Foreign researchers are studying the methods of Russian intelligence agencies using materials from the SSU Archive

The archival materials stored in the Sectoral State Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) contain information that allows foreign researchers to study the methods of Russian special services.

This was stated by the director of the SSU Archive, Andriy Kogut, in an interview with Glavkom.

“Of course, foreigners often inquire. They are interested in how a typical FSB agent operates. The KGB documents reveal the methodology of current FSB agents, showing how they work. After all, Putin himself was a KGB agent. In Russia, they continue to operate in the FSB following KGB patterns. It is crucial for our partners to understand their methods today,” Andriy Kogut noted.

This information is of interest not only to researchers of the Soviet past but also to the intelligence services of partner countries with whom Ukraine closely cooperates.

For example, a Japanese researcher is studying disinformation campaigns conducted by the USSR using materials from the SSU Archive, linking them to current information-psychological operations by the aggressor state.

“Although Russians now use modern tools such as social networks, the patterns remain the same,” Andriy Kogut explains.

Today, the SSU Archive is one of the most open. Last year alone, almost 5 terabytes of information copies were provided upon citizen requests, including information about their repressed relatives.

According to the head of the Archive, the most researched topics currently are the Holodomor and the period of the "Executed Renaissance," with relatively fewer studies published on Ukrainian dissidents, although the Archive holds many such materials, awaiting study and processing.

Andriy Kogut also mentioned that archival cooperation with the Russians continued until 2004 after Ukraine gained independence, and then it was terminated. During that period, the SBU Archive managed to obtain copies of some cases, including those related to Les Kurbas and his execution in the Sandarmokh clearing.

The scientists' plans include publishing the 11th volume of documents on the deportation of citizens in Western Ukraine in 1940-1941 as a result of Soviet occupation, in collaboration with the Archive of the Polish Institute of National Remembrance, as well as a book with materials on the period of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR) in 1919-1920.

“Today, the openness of the SSU Archive indicates that the Ukrainian special service is a modern and transparent structure. It has nothing in common with the Soviet KGB. On the contrary, the current SSU has cleansed itself of the old legacy, leaving it only for study and analysis,” concluded Andriy Kogut.