Introduction
xxiiiThe internal security apparatus and foreign intelligence services of
Russia—whether imperial, Soviet, or democratic—have played a far
greater role in domestic and foreign statecraft than have similar ser-
vices in the West. A discussion of Russian history without a discussion
of the state security organs would be equivalent to a discussion of
South African history without mention of apartheid. Senior Russian
internal security professionals have usually been closer to the center
of power than their Western counterparts. Whereas the British Secret
Intelligence Service (SIS) goes back to the first decade of the 20th
century, and the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was es-
tablished in 1947 as a general overhaul of the defense establishment,
Russian internal security dates to the reign of Ivan IV (the Terrible),
more than 400 years before the CIA was established.
Internal security and surveillance have long been a concern of Rus-
sian rulers. Many notable Russian and Western historians have seen this
obsession as one of the characteristics that have created Russian “ex-
ceptionalism.” English explorers and diplomats to the court of Ivan IV
noted the omnipresent role of surveillance. One was greeted in northern
Russia with the comment “Only spies come to Russia.” He later wrote
his queen, Elizabeth I: “No other news I bring to thee. The weather cold.
The people beastly be.” British and American ambassadors would com-
ment in the 19th century how their ciphers and messages were stolen
from diplomatic premises by trusted servants. One British diplomat was
told before World War I by a Russian colleague that his codes had been
broken and his messages were easily read in the Imperial Foreign Min-
istry before they reached London. Surveillance of friends and enemies
of Soviet power was a constant of the Soviet services. Even after the fall
of the Soviet Union, the Russian security and intelligence services play
a more important role in national security decision making than do the
services of most European states or of the United States.06-313 (00) FM.qxd 7/27/06 7:53 AM Page xxiii