7.
We received this comment from an expert historian, Prof. Khristoforov: “...there were many documentary publications from the FSB archive, where he participated, it seems, published by the authoritative publishing house ROSSPEN, but I cannot assess the degree of his personal or departmental participation. Participation in the defense of the Danilovsky Council looks depressing, there is also a connection with the former director of the IRI RAS Sakharov ... "
(Let me remind you that the Danilovsky Council is an office for generating fake dissertations at Moscow State Pedagogical University, which was destroyed even before the emergence of Dissernet. Khristoforov was not its member.)
Personally, Vasily Khristoforov became the director of two dissertations that were almost entirely written off. A certain Chaev Ivan Yurievich re-defended the dissertation of Magomed Timov, and a certain Maxim Kholodny re-defended the dissertation of Nurdin Sheudzhen in the same shop at Moscow State Pedagogical University.
Where were Prof.'s eyes? Khristoforov, when he did not notice almost one hundred percent plagiarism, we find it difficult to say. [...]
[Fontanka.Ru, 11/28/2016, “Nor Hirsch academicians”: The status of academician or corresponding member gives its holder the right to a scholarship of 100 thousand rubles or 50 thousand rubles, respectively, and at the same time privileges, such as the right to official transport and a memorial service in the academic building. The results of the elections of members of the Russian Academy of Sciences were announced back in October. 2,273 people registered as applicants. 518 people were elected and received the mentioned benefits. What is being discussed with the light hand of the president is not how deservedly they have been awarded the status. Not the scientific productivity of academics. And their places of work.
Future academicians and corresponding members are elected by secret ballot by full members of the RAS. Of course, the scientific world is narrow; many people know many people personally or through scientific works. For example, in the past, physicists several times “rolled” their famous colleague Mikhail Kovalchuk, director of the Kurchatov Institute, who bears the informal title “brother of Putin’s friend.” But something has changed since then.
Before this year, the last time elections were held was in 2011. But in 2013, as we know, the RAS underwent a reorganization. In particular, the academies of medical and agricultural sciences joined the “big” academy. Even 3 years ago, Fontanka sources feared that this would greatly dilute the “real” academics, that is, it would lower the overall level. Today they say that in the expanded and reorganized Academy, people simply don’t really know each other. - Insert K.ru]
Vladimir Putin, as promised, provided the opportunity for officials elected to the RAS to engage only in scientific activities. Last week, the president recalled that at the end of 2015 he asked government officials to refrain from participating in elections to the Russian Academy of Sciences.
A new job will now be sought by the Deputy Administrator of the Presidential Administration - Head of the Main Medical Directorate Konstantin Kotenko, Head of the FSB Registration and Archive Funds Directorate Lieutenant General Vasily Khristoforov, Head of the Main Military Medical Directorate of the Ministry of Defense and Deputy Minister, Head of the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Alexander Savenkov.
Almost all officials were dismissed with the wording "", and Vasily Khristoforov - due to "reaching the age limit for military service."
What kind of research did the fired officials do?
The Russian Academy of Sciences told how officials became academiciansAll civil servants who wished to receive an academic title made the decision on this independently, the RAS emphasized. At the same time, officials will not be able to leave the academy; membership is for life.Among those fired is high-ranking Interior Ministry official Alexander Savenkov. He is known not so much for his scientific activities as for his career and high-profile cases in law enforcement agencies. At various times he was the chief military prosecutor, deputy prosecutor general of the Russian Federation, deputy minister of justice, and senator.
Nothing is known about any brilliant achievements of Savenkov in Russian science.
FSB Lieutenant General Vasily Khristoforov has more than 250 scientific papers, publications in leading scientific publications in Russia, Germany, Austria, China, Italy, Hungary, and Finland.
Academicians in the Ministry of Education and Science and the Ministry of Health
Among the officials whom the president dismissed from their posts, for example, there is no Deputy Minister of Education, new academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexei Lopatin.
Removal from the post of deputy minister of education is the prerogative of the government, not the Kremlin, press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“Deputy minister, if I’m not mistaken, this (dismissal from office - ed.) was by order of the Prime Minister. If I’m not mistaken. I would explain this, so surely some personnel decisions will follow.”
Decisions followed: on Monday evening, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
Alexey Lopatin is a candidate of geological and mineralogical sciences, doctor of biological sciences, for about 10 years he worked as deputy director for scientific work at the A. A. Borisyak Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in 2015 he was appointed deputy head of the Federal Agency for Scientific Organizations.
Alexey Lopatin became Deputy Minister of Education and Science while already a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Sergei Rumyantsev, director of the Department of Science and Innovative Development of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, recently became a corresponding member of the RAS. Professor, Doctor of Medical Sciences, he worked in various research medical centers in Russia, Germany and the USA, including the Federal Research Center for Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Immunology (General Director - Alexander Rumyantsev).
As reported, the Minister of Health of the Perm Territory, Olga Kovtun, became a corresponding member of the RAS, but at the time of the vote she had already left this post.
It was also reported that the deputy head of the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring of Russia became a corresponding member of the RAS. Roshydromet, however, clarified that Alexander Makosko has not worked there since 2014 - he devoted himself to scientific activities (Deputy Chief Scientific Secretary of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences).
Well, the Minister of Health Veronika Skvortsova (corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 2004) withdrew her candidacy before the elections of the Russian Academy of Sciences, refusing the opportunity to become an academician.
;
magazine "Russian History"
Igor Anatolevich Khristoforov(born May 19, Grozny) - Russian historian.
Education and academic degrees
Doctor of Historical Sciences (2013; dissertation topic “Government policy and the “peasant question” before and after the abolition of serfdom (1830-1890s)".
Scientific and teaching activities
- Since 2000 - Journal "Domestic History" (now - "Russian History"), editor-in-chief (since 2013)
- Since 2000 - Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, leading researcher
- Since 2014 - National Research University Higher School of Economics, leading researcher at the Center for Source Studies (Faculty of History)
- In 2002-2008 - Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosova, Faculty of Philosophy, teacher of the educational program "Public Relations", Associate Professor of the Department of Public Policy (part-time)
- In 2009-2010 - Member, School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, USA
Sphere of research interests: History of state, legal and public institutions, public policy and ideology. Political conservatism and liberalism. Economic doctrines and history of economic science.
Awarded the First Makaryev Prize (founders - the Russian Orthodox Church, the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Moscow City Hall) in the field of history for 2003 for the book “Aristocratic Opposition to the Great Reforms (late 1850 - mid-1870s)”
Main works
Books- . M.: Russian Word, 2002. 432 p.
Rec.: Mark Raeff: Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 52/ 3 (2004), 451-3; Dariusz Szpoper: Czasopismo Prawno-Historyczne LVI/1 (2004), 382-6; Wladimir Berelowitch: Cahiers du Monde Russe 45/ 3-4 (Juillet-décembre, 2004), 648-51; Daniel Field: Kritika. Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 6/2 (Spring 2005), 409-16; Alan Kimball: Slavic Review 64, 3 (Fall, 2005), 905-6; Mary Cavender: Russian Review 67, 1 (2008), 133.
- . M.: Sobranie, 2011. 368 p.
Rec.: Solovyov K. A.// Domestic notes. 2012. No. 6; David Moon: Russian Review, 72, 2 (April, 2013), 326-7; Tracy Dennison: Slavic Review, 72, 2 (Summer, 2013), 410-2; Teslya A. A.// Russian magazine; in Russian history. 2013. No. 4. P. 152-181; Hiroshi Joshida: Roshiashi-kenkyu. 2013, 92, 72
Chapters in collective works
- / ed. A. P. Korelin and S. V. Tyutyukina. M.: Monuments of Historical Thought, 2005. (Chapter 7 “From autocracy to Duma monarchy” and Chapter 8 “Final of the Revolution.” pp. 393-511)
- Administrative reforms in Russia: history and modernity / ed. V.V. Shelokhaeva and others. M.: ROSSPEN, 2006. (Chapter 6 “In search of unity: administrative transformations in the context of the Great Reforms (1850-1870s”) and Chapter 7 “Stumbling block: the problem of administrative reforms of the last quarter 19th - early 20th centuries." pp. 177-258)
- (about Emperor Paul I)
- (about the “aristocratic” opposition to the reforms of Alexander II)
- (about Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich)
- (about the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878)
- (about the Moscow uprising of 1905; in collaboration with S. V. Tyutyukin)
- (about the unification of Italy)
- (about the occupation of Czechoslovakia)
- (about the First World War)
Write a review of the article "Khristoforov, Igor Anatolyevich"
Notes
Links
- Online
- on the HSE website
Excerpt characterizing Khristoforov, Igor Anatolyevich
- There were horses! - Balaga continued the story. “Then I locked the young ones attached to the Kaurom,” he turned to Dolokhov, “so would you believe it, Fyodor Ivanovich, the animals flew 60 miles; I couldn’t hold it, my hands were numb, it was freezing. He threw down the reins, holding it, Your Excellency, himself, and fell into the sleigh. So it’s not like you can’t just drive it, you can’t keep it there. At three o'clock the devils reported. Only the left one died.Anatole left the room and a few minutes later returned in a fur coat belted with a silver belt and a sable hat, smartly placed on his side and suiting his handsome face very well. Looking in the mirror and in the same position that he took in front of the mirror, standing in front of Dolokhov, he took a glass of wine.
“Well, Fedya, goodbye, thank you for everything, goodbye,” said Anatole. “Well, comrades, friends... he thought about... - my youth... goodbye,” he turned to Makarin and the others.
Despite the fact that they were all traveling with him, Anatole apparently wanted to make something touching and solemn out of this address to his comrades. He spoke in a slow, loud voice and with his chest out, he swayed with one leg. - Everyone take glasses; and you, Balaga. Well, comrades, friends of my youth, we had a blast, we lived, we had a blast. A? Now, when will we meet? I'll go abroad. Long lived, goodbye guys. For health! Hurray!.. - he said, drank his glass and slammed it on the ground.
“Be healthy,” said Balaga, also drinking his glass and wiping himself with a handkerchief. Makarin hugged Anatole with tears in his eyes. “Eh, prince, how sad I am to part with you,” he said.
- Go, go! - Anatole shouted.
Balaga was about to leave the room.
“No, stop,” said Anatole. - Close the doors, I need to sit down. Like this. “They closed the doors and everyone sat down.
- Well, now march, guys! - Anatole said standing up.
The footman Joseph handed Anatoly a bag and a saber, and everyone went out into the hall.
-Where is the fur coat? - said Dolokhov. - Hey, Ignatka! Go to Matryona Matveevna, ask for a fur coat, a sable cloak. “I heard how they were taking away,” Dolokhov said with a wink. - After all, she will jump out neither alive nor dead, in what she was sitting at home; you hesitate a little, there are tears, and dad, and mom, and now she’s cold and back - and you immediately take him into a fur coat and carry him into the sleigh.
The footman brought a woman's fox cloak.
- Fool, I told you sable. Hey, Matryoshka, sable! – he shouted so that his voice was heard far across the rooms.
A beautiful, thin and pale gypsy woman, with shiny black eyes and black, curly, bluish-tinged hair, in a red shawl, ran out with a sable cloak on her arm.
“Well, I’m not sorry, you take it,” she said, apparently timid in front of her master and regretting the cloak.
Dolokhov, without answering her, took the fur coat, threw it on Matryosha and wrapped her up.
“That’s it,” said Dolokhov. “And then like this,” he said, and lifted the collar near her head, leaving it only slightly open in front of her face. - Then like this, see? - and he moved Anatole’s head to the hole left by the collar, from which Matryosha’s brilliant smile could be seen.
“Well, goodbye, Matryosha,” said Anatole, kissing her. - Eh, my revelry is over here! Bow to Steshka. Well, goodbye! Goodbye, Matryosha; wish me happiness.
“Well, God grant you, prince, great happiness,” said Matryosha, with her gypsy accent.
There were two troikas standing at the porch, two young coachmen were holding them. Balaga sat down on the front three, and, raising his elbows high, slowly took apart the reins. Anatol and Dolokhov sat down with him. Makarin, Khvostikov and the footman sat in the other three.
- Are you ready, or what? – asked Balaga.
- Let go! - he shouted, wrapping the reins around his hands, and the troika rushed down Nikitsky Boulevard.
- Whoa! Come on, hey!... Whoa, - you could only hear the cry of Balaga and the young man sitting on the box. On Arbat Square, the troika hit a carriage, something crackled, a scream was heard, and the troika flew down Arbat.
Having given two ends along Podnovinsky, Balaga began to hold back and, returning back, stopped the horses at the intersection of Staraya Konyushennaya.
The good fellow jumped down to hold the horses' bridles, Anatol and Dolokhov walked along the sidewalk. Approaching the gate, Dolokhov whistled. The whistle responded to him and after that the maid ran out.
“Go into the yard, otherwise it’s obvious he’ll come out now,” she said.
Dolokhov remained at the gate. Anatole followed the maid into the yard, turned the corner and ran onto the porch.
Gavrilo, Marya Dmitrievna’s huge traveling footman, met Anatoly.
“Please see the lady,” the footman said in a deep voice, blocking the way from the door.
- Which lady? Who are you? – Anatole asked in a breathless whisper.
- Please, I've been ordered to bring him.
- Kuragin! back,” Dolokhov shouted. - Treason! Back!
Dolokhov, at the gate where he stopped, was struggling with the janitor, who was trying to lock the gate behind Anatoly as he entered. Dolokhov, with his last effort, pushed the janitor away and, grabbing the hand of Anatoly as he ran out, pulled him out the gate and ran with him back to the troika.
Marya Dmitrievna, finding a tearful Sonya in the corridor, forced her to confess everything. Having intercepted Natasha’s note and read it, Marya Dmitrievna, with the note in her hand, went up to Natasha.
“Bastard, shameless,” she told her. - I don’t want to hear anything! - Pushing away Natasha, who was looking at her with surprised but dry eyes, she locked it and ordered the janitor to let through the gate those people who would come that evening, but not to let them out, and ordered the footman to bring these people to her, sat down in the living room, waiting kidnappers.
When Gavrilo came to report to Marya Dmitrievna that the people who had come had run away, she stood up with a frown and folded her hands back, walked around the rooms for a long time, thinking about what she should do. At 12 o'clock at night, feeling the key in her pocket, she went to Natasha's room. Sonya sat in the corridor, sobbing.
- Marya Dmitrievna, let me see her for God’s sake! - she said. Marya Dmitrievna, without answering her, unlocked the door and entered. “Disgusting, nasty... In my house... Vile little girl... I just feel sorry for my father!” thought Marya Dmitrievna, trying to quench her anger. “No matter how difficult it is, I’ll tell everyone to be silent and hide it from the count.” Marya Dmitrievna entered the room with decisive steps. Natasha lay on the sofa, covering her head with her hands, and did not move. She lay in the same position in which Marya Dmitrievna had left her.
19.12.2003
It is unlikely that any other government structure evokes such a range of feelings among Russian citizens as the KGB department. From complete trust to, to be honest, complete rejection. Some still cannot forgive the special services for some of their “sins against democracy”; others, on the contrary, link their dreams of a “firm hand” only with the strengthening of the FSB. But, despite all the polarity of views and relationships, both of them would not refuse to look “at least with one eye” into the Lubyanka archives. After all, it is there, under the shadow of decades, that the papers containing the truth lie. However, the secrets of the archives of the Federal Security Service are also the ultimate dream of any intelligence service in the world. Journalists also dream about this. Rodnaya Gazeta managed to get closer to the secrets of Lubyanka. On the eve of the Day of State Security Worker, we met with the main keeper of Lubyanka secrets - the head of the Department of Registration and Archive Funds (URAF) of the FSB of Russia, Major General Vasily KHRISTOFOROV.
Full name: KHRISTOFOROV VASILY STEPANovich
Date of birth: May 13, 1954
Place of birth: Chelyabinsk region, Varna district, village. Varna
Education: Kazan Higher Military Engineering School, Red Banner Institute of the KGB of the USSR named after. Yu.V. Andropova, Candidate of Legal Sciences
Place of work: Federal Security Service
Position: Head of the Department of Registration and Archival Funds of the FSB of Russia
- Vasily Stepanovich, you once graduated from a military engineering school. Wasn’t it hard to retrain from “physicists” to “lyricists”, from techies to humanities?
This process took a quarter of a century. During this time, I graduated from two educational institutions, learned Persian, and spent three years on a business trip in the Republic of Afghanistan. I defended my dissertation and became a candidate of legal sciences. So I left physics a long time ago?
- Do you like your job?
I've always liked my job. But I didn’t regret joining URAF. Do I enjoy my work?
- What do you like?
By studying archival documents, will you learn the history of our Fatherland in full, will you learn a lot of interesting and new things that have not been written about and are still not always written about in textbooks?
- Recently, the department you head celebrated its 85th anniversary. When and by whom was it created?
The history of our department began on September 1, 1918, when the board of the Cheka decided to form a registration and reference department. 14 employees kept registration of citizens arrested by the Cheka authorities, and “the progress of the investigation of the cases,” and also issued certificates for both the Cheka authorities and the “public.” The department was headed by the investigator of the Revolutionary Tribunal under the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Cheka, Viktor Kingisepp. The same one who conducted the investigation into the circumstances of the Left Socialist Revolutionary rebellion, the Lockhart case and the assassination attempt on Vladimir Lenin.
Subsequently, the division was transformed into the Office of Registration and Archival Funds. It was transformed because over the course of 85 years it had to go through many reorganizations and renamings. Is his history in itself of unconditional interest for researchers?
I would like to note one circumstance: the accounting and registration department, as well as the archives formed later, were one of the most stable in the system of domestic security agencies. Although its functions, structure and name changed several times, it always provided full information support for operational processes and reliable preservation of archival materials. For example, during the Great Patriotic War, operational records and archival documents were evacuated to Kuibyshev and then to Sverdlovsk. In a very short period of time, accounting work was established there. When the front line moved to the west, the department was re-evacuated back to Lubyanka with the same efficiency.
- What functions does URAF currently perform?
Within the framework of our competence, we resolve issues of entry and exit from Russia, problems of obtaining Russian citizenship. Of course, first of all, we carry out our internal departmental tasks, but we always remember that resolving these issues is related to the personal interests of many people, and we need to do everything in our power to ensure that their rights are ensured. Are we also actively participating in restoring the rights of victims of political repression?
- Please tell us about the work related to the arrival of foreigners in Russia and the departure of citizens abroad. What's the main thing here?
The main thing is to prevent spies, saboteurs, terrorists, extremists of all stripes, etc. from entering the country. But the subtlety is that the right of citizens to freedom of movement, including abroad, should not be infringed.
Our employees identify information that is the basis for adopting restrictions in relation to specific people. Such information includes whether individuals belong to foreign intelligence services, terrorist organizations, are on the international, federal or local wanted list, have a criminal case or a criminal record. Often citizens try to hide their knowledge of state secrets and report false information about themselves. The results of operational activities in this direction, take my word for it, are sufficient.
- Tell us about modern management employees. It is known that a comical story happened to one of his predecessors when a young security officer included Enrico Caruso in the ranks of the “enemies of the revolution,” about whose speech he read in a White Guard newspaper.
The example you gave refers to the very first years of the existence of the accounting department. Today, very high professional demands are placed on employees. Contract servicemen serve in the department. The team is stable, many have been working for decades. Approximately half of the employees are women. It has long been known that they are the ones you can primarily trust with work that requires attention and concentration. Recently, many new employees, young historians and archivists have appeared. These are not only graduates of the Academy of the FSB of Russia, but also students of other universities. A fusion of experience and young enthusiasm is our goal in forming a team.
- In recent years, more materials from the FSB archive have been made public than ever before. Which of them amazed even you, the main keeper of secrets?
I think you had good intentions in calling me the chief secret keeper. Of course, the head of the department, within which the FSB archive functions, where a lot of classified materials are concentrated, is directly responsible for their safety and use in the interests of the country's security. But documents of great importance are also stored in other state and departmental archives. First of all, we are talking about former party archives. So I'm a secret keeper, but hardly the most important one?
If we talk about my impressions of recently declassified materials, it is difficult to single out the most “sensational” ones; in our country all materials deserve this title.
However, there are documents that significantly complement and even change views and ideas about the history of the Fatherland. Perhaps this is how one can characterize the training of the OGPU-NKVD in 1922-1934. analytical reviews of the political and economic state of the country. We publish these materials, full of the most unexpected information about the life of all the social words of our society of that time, in a ten-volume collection of documents “Top Secret. Lubyanka - to Stalin about the situation in the country.” Six volumes in nine books have already been published. Would you recommend getting to know them?
- Do you already know which events of today will be reflected in the archives, and which ones will “pass by”?
I think I know, there is such a feeling. But more often I experience a completely different feeling. It occurs when you watch some television program or read some article. You wonder: where did the information that is presented as sensational come from? Sometimes it even includes links to an archival source, which is actually far from the truth.
- But there is no desire to correct the situation, to publish documents about how “everything really happened.”
We cannot influence journalists, even if they write materials from unknown sources. If we start correcting them, they will say that they are interfering with their professional activities.
- But we are talking not so much about journalists, but about public opinion, which is created as a result of unqualified publications. Political storms sometimes build up around them. For example, inaccurate information may well electrify the people and bring them to the streets.
Of course, we cannot “listen to good and evil indifferently.” Sometimes, as you said, we correct the situation. Let's take the events of June 1953 in the GDR, when there were unrest, strikes, and demonstrations. So, we were recently surprised to read in one newspaper an article by a doctor of historical sciences that we are still not investigating the facts of the execution of Soviet military personnel who allegedly refused to shoot at German demonstrators. In the same newspaper we published an article by our archivist Ivan Stepanov stating that we do not have such materials. There is no evidence that the order was given to shoot unarmed demonstrators, much less any evidence that any Soviet military personnel were brought to justice. This did not happen in nature!
Where did this come from? We know that the information first appeared due to the fault of some unscrupulous German experts. A myth was born that is periodically revived by publications in various publications.
- But there may be more than just a mistake behind such a publication.
I don’t think that the doctor of historical sciences, a former military man, is carrying out some kind of action or that anyone is using him. In this case this is a mistake, but in others it may be a stock.
- Tell me, you were involved in some special issues in Afghanistan. Is there a desire now to go to the archive, see what is there and how it was there in more detail, on a larger scale?
In an archive, it doesn’t happen that a person goes and takes something from the shelf, sits down, reads it and satisfies his curiosity. Neither I nor other employees have such a right. To take on a case, you need either the preparation of some kind of project, or the execution of a request; you need a reason for such a step, and not a formal reason, but a solid one. Let me remind you that any archives are objects of high secrecy, and what can we say about the secret service archive?
- Do all FSB documents end up in the archive, how are they selected?
The list of materials subject to storage in the departmental archive is determined by the Law “On Bodies of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation” (Article seven). All documents cannot be placed in the archive; they can be stored temporarily or permanently. We complete the collections with the most important materials that reflect the main activities of the department: regulations, documents on personnel, etc. Of course, materials that summarize the experience of operational investigative activities are also important. Investigative and filtration-verification files (on persons who were in captivity, surrounded, driven into captivity, etc.) are stored forever. Is this necessary not only for history, but also for specific people who innocently suffered during the years of political repression?
- How are documents declassified?
In accordance with the law of the Russian Federation?
- How does this happen in life?
We have a group of employees who are involved in declassification. They come to the archives, take one or two folders one by one, open them, read them from the first to the last page and make a conclusion: the case can be completely declassified. This is one option. The second option: the case can be partially declassified, with the exception of pages, for example, five, fifteen, twenty-five and one hundred and seventy-five.
- Are they retrieving documents?
No, they simply write that such pages should not be declassified. There is a third option: the case is not subject to declassification.
- That's all? So one employee decided - will the documents remain in storage forever? Or is there still some kind of discussion going on on these pages?
It is not left to one employee. An expert assessment of documents is carried out by a special commission headed by the Deputy Director of the FSB of Russia. There are disputes. But to say that we have been discussing this issue for weeks would be wrong. We all have the same approach to what can be declassified. We are guided, as has already been said, by the norms of the current legislation, not only the Law “On State Secrets”, but also the law on the bodies of the Federal Security Service, etc.
We actively participate in the publication of archival documents in the interests of science. In addition to the already mentioned multi-volume book “Top Secret?” I can say about the publication of the next volumes from the series: “The tragedy of the Soviet village. Collectivization and dispossession”, “Soviet village through the eyes of the Cheka-OGPU-NKVD”, “Russian military emigration”. This year we have prepared thematic collections: “The Arc of Fire”, “The Supreme Ruler of Russia”, we are waiting for the book-album “Smersh” from the publishing house, the circulation of the collection “Deportations of Polish citizens from the territory of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus in 1939-1940” is ready in Warsaw ".
- Your employees are actively involved in publishing activities. Collections of documents about military emigration, about Kolchak, about Kaplan were published. But sometimes, after reading them, you still don’t have a complete understanding of some events, for example, the assassination attempt on Lenin. Are not all materials published or were they not all archived at one time?
The book "The Case of Fanny Kaplan, or Who Shot Lenin?" came out in a second edition, revised and expanded, and I can assure you that we published everything that was in the archive. In addition to the pre-revolutionary convict case against Kaplan, the investigation file of the Cheka of 1918 was published page by page, without a single omission. In preparing the preface and comments, we also used other archival data (and not only from our archive), and talked about all the versions and interpretations of the Kaplan case known to us.
But to some extent, you are right, because the publication of materials from investigative cases is indeed fraught with certain difficulties. For example, when preparing for publication of the book “The Investigative Case of Patriarch Tikhon”, due to the large volume of materials (40 volumes), not all documents were included, but only the main, most important ones. Let me emphasize that reputable scientists take part in the preparation of publications of this kind. They are always interested in having archival sources published in their entirety; they cannot in any way be accused of trying to hide facts or silence the truth.
- There have been reports in the press that every new leader of the country is trying to destroy some documents that are dangerous to him in the archives. There was talk about Stalin, Beria, Khrushchev. How true are such statements? What has been done now to prevent such acts?
Preserving the archives of government and public figures is a global problem. For example, in the United States, presidents have the right to leave documents of their apparatus in their personal archives, and publish them solely at their discretion. During the Soviet period, there were no laws defining the right of private ownership of official documents, but there were still personal archives (personal correspondence, photographs, welcome addresses, certificates, etc.). The party archives contained documents of top officials, which were then stored as personal funds. It is known that by decree of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) the archive of Vladimir Lenin was collected, after the death of Felix Dzerzhinsky, his archive was formed in the OGPU, most of the documents of which were subsequently transferred to the Central Party Archive of the IML under the CPSU Central Committee (now RGASPI). It happens differently. For example, some of Lavrentiy Beria’s personal documents, including those about his work in Transcaucasia, were kept by the head of the NKVD secretariat, Sergei Mamulov. Mikhail Gorbachev created the Presidential Archive, in which, now on an official basis, the documents of the presidential apparatus are concentrated. The personal archives of Russia's top officials may also be stored there.
I know nothing about the destruction of “dangerous” documents. It is impossible to destroy or erase all resolutions and signatures from official documents with the highest classification of secrecy; they remain for history. The CD "Stalin's Execution Lists" recently appeared, you can make sure that all the signatures and resolutions are in place.
- Vasily Stepanovich, I had to meet with your colleagues from another military archive. It turns out that there are still many “untouched documents” in it. Are there such documents in the FSB archives? Can we expect new documents on such well-known cases as the murder of Kirov, the fascist military conspiracy in the Red Army (1937), the Wallenberg case, the execution in Katyn? Or is everything completely clear here?
By definition, there cannot be completely “intact” documents in the archive, as you put it. Otherwise, it is not an archive, but simply a warehouse of papers. In all archives, when new materials arrive, they undergo scientific and technical processing (description, systematization, assignment of archive numbers, sometimes restoration, etc.). All this is recorded in accounting documents (magazines, inventories, card indexes, fund reviews, lists, etc.). The same work is carried out during the liquidation of an agency or a separate unit, during structural changes within the department, during relocation, etc. Another thing is the degree of development of the scientific reference apparatus, how detailed and carefully the documents stored in the archive are described. Perhaps our colleagues had another problem in mind: the demand for materials, how often archivists and researchers access them.
Regarding the above-mentioned historical facts and events, I can say that searches, checks and studies of various levels and purposes have already been repeatedly carried out in the archives of the FSB. The most qualified specialists, and not only from our department, were involved in archival searches. Now it is difficult to imagine that there will be anything new on these fairly fully studied issues. But no real archivist will ever say unequivocally “no.” A true archivist always hopes that he will still find important information. Perhaps this is precisely the mysterious appeal of the profession of a keeper of secrets.
- Could you allow our newspaper to publish material whose secrecy period has already expired?
Certainly. What documents are you interested in?
- Sensational!
I don't like this word. I repeat, all our materials are worthy of such a definition.
Interviewed by Vladimir Galayko
B.C. Khristoforov, A.P. Cherepkov
SECRETS OF THE RUSSIAN FLEET
The book that you are now holding in your hands contains unique historical information that until recently was inaccessible to readers; these documents were in archives marked “secret”, “top secret”, “keep forever”. And only after they have been declassified and published in this book, we can read without cuts about many heroic and dramatic pages in the history of the Russian fleet.
Needless to say, now the time has finally come when it is not only possible, but also necessary to learn about our past using real documents and facts. Of course, in this new reading of past events there will be much less pathos and triumphant messages in them, but there is something else there - the truth of history. It is for the sake of searching for this truth that we study the past of our Fatherland, it is for this reason that we read history books, search for and compare facts.
The use of documents from security agencies in covering historical events is very significant. The archives of the FSB of Russia contain documentary information of a political, military and intelligence nature, which in some cases makes it possible to evaluate facts, events and phenomena on the basis of information that was obtained operationally using special forces and means characteristic of operational investigative work. Of course, when used and generalized, this kind of information is subject to scientific criticism and should be considered in conjunction with other sources, including military and military archives, documents of the highest authorities of the country.
In orders, instructions, reports, special messages, memos and other documents of Soviet counterintelligence, the negative aspects of events, critical statements and comments of actors, confidential opinions and points of view are presented to a greater extent. In many cases, this is a simple statement of facts, which requires additional historical understanding. Open publication of counterintelligence documents requires a cautious approach, balance and tact, taking into account state secrets, personal privacy, and in some cases, political expediency.
The materials published in this collection will tell the thoughtful reader much more than lengthy discussions on historical topics.
The book “Secrets of the Russian Fleet from the FSB Archives” is dedicated to the “blank spots” in the history of the Russian Navy. Now, when Russia is actively restoring its naval power, and its warships have returned to the vastness of the World Ocean, the topic of naval history is becoming more relevant than ever. The book is also special because its authors are employees of the archival department of the FSB of Russia, i.e. people who have direct access to the most intimate secrets of past eras, who found, processed and summarized unique materials.
The first section of the book is devoted to the events of 1916–1940. last century. The section opens with materials examining one of the versions of the death of the battleship Empress Maria. Almost a hundred years have passed since the death of the ship, but historians and specialists are still interested in this topic.
New documents from the archives of the Russian FSB make it possible to see the causes of the tragedy in a new way. Unique documents tell the story of the creation and first years of activity of the Special Purpose Underwater Expedition (EPRON), formed under the Special Department of the OPTU. Initially, the Expedition was engaged only in searching for the gold of the English ship "Black Prince", which sank in 1854 on the Black Sea, but from year to year, gaining strength, it became the main domestic organization for raising sunken watercraft, carrying out rescue operations in all water areas of our countries. At the same time, EPRON became an all-Union diver training school.
Archival documents about the so-called are of unconditional interest. "Bizerte Fleet". Russian ships that ended up in Bizerte, Manila and European ports after the Civil War found themselves in a difficult situation, and the Soviet government did everything to return them to their homeland. The unique documents published contain information about negotiations on the return of the Bizerte squadron and the Stark flotilla, data on the condition of Russian warships and commercial vessels stranded abroad.
The first section ends with an article in which, based on the authors’ study of documents from the Russian FSB archives about the presence of German ships in the Soviet North on the eve of the Great Patriotic War, answers are given to the questions of whether there was a German Nord base in the Soviet Arctic.
The second section of the book is devoted to various events of the Great Patriotic War, and this is no coincidence, because soon we will celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory. Of particular interest among the materials in this section is the chronicle of the destruction of the German submarine U-250 in the Baltic in 1944 and the interrogation protocols of its commander. For historians and researchers, the publication on the pages of this book of archival documents relating to the infamous Tallinn Transition (1941), during which our fleet in the Baltic suffered the most significant losses during the war, is of significant importance; polar convoys, in particular the tragic fate of convoy PQ-17; the heroic defense of Sevastopol, where, with the support of ships of the Black Sea Fleet and coastal artillery, our ground units held back the enemy’s onslaught; battles for Novorossiysk. For the first time, military counterintelligence documents on the actions of marine units in 1941–1942 are published, as well as a document obtained by Soviet intelligence from the British on the actions of ships of the Northern Fleet in 1943.
Some of the materials have already been published since 1994 in various collections, magazines, mainly departmental, as well as in newspapers. However, the small circulation of these publications has meant that the results of research, which provide an objective history of the country and the domestic fleet, remain unknown to the general population. This, in turn, gives rise to myths and even falsifications.
Therefore, let this publication become another reminder to all of us of the valor and heroism of our fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers, who defended the independence of the Motherland. Take your time to leaf through the pages of archival documents, read them thoroughly, feel the drama and heroism of the events of that difficult time! This is our truth, and our story with you!
Articles on the topic
