The Committee for State Security reported on actions taken to increase preventive-prophylactic work for preventing crimes against the Soviet Union. The Committee cites drops in the number of people subjected to criminal punishment, severe crimes against the state, and anti-Soviet propaganda as results of strengthened morale, political awareness, policies, and preventative and prophylactic work. Attached is a table that numerically presents information in the report.

The Committee for State Security reported to Brezhnev on Soviet security during 1975. The report includes information on the KGB, intelligence and counterintelligence, anti-Soviet countries and organizations, and the prevention of hostile actions.

This note on the talks between Minister Wolf and KGB Chairman Chebrikov contains heartfelt congratulations on cooperation thus far, but it also highlights problems with the situation and the importance of utilizing the potential of all fraternal organs to detect and prevent hostile plans and measures.

The Chairman of Armenian State Security reports on the investigation into the 8 January 1977 bombings in the Moscow metro. Three Armenian nationalists were identified as the culprits.

Andropov discusses the trial and possible sentencing of Shcharansky, who was charged with spying for the United States.

Brezhnev reports to the CPSU CC Politburo that the Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov is behaving inappropriately and should be disciplined.

Recommendations adopted by the National Security Council at the suggestion of the Psychological Strategy Board on covert actions to be undertaken in the Soviet Satellite States. Authorized by the National Security Council, NSC 158 envisaged aggressive psychological warfare to exploit and heighten the unrest behind the Iron Curtain. The policy was endorsed by President Eisenhower on June 26, 1953.

In a secret speech before a closed plenum of the 20th Congress of the CPSU, Khrushchev denounced Stalin’s cult of the personality. In addition, he revealed that Stalin had rounded up thousands of people and sent them into a huge system of political work camps (Gulags). This revelation was met with astonishment by many present for the speech, but helped to break the power that Stalin still held over the country.

In this September 1986 excerpt, Gorbachev receives a report from KGB chief Chebrikov that he had requested on “what kinds of people are serving sentences for crimes, which Western propaganda calls political.” Obviously following Gorbachev’s lead, Chebrikov proposes to alleviate the prison sentences of two-thirds of the 240 persons he lists under this category; but, in response to a question from Gromyko, he notes two cases where the guilty parties had already received a sentence that could not be reduced—execution for espionage.

The Politburo discusses whether to permit Bonner to visit the United States to receive medical treatment and visit relatives, a decision complicated by concern about the potential risk of an embarrassing uproar if her request was denied barely two months before Gorbachev’s planned summit meeting in Geneva with Reagan.