Dramatic reforms in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union signaled the end of the Cold War and ushered in an era of peace, right? Not necessarily. One former KGB agent says the whole thing is a charade.
Anatoliy Golitsyn was a KGB agent for 16 years prior to his defection to the United States in 1961. In 1984 he published a book called New Lies for Old in which he predicted unprecedented economic and political reforms behind the Iron Curtain, the legalization of Solidarity in Poland, and the fall of the Berlin Wall. His predictions were ignored or dismissed at the time, but all soon came to pass. Westerners were astounded by the turn of events, and in the euphoria that followed the significance of Golitsyn s predictions was lost.
But Golitsyn is sounding the alarm again. He s just published a new book called The Perestroika Deception in which he repeats the warnings he issued more than 10 years ago. Golitsyn says the purpose of perestroika is twofold: to elicit Western financial support for the revitalization of the socialist economies, and to facilitate the convergence of East and West. The ultimate aim is "peaceful conquest of the United States and Western Europe from within."
The Communists have gone to great lengths to recreate the trappings of Western democracy, with opposition parties and free elections. But they are just imitations of the real thing. "Even so-called free elections do not pose a problem for the Communist parties. Because of their secret partnership with the opposition, the Communist Parties are invariably in a winning position. It is their candidates -- whether Communist or `non-Communist' -- who always win, since all the non-Communist candidates and `parties' are controlled," says Golitsyn. "The Communists have succeeded in concealing from the West that the non-Communist parties are secret partners of the Communists, not alternatives or rivals to them."
The same thing goes for the so-called independent Republics. "The present Communist strategists are concealing that it is they who are now creating 'independent' Republics," says Golitsyn. "The strategists are concealing the secret coordination that exists, and will continue to exist, between Moscow and the 'nationalist' leaders of these newly 'independent' Republics." He says the apparently fragmented Soviet Empire can be reassembled at any time.
Perestroika represents "a broad strategic assault on the Western mindset," an assault that gives every indication of achieving spectacular success. "The meaning of developments in the (formerly) Communist world is misunderstood," says Golitsyn, "and the intentions behind Communist initiatives have been misinterpreted. Enemies are accepted and treated as though they have suddenly, overnight, become allies of the West." Golitsyn confesses himself saddened by "the contemporary jubilation of American and West European conservatives who are cheering 'perestroika' without realizing that it is intended to bring about their own political and even physical demise."
