THE SOVIET QUARANTINE 81was thought to be deeply involved in fostering such activity and to
have received encouragement from the Reagan administration.^15
The extreme nature of the USSR’s concern about Western interfer-
ence was revealed on 25 July 1980, when the Politburo resolved to
treat Amnesty International as a subversive organization.^16 Hardly an
organization existed abroad that might not prove pernicious to Soviet
interests. The authorities were wary to the point of political paranoia.
The ‘main enemy’ – America – had supposedly made a practice of
recruiting ‘state criminals’ as agents to send into Lithuania. The KGB
was referring to individuals who had fled the country illegally and
made themselves available to the CIA or other Western spy networks.
One of the USSR’s priorities had therefore been to secure the border
with turbulent Poland. Anybody crossing from the USSR without
the correct papers was guilty of ‘treason to the Motherland’.^17 In 1981
the Lithuanian KGB tightened the regulations for permission for
foreign travel. If anyone in possession of a ‘state secret’ applied for a
foreign trip, the authorities should do everything to find a suitable
alternative traveller who lacked access to such secrets.^18 Certain groups
of Soviet citizens were regarded as particular targets for foreign
attempts at subversion. In Lithuania, Jews attracted suspicion even
though the Holocaust in the Second World War had left only 24,000 of
them living in the republic by 1970. By 1981 the number had fallen to
14,000 as the consequence of emigration. The KGB still stayed on the
alert in case the Jewish diaspora should seek contact and make mis-
chief. The Israeli intelligence agency Mossad was thought to be at work
in Vilnius and other cities.^19
The authorities also placed limits on the number of foreigners
legally visiting the USSR. Lithuania was a case in point. In 1984 as few
as 58,566 non-Soviet citizens entered the republic. Only just over
a quarter of them came from capitalist countries and businessmen
were a distinct rarity: just 283 of them entered Lithuanian territory.
American citizens formed the biggest contingent from the world of
capitalism; next came the West Germans and the French.^20 Tourism
from abroad could have become an impressive source of income for
the USSR, but the dangers to the Soviet order appeared obvious: West-
ern intelligence agencies would surely try to infiltrate agents among
the holidaymakers. A schizophrenic policy was therefore adopted. The
Inturist organization established offices in the world’s capital cities and
advertised schedules and prices for trips to the Soviet Union. Moscow
and Leningrad were heavily promoted as venues. Cruise trips were